Book Reviews
If your taste in detective fiction runs to the minimalist, then this is not for you. If Georges Simenon is a simple, perfect kitchen stool and Agatha Christie a sensible wingbacked chair, then Robert Galbraith is a vast, overstuffed sofa, complete with dog hair and something unmentionable behind the cushions. No one could complain, though, that Galbraith doesn’t deliver value for money. Racing up and down the country, …the narrative is dizzying in its proliferation of character, location and detail, and tirelessly, relentlessly specific.… [T]he narrative regularly seems heroically daft, but the whole is delivered with such sheer gusto—and, crucially, such a confident hold on a deliriously clever plot—that most sensible readers will simply cave in and enjoy it.
Christobel Kent - Guardian (UK)
Strike and Robin are just as magnetic as ever …but Ms. Rowling, alas, has plopped them into a story line that feels like a halfhearted recycling of episodes from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The result is a lurid and predictable novel—not as disappointing as Ms. Rowling’s first post-Harry Potter venture, The Casual Vacancy, but only because of Robin and Strike.
Michiko Kakutani - New York Times
[Rowling's] [G]ripping…. THe seamless way Rowling integrates [the] personal and professional story lines makes Career of Evil an absorbing book, pulpy, fast and satisfying.… Career of Evil feels special—a step forward for a series that has been more concerned with entertainment than complexity at times.… Rowling finds a larger theme, too—the terrible ongoingness and untidiness of life, the ways in which catching a criminal doesn't necessarily finish a crime, only a book. This fresh scope makes for the best novel she has written as Robert Galbraith. It's not Harry Potter; that universe is an irreplicable astonishment. The good news is that its creator evidently has some magic left.
Charles Finch - New York Times Book Review
[Galbraith has] invented a serial killer for the ages, one who chills us from the book's grim but riveting opening.… This perfectly paced mystery is packed with surprises, all of which play out with flawless crime-fiction logic.
Jocelyn McClurg - USA Today
Pure pleasure.… That's what makes these novels so good: They are clever, tightly plotted mysteries with all of the most pleasurable elements of the genre (good guy, bad guy, clues, twists, murder!), but with stunning emotional and moral shading.
Annalisa Quinn - NPR
Hugely entertaining.… This gifted storyteller has taken full command of the new turf.… Career of Evil succeeds powerfully on its own terms
Lloyd Sachs - Chicago Tribune
Another triumph.… Its darkness is mitigated by its sparkling protagonists.
Kim Hubbard - People
[A] captivating third novel written under [the] Galbraith pseudonym…. Maintaining a high level of suspense throughout, Rowling transforms Robin into a professional equal of Strike's and sets the stage for further complexities in their relationship.
Publishers Weekly
Rowling is, as always, an unflinching chronicler of evil…. The story has its longueurs, and if Galbraith weren't actually Rowling, an editor might have told him to trim a bit…. The book ends on a cliffhanger …and Rowling's readers will eagerly await the next installment.
Kirkus Reviews