In terms of genres that I normally I read, crime and mystery is not one of them. However, when I heard about Galbraith (or should I say Rowling's) series so many years ago, I knew I needed to try them out, and I've been hooked since. The three years between Lethal White and Career of Evil felt long, and finally getting my hands on this book was a rush of euphoria.
I began it months ago, but only properly read it this week, hence the late review.
Coming right off the end of the novel, my main feeling is awe with how clever Rowling is at laying details and creating complex, realistic situations and characters that drives stories unlike many other authors can.
Lethal White begins picking up where we left off with Robin Ellacott and Matthew's wedding—something that we weren't sure would go on at the end of the previous novel—and Robin and Strike not speaking. The crime investigation of the novel is kickstarted by a young boy, Billy, stumbling into Cormoran Strike's office and telling him a story of a strangling he witnessed when he was a child.
The rest of the story chugs on shrouded in mystery and tangled in the web of the Chiswell family and the complicated politics of London's Olympic planning offices. This is one of the first glorious things of this story. Rowling does her research; we know this from the five years she spent planning the Harry Potter series, we know this from the way she walks through London and studies every pub and street and train she writes about in the Strike series, and it really shows here. The offices where they organized the Olympics felt so real, she had every detail down to a T, knew the crazy office dynamic she had to create, and she shaded her characters through that.
However, because of all of this planning, the first two or three hundred of this book was very character-focused. First of all, to begin with Robin and Matthew's wedding was necessary, but at times I felt unsatisfied because for a long time we didn't even have a real case that Strike and Robin were investigating. There was interpersonal drama and a new relationship with Strike where he lacked emotional vulnerability and the two of them ultimately struggle throughout the book with that. I might be alone in this, but while I know Robin and Matthew had to go through the struggles of their relationship and unfortunate hanging on even when we know it's doomed, and Strike needs to pretend to himself he's interested in other people, at times it felt gratuitous. At least half of this book was focused on relationships, and Rowling does it well enough where it does not drag, but I found myself frustrated at times for the seeming lack of focus on the crime. We know Robin and Strike are going to get together—it's so painfully inevitable—that so many moments just feel like hiccups that distract from the complicated and fascinating story of the Chiswell family.
Now, on that topic, I will say, I loved the scene where Robin confronted Matthew about his cheating and finally left. It was empowering, it was theatrical and staged in a way that was believable but still gave me as a reader that triumphant moment where I felt like she was finally coming into her own. I was hoping from the moment Matthew accidentally sent Robin that suspicious text that we would get a moment that we had been building to for four books, and I felt so ridiculously satisfied after reading it that I have to give kudos to Rowling for that (and, in a slightly different light, I'm glad that Robin didn't figure it out from that one text—we did as readers because we're reading a book, but in real life, that wouldn't have tipped many people off, and it was a great attribute to her skill to know that Robin wouldn't have picked up on that as a hint that he was cheating).
Steering the ship back to the main plot: the Chiswell family and the original strange confusion about the strangling that Billy told Strike about. then the murdering of their father. This was one of my favorite crimes she's worked with thus far because it was almost entirely caught up in the tangled relations of a messy family and of politics that get spun out of hand.
A lot of this crime showcased the darker parts of humanity, the way we can get tangled in acts and lies, the hive mentality, etc. When Strike and Robin originally go to question the whole family together, we get nearly thirty pages of their various dynamics that confuse the entire situation in mystery and two-sided stories. This is exciting because not many authors can so well capture different characters and how they interact with one another. It allows us as readers, particularly of a crime novel like this, to begin to spin our own theories and involve ourselves in the story in a way that we just can't if there isn't such strong character work.
Furthermore, the setting of the Olympic planning and Kinvara who had her horse obsession living in Northern England all just seemed to fit. Of course, details were astray because the crime was outrageous and not-wholly-premeditated, but it was presented in a way that hinted and nudged the reader in the right direction but still had enough complications with all of the characters that the novel engrossed you once it entered the throngs of the crime.
Rowling laid her clues and put easter eggs throughout the whole story, and kept my interest for the most part. I was glad with the ending, and I liked that there are still plotlines character-wise for the rest of the series. Ultimately, the book was one of my favorites throughout the series thus far.
Now, I just need the TV show to come to America so I can binge it!
Characters: 95%
Plot: 95%
Depth: 100%
Style: 100%
Intrigue: 80%
Overall Rating: A
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