…[Rowling's] gripping third novel about the private investigative team of Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott…achieves a new candor about the gap between solving crimes and repairing their damages…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…when the book's attention settles on Robin, finally developed here as a true equal of Strike…while Career of Evil works superbly as a pure murder mystery, in Robin's development 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.
The New York Times Book Review - Charles Finch
10/26/2015
Robert Glenister is the man in this fine performance of Robert Galbraith’s most recent detective thriller. Having narrated the first two books in the series, Glenister knows the main characters…The real-life pacing and vocal differences between the rough-hewn, older Strike and the younger Ellacott bring their scenes particularly to life. And Glenister’s use of a flattened, even tone for the sections that take place inside the mind of the killer adds chillingly to the tension. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
Rowling’s writing is velvety and fluid, making the book pure pleasure…Clever, tightly plotted mysteries with all of the most pleasurable elements of the genre…but with stunning emotional and moral shading.”
Her gripping third novel…achieves a new candor about the gap between solving crimes and repairing their damages…an absorbing book, pulpy, fast, and satisfying.”
New York Times Book Review
"Career of Evil is the third—and best—novel in the engaging Cormoran Strike private detective series…This perfectly paced mystery is packed with surprises, all of which play out with flawless crime-fiction logic.”
Sparklingly witty [and] unexpectedly moving.”
Hugely entertaining.”
As readable and exciting as ever…Fans of the intrepid duo are in for some shocks.”
Another triumph…Its darkness is mitigated by its sparkling protagonists.”
The Galbraith books have intricately woven plots, conveyed with good humor but underlying darkness... THE SILKWORM is a classic British mystery with a modern sensibility, written with intelligent humor and a very observational eye.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Kathleen Guzzi
Bring on the next one, please... Galbraith writes with wit and affection for detective-novel tradition (it's impossible not to see her central duo as a modern-day Nick and Nora, minus the marriage), and races us through a twisty plot so smoothly that you won't notice as the hours tick by.
Seattle Times - Moira Macdonald
A properly addictive whodunnit. And in the unlikely pairing of ungainly Strike and his clever young assistant, Galbraith has created an investigative duo with spark and empathy.
Financial Times - Isabel Berwick
A compulsively entertaining yarn.
Entertainment Weekly - Thom Geier
The story is enthralling, not only for its twists and turns, but for the fun of the teamwork... Each chapter draws us further into Cormoran Strike's psyche, and makes us care more not just about the case getting solved, but about Strike being the one to solve it... [They're] a cast of characters who you'll want to meet again and again.
A great detective novel: sharp, immensely readable, warmhearted but coolheaded... The last line of THE SILKWORM, which will lift the hearts of readers who have come to love its deeply sympathetic characters, offers the prospect of more of that joy both for Galbraith and for us.
USA Today - Charles Finch
THE SILKWORM is fast-paced and entertaining... Strike is heroic without intending to be and has a great back story. He's the illegitimate son of a rock star whose half-siblings grew up in privilege... And he's brooding, but not annoyingly so. Strike has all kinds of potential. It'd be a crime not to keep up with him.
New York Daily News - Sherryl Connelly
[Galbraith] weaves a pleasurably wicked literary murder mystery with all its attendant aspects of publishing politics, from the peevish to the pompous, into Strike's personal and professional lives... Only two books in, and Galbraith's characters already feel like familiar-and welcome-friends.
Boston Globe - Daneet Steffens
Cormoran Strike is back, and so is his resourceful sidekick, Robin Ellacott, a gumshoe team that's on its way to becoming as celebrated for its mystery-solving skills as Nick and Nora Charles of 'Thin Man' fame, and Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander (a.k.a. the girl with the dragon tattoo)... An entertaining novel in which the most compelling characters are not the killer or the victim, but the detectives charged with solving the crime.
New York Times - Michiko Kakutani
The plot zings along... Swift and satisfying.
Los Angeles Times - Carolyn Kellogg
Swift-paced, suspenseful... Robert Galbraith has announced himself a fresh voice in mystery fiction: part hard-boiled, part satiric, part poignant, and part romantic.
Wall Street Journal - Tom Nolan
Robert Galbraith has written a second absorbing whodunit starring detective Cormoran Strike to follow last year's stealth hit, The Cuckoo's Calling... Astutely observed, well-paced and full of [Galbraith's] trademark acerbic wit, THE SILKWORM thoroughly engages as a crime novel.
THE SILKWORM is a very well-written, wonderfully entertaining take on the traditional British crime novel...Robert Galbraith may proudly join the ranks of English, Scottish and Irish crime writers such as Tana French, Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, John Connolly, Kate Atkinson, and Peter Robinson.
New York Times Book Review - Harlan Coben
Galbraith brings flair and wit to [his] reflections on the state of contemporary publishing... Galbraith takes the existing strengths of the genre and uses them as the building blocks for [his] own considerable storytelling gift, crafting books crammed with memorable characters that make irresistible reading.
The Guardian [UK] - Val McDermid
The murder mystery at the heart of THE SILKWORM is a genuine mystery with an altogether satisfying resolution... And even if, like me, you don't read mysteries to solve the puzzle but to keep company with the detective on the cas... [Galbraith's] not too shabby in the character department either.
Daily Beast - Malcolm Jones
Robert Glenister is the man in this fine performance of Robert Galbraith’s (aka J.K. Rowling) most recent detective thriller. Having narrated the first two books in the series, Glenister knows the main characters—Cormoran Strike, Afghan War vet turned PI, and his smart, increasingly talented assistant, Robin Ellacott—to a fare-the-well. In this thoroughly involving story, both Strike and Ellacott are targeted by a killer, who starts the action with a severed leg delivered to Ellacott. The real-life pacing and vocal differences between the rough-hewn, older Strike and the younger Ellacott bring their scenes particularly to life. And Glenister’s use of a flattened, even tone for the sections that take place inside the mind of the killer adds chillingly to the tension. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2016 Audies Winner © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
NOVEMBER 2015 - AudioFile
2015-10-17
