All those who have been waiting for the paperback release of Robert Galbraith’s Career of Evil will be pleased to know that the date is set for just over 3 weeks time, on the 21st April.
The announcement was made via the Robert Galbraith Facebook page, where we’re invited to ‘Strike down to publication’ with them:
To those who haven’t read the book (or the series) yet, this is the perfect opportunity to buy them all in paperback – J.K. Rowling has done an amazing job via Robert Galbraith, with Career of Evil earning amazing ratings: 4.2 stars on Goodreads, 4.5 on Amazon.
We’ll let the reviews speak for themselves!
“Quirkily different… let’s hope the sardonic Strike is here to stay” (Independent)
“The denouement is violent, unexpected and satisfying . . . [an] entertaining novel” (The Times)
“Fans of the intrepid duo are in for some shocks . . . as readable and exciting as ever” (Daily Telegraph)
“A confident hold on a deliriously clever plot”(Guardian)
“The real joy of this series comes from the originality of the characters” (Morning Star)
“Robert Galbraith . . . again demonstrates that rare, inexplicable and indefinable gift: once started, one simply can’t put [his] books down” (Literary Review)
“Strike is a compelling creation . . . this is terrifically entertaining stuff” (Irish Times)
Read more reviews on ‘The New Queen of Crime’ here, and an interview with J.K. Rowling on the series here!
Back in 2007, J.K. Rowling told us about a very intriguing new project – a ‘political fairytale’ that has yet to see the light of day:
However, this morning a fan asked her about this project, and it appears that Jo may have given up on it – for now!
We can imagine how busy she must be, leading the double life of bestsellers Rowling / Galbraith, writing new wizarding world stories, leading the script for Fantastic Beasts and overseeing Cursed Child.
Speaking of Fantastic Beasts, Rowling also told us that she’d be watching a first cut of the film yesterday, reminding us just how close the release date really is! Well, that is if you’re patient enough to call November close…
Thanks to Hypable for the heads up!
A signed copy of J.K. Rowling’s new crime novel, Career of Evil, was put up for auction. J.K. Rowling would probably approve of this donation from one of the lucky owners of a signed book, as the book was auctioned for a good cause, for local charity, Brighouse and Surrounding Homeless.
There are only 200 signed copies of the Robert Galbraith book, making the demand for this item at the silent auction very high. The book had a reserve of £1,000. Big House Echo recorded a statement about the charity being supported:
Alison Mitchell, chief Executive of BASH, said: “We provide an outreach service that connects those in need with the charities and services they may not have otherwise known about whilst offering food, clothing and friendly faces.
Thanks to donations we can provide food, drink and clothing. More importantly we can provide a listening ear.
The results from Friday’s auction have not been released. However, we hope that Career of Evil was able to at least break its reserve, and provide a lot of monetary donation for BASH.
Robert Galbraith’s latest novel. Career of Evil, has made it to the final round of Goodreads 2015 Choice Awards. It is up for an award in the “Best Mystery and Thriller” category.
However, it has not won yet. In this final round Robert and Jo need your vote! Up against titles such as Stephen King’s Finders Keepers, and this years hit, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, Career of Evil will need your votes.
You can vote here, on Goodreads. Voting is open from now until November 23rd–vote now!
It’s here so take a listen! The newest episode of our Cormoran Strike podcast, “The Strike Files,” is available on iTunes or here on the show’s website; it covers the second twenty (plus a little extra because we can’t stop ourselves, or, maybe, one of us can’t) chapters of Career of Evil, the latest book in the Strike series. Enjoy!
Subscribe on iTunes here!
The newest episode of the Cormoran Strike podcast, “The Strike Files,” is out! You can check it out on iTunes or here on the show’s website; it covers the first twenty chapters of Career of Evil, the latest book in the Strike series. Enjoy!
Subscribe on iTunes here!
The Guardian reports that J.K. Rowling is set to give her first on-air interview as Robert Galbraith on BBC2’s radio. In the interview, which will be part of Simon Mayo’s Drivetime Show, Rowling will promote Career of Evil, the third Cormoran Strike novel Rowling has written using the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
The Guardian states that:
Rowling is expected to talk about why she decided to write as Galbraith, and her feelings once her identity as the author of the books was exposed.
Mayo will also read out five reviews from listeners who have applied to review Career of Evil as part of the Radio 2’s Book Club.
The Radio 2 interview will be Rowling’s second appearance as Robert Galbraith. During the first interview, an on-stage conversation with Val McDermid, Rowling showed up in a suit and tie. It remains unclear and is up for speculation how Rowling will mark her character on the radio.
The interview will appear on Simon Mayo’s Drivetime Show on November 2, 2015.
As promised, A Cormoran Strike Podcast of “The Strike Files,” the podcast about the Cormoran Strike books. This episode focuses on the first two chapters that have already been released, right in time for the book’s release tomorrow! Enjoy!
You can subscribe on iTunes here!
Or should it be “The New King of Crime?” J.K. Rowling has been appearing at events for her good friend Robert–specifically Crime Writers’ Association Dagger Awards. (Galbraith’s Silkworm was short listed for a Gold Dagger, though it was over thrown by Life or Death by Michael Robotham.) With a new Robert Galbraith book due out Tuesday (October 20), reviews for Career of Evil are making their way to the pages of newspapers.
The reviews have been more positive for this Strike novel than the previous, Silkworm. Some incline this may be the best one yet. Galbraith is starting to make a name for himself within the crime writing community, and a more than acceptable one at that.
The Independent reports:
But surely the pseudonymous Galbraith (J K Rowling) didn’t turn up for events [the Dagger Awards] like this? Indeed she was there, looking both elegant and slightly vulnerable, and adding a certain lustre to proceedings even if room was already full of celebrated crime writers.
In the event, I didn’t use the joke, but something remarkable happened that evening. The writer of two books featuring not a boy wizard but one-legged detective Cormoran Strike won over the crime writing community. It quickly became evident that Rowling had a genuine and unassuming desire to be a member of this new fraternity that she had recently joined. But – leaving aside Rowling’s personal virtues – just how good are the Cormoran Strike books?
This first crime novel, however, was soon recognised as a winner, with military policeman-turned-sleuth Strike finding the truth behind the apparent suicide of a supermodel. That book sported a vibrant use of the apparatus of the crime novel, despite the familiar trappings (bloody-minded detective traversing various class divisions, showing up a wrong-headed police force). The second Strike outing, The Silkworm, was diverting, but less inventive – and, for that matter, less plausible.
Now we have Strike number three, and, thankfully, it’s every bit as impressive as that first book. After a chilling opening in the company of a psychopathic killer, we move to the building site that is Tottenham Court Road and the office of Strike.
Written in an unadorned, non-literary prose, Career of Evil confirms that Rowling’s post-Potter initiative is proving to be a very welcome one. Both Strike and Ellacott are multi-dimensional characters (she is stuck in a dying relationship), and there is no gainsaying the sheer relish with which the writer tackles the genre.
The new writing identity that Rowling has forged for herself is not only utterly unlike that of her fantasy endeavours, but quirkily different from most of the already established confrères she is befriending in the crime writing world. Let’s hope the sardonic Cormoran Strike is here to stay.
The Telegraph gave the novel three stars (out of five), saying:
Ultimately, the crimes [of the first two novels] that drove the books were less memorable in themselves than as hooks by which to chart the awkward relationship between the one-legged Afghanistan vet turned private eye, Cormoran Strike, and Robin Ellacott, the comely wannabe detective.
Career of Evil, the third in the series, immediately announces itself as something different. The title and chapter headings are taken from the lyrics of the US rock band Blue Öyster Cult, a signal that the book intends to take us to dark places that Sayers and Allingham would not have touched with bargepoles. The plot encompasses paedophilia, serial murder and Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID) – the mental disorder that makes sufferers want to amputate their healthy limbs.
Fans of the intrepid duo are in for some shocks about their pasts. We learn more about the death of Strike’s mother, for which his stepfather, an appalling failed rocker called Jeff Whittaker, was tried and acquitted. Whittaker, “an ostentatious lover of the perverse and the sadistic”, has got away with a career’s worth of misdeeds: “Strike knew how deeply ingrained was the belief that the evil conceal their dangerous predilections… When they wear them like bangles for all to see, the gullible populace laughs, calls it a pose or finds it strangely attractive.”
But it is the revelations about Robin that will shock readers more deeply, casting light on why she stays with her terrible fiancé Matthew, whose characterisation is proving increasingly unsubtle. (Would even this tedious accountant list “his estimates of the salary of all their contemporaries?”) Even after three books, the dance of Strike and Robin’s cautious non-courtship remains very entertaining.
But has Galbraith really succeeded in going to a darker place? The killer’s inner thoughts are a bit cheesy, and the novel slips too easily into the language of melodrama (“the means by which the murderer and his macabre schemes could be brought down”). It is as readable and exciting as ever, but Galbraith’s most “realistic” plot so far is, perversely, his least convincing.
Read more about the planning of Career of Evil and reactions at The Telegraph. The Leaky Cauldron will be reading the novel as soon as it hits shelves, and posting our review as soon as possible!
We know it doesn’t need saying, but we at Leaky are huge fans of the Cormoran Strike novels. The third book, Career of Evil, comes out Tuesday, and to celebrate we’re presenting a new podcast, “The Strike Files.” Featuring myself and
Game of Owns vet Zack Luye, we will give the Galbraith novels the detail-oriented attention that only experienced Potter and fandom experts can give.
You can find all the relevant details on TheStrikeFiles.com; subscribe on iTunes here (there’s a short trailer already available so take a listen! Or listen below:
And, ahem, PotterCast fans… we’re assembling an editing team right now and coming back at you really soon. 
After a series of tweets (and retweets) this morning, Audible released two snippets of Robert Galbraith’s new mystery novel, Career of Evil. The first two chapters of the new Cormoran Strike novel can now be listened to, for free, on Audible’s twitter.
The first chapter of Career of Evil opens with the point of view of the antagonist of the story–the man who has a vendetta against strike, an unhealthy obsession with Robin, and a horrifying hobby of charming women and killing them among peach bath towels stained red with blood. He opens the book by stalking Robin and Matthew. We don’t know his name, but we do know that he has a particular loathing for rugby. Really, who is surprised that the sport makes an important appearance in J.K. Rowling’s very good friend’s novel? No one.
Chapter two takes a turn in point of view and settles on Robin and Matthew, the story being told by Robin of course. No big surprise, this not-so-happily engaged couple is in the middle of another argument on Matthew’s favorite subject: Cormoran Strike. Out of anger, Robin receives a package from an unknown carrier, and stops and signs for it without looking to see who is delivering it or who it is from. When she rips it open, it’s that woman’s severed leg we’ve been hearing so much about in the novel’s synopsis.
