Career of Evil

When a severed leg is delivered to Robin Ellacott's office in a box addressed to Cormoran Strike, the investigation becomes personal. The sender knows Strike, and the accompanying note points to three men from his past — each of whom he believes capable of such an act. As Strike and Robin investigate each suspect, the case deepens into Strike's own history: his military career, his disturbed mother's entourage, and the dark corners of his past he has never fully examined.

The third Cormoran Strike novel is the most psychologically intense instalment to that point, shifting perspective more frequently than its predecessors and spending significant time inside the mind of the killer — a rare move for the series that makes for the most unsettling reading experience of the three books. It is also the novel in which Robin's personal circumstances — her relationship with her fiancé Matthew, her own past trauma, and her decision about her professional future — take centre stage alongside the investigation.

Published in October 2015, Career of Evil was the first Strike novel to debut at number one on the Sunday Times bestseller list and received the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger nomination. The title comes from the Blue Öyster Cult song of the same name.