Career of Evil Moments – Five Favourite Moments
It’s ten years since Career of Evil was published!
The third major case Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott investigate together sees them tracking a serial killer with a grudge against Strike, while Robin struggles with her upcoming marriage to her disapproving fiancé, Matthew Cunliffe. The dark histories, violence, revelations, and unbearable pressure the investigation brings in its wake result in the near collapse of their partnership.
Here are five of our favourite moments from the investigation which provide Strike and Robin with their greatest challenges, both personal and professional, to date.
Opening
‘You know four men who’d send you a severed leg? Four?’
Career of Evil, Robert Galbraith
After a terrifying glimpse into the mind of a killer, Career of Evil opens when Robin takes delivery of a package at the office and finds that the parcel, addressed to her, contains a severed human leg.
In shock, she visits Strike’s flat for the first time, and gives her statement to Strike’s police contact, Eric Wardle. It’s then, while she is sitting on a cheap plastic padded chair and looking round his spartan apartment in the attic above the office, she discovers he can think of four men who might have sent him the grisly taunt. One is Terrance ‘Digger’ Malley, of the Harringay Crime Syndicate, but the note that comes with the severed leg which quotes Mistress of the Salmon Salt by the seventies rock band Blue Öyster Cult seems a bit subtle for that violent drug lord.
Robin eventually learns Strike’s other suspects are Donald Laing of the King’s Own Borderers, a clever devious sociopath Strike put away for life; Noel Brockbank who claims his brain injuries are the result of Strike manhandling him during his arrest; and Jeff Whittaker, the sadistic musician who was married to Strike’s mother in her final years and who, Strike is convinced, murdered her.
The Conversation
‘Robin had not intended to tell Strike the story, but all resolutions were adrift tonight on the little sea of alcohol with which she had filled her hungry and exhausted body. What did it matter if she told him? Without that information he would not have the full picture or be able to advise her what to do next.’
Career of Evil, Robert Galbraith
Robin was expecting the package to contain wedding favours for her upcoming nuptials to her long-term boyfriend Matthew Cunnliffe. She was supposed to marry in January, a winter bride, but the death of Matthew’s mother while she and Strike were investigating the disappearance of Owen Quine (The Silkworm), delayed the wedding. Now she is planning a summer wedding.
Matthew is jealous and resentful of Strike, constantly reminding Robin she could be earning a lot more in the corporate world. Now, as they fight about wedding invitations, Robin discovers Matthew slept with his friend Sarah Shadlock while they were at university. The betrayal is made all the worse by what Robin was going through at the time.
Like Strike, after breaking off her engagement, Robin finds refuge in the Tottenham. It’s there Strike finds her. He gets her crisps, and reminds her he spilled his guts to her in this very pub. Gradually, Robin explains that she dropped out of her university degree after a brutal assault. Eating her third packet of crisps, she explains she survived by playing dead and that her evidence eventually put her attacker away. The attack left her agoraphobic though, and ended her studies. It was while she was recovering Matthew found ‘comfort’ with his friend Sarah.
Strike books her into the Hazlitt, an elegant hotel nearby where he is sure she’ll be safe. When Robin wakes up the next day she’s convinced the revelations will destroy her relationship with Strike, but during a high-stress meeting at New Scotland Yard, he describes her as his partner to Eric Wardle. It’s the first time he’s called her that in front of anyone else in her hearing.
The Castle
‘Edinburgh, been here six weeks. Just been reading about you in the Scotsman.’
Career of Evil, Robert Galbraith
The Special Investigation Branch of the Royal Military Police had an office in Edinburgh Castle: 35 Section. It was a prestigious posting.
Looking for up-to-date information on the two men from his army days he suspects of sending the leg, Strike turns to his former colleagues – the Red Caps of the Army’s Special Investigation Branch. He calls Graham Hardacre, a nondescript looking man with a sharp investigative brain, and discovers he is now stationed at Edinburgh Castle.
Strike agrees to visit him there, and accompanies him into the offices through an entrance cut into the volcanic stone of Castle Rock. Once inside, the offices of the SIB are immediately familiar. Strike thinks he could sit at an unoccupied desk and be at work in ten minutes. The progress of various investigations are charted on whiteboards, through the lab door he sees evidence being analysed, and posters on the wall remind investigators about the importance of the Golden Hour, the crucial period immediately after an offence has been committed when evidence and witnesses are most available.
Hardacre can’t let Strike print any of the material he has on Brockbank and Laing — his Warrant Officer is a pain in the arse — but he lets Strike read the files off his computer and take notes.
The army were keen to keep Strike on after he lost half of his leg to an I.E.D in Afghanistan, but Strike has never regretted his decision to go it alone as a private detective. Nevertheless, as he leaves the confinement of the rock-bound offices, he can’t help reflect that his choice has stripped him of the might and status of the British Army, and he and Robin are facing a killer with a grudge completely alone.
The Attack
‘Her composure was unnerving him.
Career of Evil, Robert Galbraith
‘Yeah, said Robin. ‘She taught us it’s not about clever throws when you’re an ordinary woman. It’s about reacting smartly and fast. Never let yourself get taken to a second location. Go for the weak spots and then run like hell.’’
As the search for the Shacklewell Ripper reaches a climax, Robin is attacked while on surveillance and the self-defence classes she took after the end of her university career save her life. After telling Strike exactly how she broke free from a psychopathic murderer with a knife, she tells him she’s hungry and Strike, speechless, produces a Twix. She doesn’t get to eat it though as the Ripper has left her with a deep slice on her arm which will need surgery to repair tendon damage.
After being confronted by DI Roy Carver, the Met officer now in charge of the case, and seeing a white-faced Matthew racing to Robin’s side, Strike is consumed with self-recrimination. As he leaves the busy A&E department of Lewisham Hospital however, the fragments of conversation he’s heard over the last few minutes come together, causing a sudden explosive chain reaction in his brain — the landing strip for a theory that he knows, with the certainty of a prophet, will lead to the killer.
The Wedding
The beautiful bride, who had not once smiled in the entire service, was suddenly beaming.
Career of Evil, Robert Galbraith
After leaving the hospital Robin makes a decision which leads to the worst argument she and Strike have ever had. He sacks her immediately, enraged, and as Robin gets ready for her wedding day, she believes her career as an investigator is over.
With the killer in custody though, Strike realises he has made a huge mistake. He gets his friend Shanker to drive him from London to Yorkshire at break-neck speed to attend Robin’s wedding. He crashes noisily into the church in Masham, and Robin, mid-vows, is obviously delighted to see him.
