Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike #3) by Robert Galbraith, 512 pages

Robert Galbraith is the pseudonym of J.K.Rowling, made famous by writing the Harry Potter series.  This is the 3rd very adult book about the modern day private detective Cormoran Strike, who is based in London.  I listened to this and it is expertly read by gravelly voiced, Robert Glinister.

In this outing, Strike and his secretary/assistant/partner, Robin Ellacott are targeted by a serial killer who likes to stab his female victims and keep parts of their bodies as souvenirs.  The killer has a grudge against Strike and sets his sights on Robin. 

Darkness and danger and suspense ensues and I loved every bit of it.

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith, 464 pages

Oh was this book enjoyable.  It is the second book in the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith, otherwise known as JK Rowling.

Cormoran Strike is a private detective with baggage.  He is a former military investigator who lost his right leg below the knee in an IED attack in Afghanistan.  His father is a famous singer who he's only seen twice.  He's also trying to get over a 16 year relationship with the beautiful, but very flawed Charlotte.

He has a fledgling detective agency that is going well, thanks to the notoriety of his solving the case detailed in the first book in the series "The Cuckoos Calling."  He's working his tail off, trying to pay off a loan he reluctantly took from his deadbeat famous dad.  He has an excellent assistant in Robin, who began as a temporary secretary in book one and is now on full-time and interested in getting more involved in detecting.

Cormoran is hired to look for a missing author, Owen Quine, by his wife. Quine's newly finished but unpublished book has ticked off a lot of people. Cormoran finds Quine, but the search turns into a messy murder investigation.

Galbraith/Rowling is a terrific storyteller and author and I hope he/she keeps giving us more Cormoran Strike books.

The Hollow Girl by Reed Farrel Coleman 303 pages

Moe Prager an unlikely hero to say the least. Widower, grandfather, stomach cancer survivor, living in a bottle. Although to be fair, his fiancé was just killed in a tragic accident and he did lose his first wife to murder. Not an easy life for anyone. But then an old could have been girlfriend had other things not intervened resurfaces to ask his help in locating her missing daughter and Moe, ex-policeman and sometimes PI lays the bottle aside—sort of— delves into the case, and finds that nothing is at it appears.

The Hollow Girl is the ninth book in the Moe Prager series and the first one I’ve read. I will read the others because Moe is a very real, humble and likeable character; you can’t help but root for him. He never forgets where he’s been and he doesn’t take crap from anyone. He doesn’t quit—although he does take a few detours—until he gets his man. I was highly entertained.