strange and random happenstance

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
Published by: Mulholland Books
Publication Date: September 20th, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 492 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Robin Ellacot's life is about to change. It has changed many times over the last year, professionally from taking a job as Cormoran Strike's secretary and gaining his confidence, allowing her to tail clients as a full fledged investigator, and personally, from getting engaged to Matthew to Matthew's mother dying thus resulting in their wedding being postponed. She has swung with the punches and has everything under control. When she arrives at work one day there's a package addressed to her and she's confident it's just another item on her checklist for wedding prep. She couldn't be more wrong. Within the box is a severed woman's leg along with a Blue Öyster Cult quote from "Mistress of the Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl.)" While the package was addressed to her it is obviously a message for Cormoran. The leg, severed just as his was, the song, a favorite of his mother's. Cormoran has many enemies in his past, but there are four capable of such cruelty and perversity; Terrence 'Digger' Malley, a mobster, Noel Brockbank, a pedophile whom Strike investigated when he was in SIB, Donald Laing, a domestic abuser whom Strike had locked up, and his number one suspect, Jeff Whittaker, his stepfather whom he believes responsible for his mother's death. Who else but his stepfather would quote that specific song?

The police though think the mobster Malley is their number one suspect and don't follow up on the other leads. Which leaves it up to Cormoran and Robin to track down the other three suspects. Because Cormoran knows he's prejudiced to his stepfather he won't eliminate the other two until he has conclusive evidence one way or the other. But that doesn't stop the memories from flooding in. The horror of the bedsit, finding his mother dead, the trial that acquitted Whittaker. Cormoran, Robin, and even Matthew are being haunted by their pasts, but whose past will prove deadly? When Robin starts to become the focus of the killer her inability to step back from the case leads to a rupture with Matthew while simultaneously bringing her and Cormoran closer together. They travel the length and breath of England trying to track down these three disturbed men, yet perhaps the world of body dysmorphia and those who want to be handicapped and amputated is the most disturbing of all. Especially to Cormoran who can't see why anyone wouldn't want two functioning legs. As the bodies pile up the stakes get higher and the danger more immediate. Can they find the killer before he gets to one of them or are all three men guilty of something and will stop at nothing to protect their secrets?

When J.K. Rowling was revealed to be Robert Galbraith the first book in the Cormoran Strike series, The Cuckoo's Calling, instantly moved up my to be read list, though I take a little bit of pride in the fact that it was on my to be read list prior to the reveal. The first book introduces us to her cast of characters and a crime that needs to be solved, but it's quickly apparent that Rowling is more interested in the characters than the crime. Which is fine, as long as the balance is correct. There needs to be enough of a connection between the characters and the crime in order for them to jointly propel the narrative. This balance wasn't achieved until Career of Evil, the third book in the series. The first two books deal with celebrity and the literary world, which is personal, for Rowling, only tangentially so for Strike. Therefore to have such a personal story, a crime so entangled with Cormoran and Robin, the series not only reached it's zenith, it reached it's full potential. To have fallen in love with these two characters over the course of this series but to have that feeling that their journey could be so much more, to feel the wasted potential, it was almost painful to read. But if I were to compare this series to Rowling's far more famous wizarding series, there too the third volume is where it all clicked for me. So in the future, if Rowling ever starts another series under her own or another name, remind me to give her until the third installment to pass judgment.

Cormoran's relationship with Robin has benefited from this slow burn of narrative construction. In the very first book, almost from the second Cormoran meets Robin, he says to himself that their relationship can only ever be platonic, despite her looks, her talents, and that dress he got her. She is with Matthew, and that is that. Therefore as a reader you also put it out of your mind. They are colleagues nothing more. They will not fall prey to the "Moonlighting Effect!" Yet having just watched all of Moonlighting again, you can clearly see how they failed. The constant bait and switch, the characters acting out of character, and finally just trying to deny there ever was any chemistry to begin with. Here we have seen strangers become friends become colleagues and maybe, one day, they will become something more. When Robin temporarily breaks things off with Matthew and is more and more with Cormoran, she wonders, he wonders, we all wonder, could this be the first step? So while there has been a little of that Moonlighting frisson sprinkled into this latest installment, I kind of do and don't want something to happen. But what I did want was to luxuriate in each and every page as I went on this journey with a couple who might never become a couple...

Because Robin has a complicated past. Long hinted at and finally revealed. I applaud that Robin's assault in college shows what a strong person she is. Yes, she dropped out of college and retreated into herself and stays with Matthew because he's "safe." Yet at the same time she was able to pay attention when she was attacked and came forward to be the key witness to send the rapist to prison. This is such a key insight into Robin's personality. She preservers despite whatever odds are stacked against her. She wants to fight for what is right, she wants to catch the bad guys, she wants to be there, at Cormoran's side, not hiding away in a bedroom staring at the same four walls day in and day out. Despite being published three years before the launch of the #MeToo movement, Robin's story shows us strength through pain. She has taken what many still unjustly view as a stigma and didn't let it define her but let it inform who she became. Before this revelation of hers I didn't so much wonder why she left college, there are myriad reasons for people to do so, but I did often wonder what Robin the psychologist would have been like. Would she have been able to help people in as tangible a method as she does with Cormoran? Or did her attack lead her to the life she was meant to lead? Of course, this is a book so it's all staged to be fate, but to me Robin is real and she's a survivor who has come into her own.

Switching gears, for all those people out there who don't read books and instead wait for them to be adapted into movies or TV series I have to really restrain myself from beating them about the head and instead I will take the higher ground and tell them why sometimes books are better for certain narrative techniques. There are things you can do in a book that just don't work in a visual medium. For example the trope of seeing through a killer's eyes works so much better in prose versus tricky POV shots and shaky camera angles on screen where we see their lair or their next victim between some foliage. It's not just that it's a cliche, it's that sometimes it plays the final hand without the filmmakers really realizing it. I will take the movie Kiss the Girls as an example. Now hopefully you won't get mad at me for spoiling a film that came out over twenty years ago based on a book by James Patterson from 1995, but you've had ample chances to watch it before now and if you're honest with yourself, you would have seen it sometime in the last twenty years if you really wanted to. So, my mom was watching the opening of the movie and the killer is narrating, and I said, "I didn't know Cary Elwes was in the movie." So the ending was ruined because I recognized the killer's voice... That can't happen in books! There's so much more tension not knowing and not inadvertently spoiling it for yourself. Books for the win!

Also, Rowling, I mean, Galbraith, doesn't just know the tropes and what works better when, she revels in toying with the reader. The use of red herrings in Career of Evil is masterful, because some are made purposefully obvious and others are hidden, but all the while you're thinking, is this a red herring or is this something else? While red herrings are traditionally thought of as just misleading information that has to be worked through in order solve the crime they are also meant as a distraction. Here's something shiny, is it important? And I was like a cat, pouncing on every single one and playing with it, holding it up to the light, wondering, is this a real clue, gnawing on it a bit, and eventually just waiting for the next one to show up and start me thinking all over again. Even the title of the book is a red herring! The song "Career of Evil" by Blue Öyster Cult makes you think that only one of the three suspects that Cormoran has fingered could possibly be the perpetrator, and Galbraith toys with that assumption again and again. For over four hundred pages the three suspects are deftly juggled with red herrings so that you never know where the finger will finally point. This made me devour this book late into the night wanting to know the answer but at the same time hoping it would never end. Thankfully I have Lethal White now lined up...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:01 AM 0 comments  

Labels: #MeToo, Blue Öyster Cult, Career of Evil, Cary Elwes, Cormoran Strike, James Patterson, Kiss the Girls, Lethal White, Moonlighting, Red Herrings, Robert Galbraith, Robin Ellacot, Ten Years, The Cuckoo's Calling

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
Published by: Mulholland Books
Publication Date: September 20th, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 492 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Robin Ellacot's life is about to change. It has changed many times over the last year, professionally from taking a job as Cormoran Strike's secretary to gaining his confidence, allowing her to tail clients as a full fledged investigator, and personally, from getting engaged to Matthew to Matthew's mother dying thus resulting in their wedding being postponed. She has swung with the punches and has everything under control. When she arrives at work one day there's a package addressed to her and she's confident it's just another item on her checklist for wedding prep. She couldn't be more wrong. Within the box is a severed woman's leg along with a Blue Öyster Cult quote from "Mistress of the Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl.)" While the package was addressed to her it is obviously a message for Cormoran. The leg, severed just as his was, the song, a favorite of his mother's. Cormoran has many enemies in his past, but there are four capable of such cruelty and perversity; Terrence 'Digger' Malley, a mobster, Noel Brockbank, a pedophile whom Strike investigated when he was in SIB, Donald Laing, a domestic abuser whom Strike had locked up, and his number one suspect, Jeff Whittaker, his stepfather whom he believes responsible for his mother's death. Who else but his stepfather would quote that specific song?

The police though think the mobster Malley is their number one suspect and don't follow up on the other leads. Which leaves it up to Cormoran and Robin to track down the other three suspects. Because Cormoran knows he's prejudiced to his stepfather he won't eliminate the other two until he has conclusive evidence one way or the other. But that doesn't stop the memories from flooding in. The horror of the bedsit, finding his mother dead, the trial that acquitted Whittaker. Cormoran, Robin, and even Matthew are being haunted by their pasts, but whose past will prove deadly? When Robin starts to become the focus of the killer her inability to step back from the case leads to a rupture with Matthew while simultaneously bringing her and Cormoran closer together. They travel the length and breath of England trying to track down these three disturbed men, yet perhaps the world of body dysmorphia and those who want to be handicapped and amputated is the most disturbing of all. Especially to Cormoran who can't see why anyone wouldn't want two functioning legs. As the bodies pile up the stakes get higher and the danger more immediate. Can they find the killer before he gets to one of them or are all three men guilty of something and will stop at nothing to protect their secrets?

When J.K. Rowling was revealed to be Robert Galbraith the first book in the Cormoran Strike series, The Cuckoo's Calling, instantly moved up my to be read list, though I take a little bit of pride in the fact that it was on my to be read list prior to the reveal. The first book introduces us to her cast of characters and a crime that needs to be solved, but it's quickly apparent that Rowling is more interested in the characters than the crime. Which is fine, as long as the balance is correct. There needs to be enough of a connection between the characters and the crime in order for them to jointly propel the narrative. This balance wasn't achieved until Career of Evil, the third book in the series. The first two books deal with celebrity and the literary world, which is personal, for Rowling, only tangentially so for Strike. Therefore to have such a personal story, a crime so entangled with Cormoran and Robin, the series not only reached it's zenith, it reached it's full potential. To have fallen in love with these two characters over the course of this series but to have that feeling that their journey could be so much more, to feel the wasted potential, it was almost painful to read. But if I were to compare this series to Rowling's far more famous wizarding series, there too the third volume is where it all clicked for me. So in the future, if Rowling ever starts another series under her own or another name, remind me to give her until the third installment to pass judgment.

Cormoran's relationship with Robin has benefited from this slow burn of narrative construction. In the very first book, almost from the second Cormoran meets Robin, he says to himself that their relationship can only ever be platonic, despite her looks, her talents, and that dress he got her. She is with Matthew, and that is that. Therefore as a reader you also put it out of your mind. They are colleagues nothing more. They will not fall prey to the "Moonlighting Effect!" Yet having just watched all of Moonlighting again, you can clearly see how they failed. The constant bait and switch, the characters acting out of character, and finally just trying to deny there ever was any chemistry to begin with. Here we have seen strangers become friends become colleagues and maybe, one day, they will become something more. When Robin temporarily breaks things off with Matthew and is more and more with Cormoran, she wonders, he wonders, we all wonder, could this be the first step? So while there has been a little of that Moonlighting frisson sprinkled into this latest installment, I kind of do and don't want something to happen. But what I did want was to luxuriate in each and every page as I went on this journey with a couple who might never become a couple...

Because Robin has a complicated past. Long hinted at and finally revealed. I applaud that Robin's assault in college shows what a strong person she is. Yes, she dropped out of college and retreated into herself and stays with Matthew because he's "safe." Yet at the same time she was able to pay attention when she was attacked and come forward and be the key witness to send the rapist to prison. This is such a key insight into Robin's personality. She preservers despite whatever odds are stacked against her. She wants to fight for what is right, she wants to catch the bad guys, she wants to be there, at Cormoran's side, not hiding away in a bedroom staring at the same four walls day in and day out. Despite being published three years before the launch of the #MeToo movement, Robin's story shows us strength through pain. She has taken what many still unjustly view as a stigma and didn't let it define her but let it inform who she became. Before this revelation of hers I didn't so much wonder why she left college, there are myriad reasons for people to do so, but I did often wonder what Robin the psychologist would have been like. Would she have been able to help people in as tangible a method as she does with Cormoran? Or did her attack lead her to the life she was meant to lead? Of course, this is a book so it's all staged to be fate, but to me, Robin is real, and she's a survivor who has come into her own.

Switching gears, for all those people out there who don't read books and instead wait for them to be adapted into movies or TV series I have to really restrain myself from beating them about the head and instead I will take the higher ground and tell them why sometimes books are better for certain narrative techniques. There are things you can do in a book that just don't work in a visual medium. For example the trope of seeing through a killer's eyes works so much better in prose versus tricky POV shots and shaky camera angles on screen where we see their lair or their next victim between some foliage. It's not just that it's a cliche, it's that sometimes it plays the final hand without the filmmakers really realizing it. I will take the movie Kiss the Girls as an example. Now hopefully you won't get mad at me for spoiling a film that came out over twenty years ago based on a book by James Patterson from 1995, but you've had ample chances to watch it before now and if you're honest with yourself, you would have seen it sometime in the last twenty years if you really wanted to. So, my mom was watching the opening of the movie and the killer is narrating, and I said, "I didn't know Cary Elwes was in the movie." So the ending was ruined because I recognized the killer's voice... That can't happen in books! There's so much more tension not knowing and not inadvertently spoiling it for yourself. Books for the win!

Also, Rowling, I mean, Galbraith, doesn't just know the tropes and what works better when, she revels in toying with the reader. The use of red herrings in Career of Evil is masterful, because some are made purposefully obvious and others are hidden, but all the while you're thinking, is this a red herring or is this something else? While red herrings are traditionally thought of as just misleading information that has to be worked through in order solve the crime they are also meant as a distraction. Here's something shiny, is it important? And I was like a cat, pouncing on every single one and playing with it, holding it up to the light, wondering, is this a real clue, gnawing on it a bit, and eventually just waiting for the next one to show up and start me thinking all over again. Even the title of the book is a red herring! The song "Career of Evil" by Blue Öyster Cult makes you think that only one of the three suspects that Cormoran has fingered could possibly be the perpetrator, and Galbraith toys with that assumption again and again. For over four hundred pages the three suspects are deftly juggled with red herrings so that you never know where the finger will finally point. This made me devour this book late into the night wanting to know the answer but at the same time hoping it would never end. Thankfully I have Lethal White now lined up...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: #MeToo, Blue Öyster Cult, Career of Evil, Cary Elwes, Cormoran Strike, James Patterson, Kiss the Girls, Lethal White, Moonlighting, Red Herrings, Robert Galbraith, Robin Ellacot, The Cuckoo's Calling

In the fall of 2008 I was in the midst of my worst semester ever at school. I was overextended, overstressed, and hadn't really slept in a long long time. Forget about having time to actually read a book, despite trying to carve out time to read the ARC of The Temptation of the Night Jasmine. But there was one thing I wasn't going to miss, and that was the chance to meet Lauren Willig! Since 2008 I have been lucky enough to go to several of Lauren's signings in the Chicago area; in 2010 for The Mischief of the Mistletoe, in 2012 for The Garden Intrigue, later in 2012 for the Romantic Times Convention, and in 2013 for The Ashford Affair, but I will still remember the first time. I remember almost missing the turn off to the library and doing a slightly illegal sharp turn. I remember that the library was having a book sale and I picked up a biography on E.M. Forster. But most of all I remember that despite how awesome the other authors were, and are, my mom is a huge fan of Julie Hyzy because of this event where I was introduced to her, the audience was there for Lauren. While searching my email recently for Lauren related topics, I actually found the note I sent to my friend from the aforementioned "A Subway Interlude" regarding the Cozy Library Event in Gurnee and thought it might be fun to publish it here to get my account without the fog of seven years obscuring odd details. Though I couldn't help myself from adding an addendum or five... and fixing some egregious spelling errors.

"So, now that I'm home and don't have to peck little letters out with my thumbs on my phone I can tell you the whole awesome story. (I had an LG Vx9900 that flipped open to a full keyboard that I thought was the bomb, oh how Apple technology has changed me.)

So, author event in Gurnee for this society called the Cozy Librarians, and Lauren was a guest among 7 other authors (actually 8, because apparently I can't count). They did a little, here are all the authors brief bio, then they let each author talk for about 7 mins. Lauren talked about going to Harvard and how she was so sick of Historians and their little historian world and how she tried to think of a fun mad-cap romp she could write to divert herself that would make her laugh and she thought of spies and masked men like Zorro and the Scarlett Pimpernel, and how the Pink Carnation made it extra girly and therefore extra funny. Also she hated how "accurate" history novels were and by writing as Eloise she could get some things wrong. She said she thought that this would easily go in her writing trunk of abandoned work, which also contained a Nancy Drew spoof from when she was 9 and had wrote a story with 2 girl detectives, because 2 is better than 1, which she sent off and got a nice rejection letter. So then as luck would have it, she got published. And then she was thinking "How else could I make my life harder, I know I'll go to law school too!" So she wrote the next two books and in essence had 3 jobs at once. And then she went to New York (because it is her homeland, she is someone who can't even drive a car) where she was actually spending her billable hours at the law firm that hired her writing book 4 (The Seduction of the Crimson Rose). And when book 4 came out she was pretty sure they figured out what she was really doing, but then she quit, and now she's writing only and she's just loving it.

Then book signing, where we actually got to talk to her for awhile (Huyen went with me). So first off, she thought I was just amazingly organized cause I had post-it noted and wrote who the books were too, and I said that happens from being in a family of publishers. (PS, everyone should do this, it makes spelling mistakes not happen and just helps the authors so much.) Also she mentioned a British comic I should read but now I forgot the name, so I'll have to look it up (it's Annie Tempest's Tottering-by-Gently series, go check it out). So I said, cause she saw I had the new book (aka The Temptation of the Night Jasmine, Pink Carnation Book 5), I wondered if the house in the new book, Girdings was based on Castle Howard, she said totally, that and a mix of Blenheim, and I said I totally got that, what with the mural in the entrance way. We then talked a bit about the original Brideshead mini series. Leading to me saying that my dad always wanted to live in a little shack on the grounds of Castle Howard until recently when he changed his mind and would be happy with the chickens at Chatsworth. And then we talked about how amazing it is that the Duchess of Devonshire is one of the Mitfords, and I went on to ask if she knew about her being one of the greatest art collectors in the world, especially of Lucien Freud, and she had the painting of the Queen that the Queen rejected, and she didn't know that. Then I mentioned that she actually sells her books online signed and I got one for my dad, and she said she'd heard about her online store, and then she asked if I knew if it was still being operated as a farm after the death of her husband and I said that I believe it was (still is even after her death). 

Then we went on to talk about her website, and then she actually connected me with my posts, and later said I have to keep posting and must tell her what I think of the new book (I hadn't finished yet, read above, too much school), I mentioned I loved the 4th and she said she thinks that's her favorite and I said it's mine because the characters are less goody goody. So back to website, then I said I only keep up with her and Shannon Hale for authors websites, cause I think it's great how her site is so interactive, and she asked who Shannon Hale was, but then already connected her with Austenland, and I said she should so check out the Bayren books being re-tellings of Grimms, which lead to her mentioning this old Tor book she had, and I said funnily enough my Dad is an agent for a Tor author, Mike Norman, who writes these Haunted non-fiction books who is actually having a book signing today, but I came here, and she said that was great that I came here (which she even wrote in my book) and it turns out that she interned with Tor way back and asked if I had even been to their offices in the flat-iron building and I said sadly I hadn't but my dad had many times, and then she was talking about how slow the elevator is there, like 15 mins for a ride, and then she mentioned how Tom Doherty was pro-casual, and liked walking around in his undershirt, and I said he's a good friend of my Dad's (to this day) and that he just refurbished a gorgeous old Victorian in Brooklyn. Following which it was time to get Huyen's books signed, which I mentioned was my master plan, to get all my friends reading her books (and it still is), and we commented on how we couldn't find Huyen's 2nd book so she'd just have to get the three signed. (We eventually found Huyen's copy of The Masque of the Black Tulip and got it signed at the event we went to for the release of The Mischief of the Mistletoe two years later).

Also around this point a few people behind us started wandering away, cause I mean, she signed 7 books for me then 3 more for Huyen plus we were being really verbose (yes, I still feel bad about co-opting Lauren, but when you're having fun time seems to slip away, and I should note, the true fellow Lauren enthusiasts are always so nice and accommodating and it's wonderful to talk to them before events). Then Huyen asked the question she wanted to ask which was, was Richard Selwick based on Cary Elwes as Westley from The Princess Bride, and I said actually I called her before she read it to watch for it, and we both instantly agreed on it, and Lauren said she totally based it on him, with the blond hair and the little black mask, and that we were the first 2 to get that (though there's a bit of Sean Bean as Lovelace in there as well with Anthony Andrews on the side). And then I said, and how sad about what Cary's become, and she was all, yeah did you SEE him in Ella Enchanted! Which I then said too bad we can't like go back in time and get pretty Carey Elwes for the movie adaption, and I mentioned I'm just always casting in my head (as by now you all know), and she said she rarely does it, except for Sean Bean as Vaughn, even though he's the wrong "coloring" that was her intent. Then we said our good bye's, nice to meets, and write on the website.

Lots of fun, she was very lively, especially considering she had a 5 am flight and stayed up till 2 at a friend's party, and now I have lots of pretty signed books, and I'm glad to learn an author I like is nice. And as Huyen said, she seems like the type of person who we'd hang with and would be our friend. -Liz"

So there you have it! An interesting albeit rambling insight into the first time I got to meet Lauren. Side note, I wrote this as soon as I got home after a three hour drive in each direction and then a shopping extravaganza at the outlet malls on the state line, so hopefully the narrative flow can be forgiven somewhat for the complete and utter lack of polish.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: An August Adieu, ARCs, Book Signing, Cary Elwes, Castle Howard, Cozy Library, Deborah Mitford, Ella Enchanted, Illinois, Lauren Willig, Pink Carnation, Scarlet Pimpernel, Sean Bean, Shannon Hale, The Princess Bride

Like boys the world over, here comes our Lord Richard Selwick... a little late, but still looking devilishly hansom! Let's here it for this Sunday's boy... our knight in shining armor.

Name: Bradley James

Dream Character Casting for the Lauren Willig Miniseries: Lord Richard Selwick


First Impression: The cute illegal boxer in the second season of Lewis' most confusing case ever. When the characters keep having to repeat plot points so they can sort out who the characters are and what they have to do with the East German Secret Police, you know you have no chance in figuring out what's happening.

Why they'd be the perfect actor for the Lauren Willig Miniseries: Because, I have to face the facts, Cary Elwes is too old and too fat. He is exactly who I picture, but time has not been kind to the Dread Pirate Roberts and I have moved on to Bradley James. He is gorgeous, funny and can really act. So here's to the next generation of hotness! Here's to Bradley as Richard.

Lasting Impression: Arthur on Merlin... just the right level of good acting, humor and camp while never taking himself too seriously. The unicorn episode, priceless and I loved The Princess Bride reference... which helped in choosing him as Cary's replacement.

What else you've seen them in: Lewis. He really has only the two big credits, but as long as Merlin doesn't go on too long and he doesn't get pigeonholed I expect great things of him. Also hopefully he'll age better than Cary Elwes.

Can't believe it's them: Blue Peter... come on, that's just tacky even if it is in your BBC Contract.

Wish they hadn't: Nothing yet, fingers crossed... though he could stop by and try to explain that episode of Lewis to me. It might be hard to concentrate with him there... but I'm willing to invest the time... and take as long as it needs.

Bio: Seeing as Merlin is partly filmed in France I think it would be very easy to just lure him to Paris to be in my Pink Carnation dream miniseries.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:22 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Arthur, Blue Peter, Bradley James, Cary Elwes, Frances, Lewis, Lord Richard Selwick, Merlin, Paris, Pink Carnation Spotlight, The Princess Bride