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A package delivered to a private investigator’s office in London contains the severed leg of a woman. Who sent this, and why? A note contained in the package that appears to be an extract from the lyrics of a song by the rock band the Blue Oyster Cult might offer a clue. The investigator, Cormoran Strike, is upset that his female partner was exposed to such a brutal discovery � for it was she the package was addressed to � but he thinks he can boil the list of perpetrators down to one of four men. Strike’s observation that the leg is ‘not even my size� heralds the discovery (for me) that he is missing a leg of his own. Interesting.

I was quickly to discover that this was a very well crafted thriller indeed. After rejecting one of his four suspects as unlikely, Strike decides to leave that one to the police while he’ll try to track down the three dark men from his past who he feels are most capable of and incentivised to carry out this atrocious act. And the three men are grim characters indeed. Each is brought to life via the telling a back story and each is more deliciously appalling than the last. If the story had one of these fellows haunting the background of the piece it would have been interesting, but three� well that’s a feast!

This is the third book the author has penned in this series, but as I haven’t read the first two I was somewhat concerned I’d suffer from that annoying tendency for there to be umpteen references I’d fail to grasp the significance of. I needn’t have worried. Galbraith (AKA J.K. Rowling, as I discovered to my utter surprise about half way through) deftly dealt with any relevant pre-story events by skilfully weaving the facts into the narrative. This is definitely a book that can be read as a stand-alone.

I listened to the tale on audio, brilliantly read by British actor Robert Glenister. He brought each of the characters to life and skillfully delivered all the required accents. Even his Cornish accent sounded spot-on. Cormoran and his partner, Robin Ellacott, are interestingly complex and have plenty going on in their own lives to flesh out the action. There’s good chemistry between them and I’m definitely keen to meet up with them again.

I found the pacing of the story to be just right and although the denouement didn’t provide the bombshell moment I’d been hoping for the whole thing was competently resolved come the end. I really felt at home with this tale. The tension was ever present and the hunt for the three grotesquely villainous bad guys was brilliantly handled. Who knew that the author of the Harry Potter books could also churn out top quality adult crime fiction too.