SBR: Dubai Wives is a book that could have been. The author has enough material in the variegated, but connected stories of the plethora of characters she explores in the book. But the book needed a sincere rewriting and a ruthless editing. The size could have easily been two-third of what it was, probably smaller, endlessly repetitive parts should have been torn away, and some very obvious language issues should have been dealt with.

To read or not to read: Don’t pick up unless a better edited edition comes out.

SBR: When you have a detective with turbulent enough a past that he can think of four different people who would be up to sending him a severed leg, there can be no lack of adventure and thrill in the story. Career of Evil, third book in Cormoran Strike series by J. K. Rowling’s alternate avatar Robert Galbraith, keeps you engrossed as the genre is supposed to do. Her writing is charming as usual. What doesn’t work for me are the chapters narrated from the criminal’s point of view. They contribute to the story well, making you do your own detective work as you the book, but they don’t read like you are in the psychopath’s mind, but like the profiles they create in Criminal Minds. On the other hand, I like the romantic tension between Strike and Robin better than almost any romance novel I have read.

To read or not to read: If you are a mystery/crime genre reader, or a Rowling fan, do read it. If you are neither, this may not be the one book of the genre you need to read.