The third book in J.K. Rowling / Robert Galbraith’s Cormoran Strike series hits store shelves later this month. Can’t wait? You can read the first two chapters online!

Due for release on October 20, Career of Evil will once again find Cormoran and his assistant Robin investigating a killer. “When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg,” reads the book’s synopsis. “With the police focusing on the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into their own hands, and delve into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time is running out for the two of them…”

The Guardian and TIME each unveiled a chapter from Career of Evil on Friday. Chapter 1 introduces the murderer who — for whatever reason — has it in for Strike and appears to be a career criminal. Here’s the very beginning of the chapter:

He had not managed to scrub off all her blood. A dark line like a parenthesis lay under the middle fingernail of his left hand. He set to digging it out, although he quite liked seeing it there: a memento of the previous day’s pleasures. After a minute’s fruitless scraping, he put the bloody nail in his mouth and sucked. The ferrous tang recalled the smell of the torrent that had splashed wildly on to the tiled floor, spattering the walls, drenching his jeans and turning the peach-coloured bath towels – fluffy, dry and neatly folded – into blood-soaked rags.

Colours seemed brighter this morning, the world a lovelier place. He felt serene and uplifted, as though he had absorbed her, as though her life had been transfused into him. They belonged to you once you had killed them: it was a possession way beyond sex. Even to know how they looked at the moment of death was an intimacy way past anything two living bodies could experience.

Chapter 2 finds Robin dealing with more nonsense from her fiancé and their friends over her professional relationship with Cormoran. Robin’s focus shifts gears when she opens up the aforementioned package with surprising contents.

Robin Ellacott was 26 years old and had been engaged for over a year. Her wedding ought to have taken place three months previously, but the unexpected death of her future mother-in-law had led to the ceremony’s postponement. Much had happened in the time since. Would she and Matthew have been getting on better if vows had been exchanged, she wondered. Would they be arguing less if a golden band was sitting beneath the sapphire engagement ring that had become a little loose on her finger?

Fighting her way through the rubble on Tottenham Court Road on Monday morning, Robin mentally relived the argument of the previous day. The seeds had been sown before they had even left the house for the rugby. Every time they met up with Sarah Shadlock and her boyfriend Tom, Robin and Matthew seemed to row, something that Robin had pointed out as the argument, which had been brewing since the match, dragged on into the small hours of the morning.

As usual, J.K. Rowling’s writing is vastly detailed and a pleasure to read.

Career of Evil is the author’s fourth book following the 2007 publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Pre-order now via Amazon!