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Rowling pens second crime novel under pseudonym

Last Updated 18 February 2014, 05:55 IST

JK Rowling, celebrated British author of the popular Harry Potter series, has penned her second crime novel under a pseudonym to be published in June.

The Silkworm, to be published on June 19, will again feature Cormoran Strike, the private detective Rowling introduced in 2013's 'The Cuckoo's Calling'.

The author's pseudonym Robert Galbraith was unmasked last year after the information was leaked by a member of her legal team.

Rowling, 48, has penned a new story about her private detective Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott.

This time, the crime-solving duo will be on the trail of a killer who murders a writer called Owen Quine, The Independent reported.

"At first, Mrs Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days (as he has done before) and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home," a synopsis from publishers Little, Brown Book Group reads.

"But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realises," it says.

Quine has just finished work on a manuscript that sees him draw on "almost everyone" for poisonous character assassinations that could ruin lives.

"When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before," the teaser states.

Rowling was unmasked on Twitter as the author of thriller The Cuckoo's Calling. She had hidden behind a fake name to avoid readers forming preconceptions based on her Harry Potter success.

"I was yearning to go back to the beginning of a writing career in this new genre to work without hype or expectation to receive totally unvarnished feedback," Rowling wrote on her Robert Galbraith website.

"It was a fantastic experience and I only wish it could have gone on a little longer."

Rowling successfully took legal action against the solicitors who had leaked the information and donated both the damages and the novel's royalties to the Soldier's Charity.

A partner at the solicitors told his wife's best friend about Robert Galbraith's real identity, who in turn disclosed it to The Sunday Times. 

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(Published 18 February 2014, 05:52 IST)

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