JK Rowling hopes detective will outlast Harry Potter

JK Rowling says she loves the crime genre because she can create as many tales as she likes for her character rather than be tied by a single story line. Picture: PA

The novelist, who has written two whodunnits under the pen name Robert Galbraith, says she loves the crime genre because she can create as many tales as she likes for her character rather than be tied by a single story line.

Her comments come after her second crime novel featuring detective Cormoran Strike, The Silkworm, topped the Sunday Times bestseller list last month. The multi-millionaire author said she hoped to write “more than” seven books about the detective.

She said: “I really love writing, so I don’t know that I’ve got an end point in mind.

“One of the things I love about this genre is, unlike Harry Potter, where there was a through line, where there was an over-arching story, a beginning and end, you are talking about discreet stories. So while a detective lives, you can keep giving him cases.”

Rowling decided to use a pseudonym for her latest series to prove herself as a writer. “I wanted to prove to myself that I could get a book published on the merits of the book,” she said at Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, North Yorkshire

Edinburgh-based Rowling revealed she has always been a huge fan of crime novels and drew inspiration from the genre for her Harry Potter series.

She said: “I love crime. I’ve always loved it. I read a lot of it and I think, in many ways, the Harry Potter books are whodunnits in disguise.

“I enjoy the golden age [crime] book. That’s very much what I was trying to do with these books – to take that finite number of suspects – the genuine whodunnit style, but make it very contemporary, and make sure this is a credible person and a credible back story.”