✦ Fantasy & Crime Fiction📚 Harry Potter + Strike Series🌍 World's First Billionaire Author⭐ Also Writes as Robert Galbraith
About J.K. Rowling
Joanne Rowling was born in 1965 in Yate, England, and conceived the idea for Harry Potter on a delayed train from Manchester to London in 1990. She wrote the first chapter of The Philosopher's Stone in a Edinburgh café, a single mother on welfare who could barely afford the ink. When she submitted the manuscript, twelve publishers rejected it before Bloomsbury took a chance. The book sold over 500 million copies globally, making the Harry Potter franchise one of the most successful in history — films, theme parks, theatrical productions, and all. Rowling became the world's first author to achieve billionaire status. In 2013 she published The Cuckoo's Calling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, a critically praised crime novel whose sales exploded when the secret was revealed. The Cormoran Strike series has since grown to seven acclaimed volumes.
Harry Potter Series
The main sequence of seven novels following Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley — plus companion volumes and theatrical works set in the same world.
Published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, this acclaimed crime series features war veteran and private detective Cormoran Strike and his partner Robin Ellacott. The pseudonym was revealed by a Sunday Times investigation in 2013.
Cormoran Strike Novels
Reader Tip
Want to start fresh after HP? Try The Cuckoo's Calling under the name Robert Galbraith — many readers didn't know it was Rowling until the pseudonym was revealed. It stands completely on its own as an outstanding crime novel.
After completing the main Harry Potter series in 2007, Rowling published The Tales of Beedle the Bard (2008), then surprised the literary world with the adult novel The Casual Vacancy (2012) — a dark political satire set in a small English town. She also secretly published The Cuckoo's Calling (2013) as Robert Galbraith, launching the Cormoran Strike crime series that has since grown to seven novels.
What is the Robert Galbraith / Cormoran Strike series?
The Cormoran Strike series is a sequence of crime novels written by Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The series follows Strike, a war veteran turned private investigator, and his assistant Robin Ellacott as they solve complex murder cases in London. The pseudonym was revealed by a Sunday Times investigation in July 2013. The series has been adapted into a BBC television drama. As of 2023, seven novels have been published.
Is Harry Potter and the Cursed Child canon?
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a stage play script, not a novel written by Rowling alone — it was developed with playwright Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany. Rowling has described it as "the eighth story" and officially part of the canon, though many fans debate its status since it reads quite differently from the novels. It is best approached as a theatrical companion piece rather than a direct continuation of the books.
How many Harry Potter books are there?
There are seven main Harry Potter novels, published between 1997 and 2007. Beyond the core series, Rowling has published three companion volumes (Fantastic Beasts, Quidditch Through the Ages, The Tales of Beedle the Bard) and the stage play script Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The Fantastic Beasts film franchise has its own novelisation tie-ins as well.
What order should I read the Cormoran Strike books?
Read the Strike books in publication order, starting with The Cuckoo's Calling (2013). The series has strong character development and ongoing story arcs — particularly the relationship between Strike and Robin — that make publication order essential. Each book also increases in complexity and scale, so starting at the beginning gives you the best foundation for the later, longer entries like Troubled Blood and The Ink Black Heart.