LONDON, July 15 — Released in April under the Scottish pseudonym of Robert Galbraith, J.K. Rowling's crime thriller “The Cuckoo's Calling” shot to number one on the Amazon US, Amazon UK and Barnes & Noble charts after the secret was let out.
Suspicions grew as reviewers were confronted by the novel's quality, in particular the supposed debut author's observational and descriptive skills with regard to female fashions.
Its main character, Cormoran Strike, is a private detective with a military background - specifically, a limb-losing tour in Afghanistan - who is tasked with investigating a supermodel's high-profile death.
The Sunday Times of London noticed that not only were both Robert Galbraith and J.K. Rowling published by Little, Brown (in Galbraith's instance, by imprints Mulholland and Sphere), but both manuscripts went through the same editor.
And while Little, Brown's biographical notes describe Galbraith as a former Military Policeman and special investigator writing under an assumed name, Rowling's father was himself involved in aircraft construction and her French great-grandfather was decorated for his role in the First World War.
Pre-weekend hardback sales of the book were under 1,500 before the true author was revealed, said the Sunday Times. A paperback edition is due in February 2014 followed by a sequel in the summer of that year. —
