In a rumor that is spreading like wildfire tonight, many readers have owled about a report in the Sunday Times newspaper claiming that author J.K. Rowling is at work writing a crime novel. This report (similar to previous claims that Jo might someday write a mystery novel) stems from an excerpt from a new profile of Scottish writer Ian Rankin, who lives in the same neighborhood area in Edinburgh as J.K. Rowling, and is quoted in the Times article with the following:
Rankin’s wife spotted JKR the other day “scribbling away in a cafe”, he said last week, speculating whether she was “writing her Edinburgh detective novel”.
The Associated Press is also running with this, and this report has a slightly more definitive quote from Ian Rankin, saying:
“My wife spotted her writing her Edinburgh criminal detective novel,” the newspaper, which was available late Saturday, quoted Rankin as saying.
Rankin, famous for his own police novels set in the historic Scottish city, said he had not discussed the project with Rowling personally, and declined to reveal how he had learned about her plans.It is great that she has not abandoned writing or Edinburgh cafes,” Rankin said.
...
The office of Rowling’s literary agent Christopher Little was not immediately available to comment late Saturday.
Again, while Jo has stated in interviews since the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that she was at work on two things (“one for children, one not for children”), please keep this very much in the rumor category for now. Thanks to all who emailed!
Ian Rankin has expressed before that Jo might be good at detective fiction, eg. from 2005
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article525253.ece
thus I think the idea that she is writing in that genre is speculation (I notice the online article misses out his comment in the printed version that she might just have been writing a shopping list).
I suspect this is going to be one of many “what JK is writing next” stories, and Jo will try various ideas for new books in different areas until she finds something worth finishing, so I wouldn’t believe all the speculation.
I hope JKR goes in the way of authors such as Harlan Coben that had a 7-books series on one main character, then left to write unrelated stand alone books, and 6 years later returned to write an 8th book in his series.
Even if she writes books that are unrelated to the HP world, it doesn’t mean that she can’t go back to the HP world once she finds a good idea for more book(s) and frankly, I prefer she writes to adults than to children and the idea sounds awesome.
Fictional crime novels can be pretty cool. To see examples of them, Michael Connelly’s The Black Echo (and the rest of that series) are pretty good examples. It’s a fun genre. Glad to see JK Rowling working on something new and different.
I cannot believe she’s writing another book granted i would love another Harry Potter book but that’s just not gonna happen so i will just have to read this book but thing is it said it was a rumor so now i don’t know and i don’t want to get to excited
I agree, elefuff, another book by her would be absolutely amazing, though, without any mention of Harry, it is bound to make all HP loves a bit disoriented, since they are reading a novel by JKR but there’s no Harry! =(
But, this is great too! Imagine if she whips out another mystery series that becomes just as/even more popular than Harry Potter! =O
I HOPE JKR WILL WRITE ANOTHER SERIES SIMILAR TO HARRY POTTER AND THE WIZARD WORLD. A CRIME NOVEL DOESNT SEEM TO INTERESTING TO READ ABOUT AND IT WILL BE BORING.
ian rankin is an amazing crime writer. If Jo produces anything of the same calibre, it would be nice i think for her to be recognised as someone who can also sustain a story in the real world…
sigh... but i do miss harry potter… just the waiting and snticipation for the next instalment. i dont think i could possibly be in agony like that for any other book..!
"You mean you're [i]running away[/i]?" said Harry disbelievingly. "After all that stuff you did in your books --"[br]"Books can be misleading," said Lockhart delicately.[br]"You wrote them!" Harry shouted.
Ian Rankin has expressed before that Jo might be good at detective fiction, eg. from 2005 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article525253.ece thus I think the idea that she is writing in that genre is speculation (I notice the online article misses out his comment in the printed version that she might just have been writing a shopping list). I suspect this is going to be one of many “what JK is writing next” stories, and Jo will try various ideas for new books in different areas until she finds something worth finishing, so I wouldn’t believe all the speculation.