JK Rowling has opened up about her plans for ending the hugely popular detective series Strike - and it’s sooner than you might think! The author has written seven novels about the Cornish private detective Cormoran Strike and his partner, Robin Ellacott - and opened up about how many she has left.
Chatting to The Times, she explained that she thinks she has six more books in general planned, two of which will be Strike novels. She explained: “I’ve got six books in my head. I’ve got the one I’m currently writing. There’ll be two more Strikes, and then there are three more books that I want to get to. [She taps her head] I always gesture to the back of my head.
“I’m sure an MRI scan would prove it’s got nothing to do with the back of my brain, but I always find myself doing this when I’m talking about where it comes from. God knows. But I do have other stories in my head that I really need to get out.”
During the chat, she also alluded to killing off characters in the books, adding: “I don’t like killing off characters, but it’s part of life, isn’t it? Killing Snape was awful. I always knew he was going to go. I couldn’t bear killing Lupin and Tonks [Harry’s teacher and his wife], that was so sad.
“Oh and Fred [Weasley]. I’ve now killed off a pretty major character in the Strike books which, again, I knew from the start was going to happen. The question was when? I thought it might be in book eight, but I decided seven was the right time.”
The BBC are currently in production for the adaptation of the sixth novel in the series, The Ink Black Heart, which follows Cormoran and Robin as they investigate the murder of a cartoonist who was being harassed by online fans.
© Sam TaylorThe official synopsis reads: “When frantic, dishevelled Edie Ledwell appears in the office begging to speak to her, private detective Robin Ellacott doesn't know quite what to make of the situation. The co-creator of a popular cartoon, The Ink Black Heart, Edie is being persecuted by a mysterious online figure who goes by the pseudonym of Anomie. Edie is desperate to uncover Anomie's true identity.
“Robin decides that the agency can't help with this - and thinks nothing more of it until a few days later, when she reads the shocking news that Edie has been tasered and then murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the location of The Ink Black Heart.
© Laurence Cendrowicz“Robin and her business partner Cormoran Strike become drawn into the quest to uncover Anomie's true identity. But with a complex web of online aliases, business interests and family conflicts to navigate, Strike and Robin find themselves embroiled in a case that stretches them to their limit.” Will you be watching?
