Reports of a second JK Rowling series has fans on alert

Reports from the UK suggest that JK Rowling has committed to a seven-book series, although her American publisher says the story is 'without foundation.'

Might JK Rowling have another Harry Potter-like series in the works?

According to news reports from the UK, “Cuckoo’s Calling” fans may have reason to get their hopes up: “JK Rowling has mapped out a series of up to seven crime novels featuring her private investigator Cormoran Strike, in a repeat of the approach taken in her popular Harry Potter books,” reports the UK’s Sunday Times.

“The Cuckoo’s Calling,” was released last year under the pen name Robert Galbraith, but after the author’s identity was revealed to be Rowling book sales skyrocketed, ultimately selling more than 600,000 English language copies in hardback and another 1 million in e-books.

Publisher Little, Brown, recently announced “The Silkworm,” a second detective novel in the series, to be published June 19^th .

And the Sunday Times reported that Rowling has been working on a third novel and plans to write up to seven books in the Cormoran Strike series.

But according to The Bookseller, publisher Little, Brown has described the Sunday Times’ report as “without foundation.”

“Richard Brooks has written this without foundation and there aren’t seven books planned in the series,” the publisher’s spokesman said.

Still, finding one’s footing after a hit series is a monumental task for any author, especially one with such a global hit as Rowling’s Harry Potter series. That’s why news of a potential second series is big.

According to reports, friends say Rowling has “found her feet with the crime genre” after the Harry Potter sensation launched her into stardom.

The books all feature private eye Cormoran Strike, a war veteran who lost his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan. Strike finds purpose again in investigating mysteries, including a supermodel’s suspicious demise and, in “Silkworm,” the disappearance of a writer whose latest book contains nasty, thinly veiled versions of all his friends.

Additional books will contain more mysteries starring the war vet-turned private eye and his secretary Robin.

Fans may have yet more reason to rejoice.

A final item in the Sunday Times notes that a British television channel is in preliminary discussions with Rowling and Little, Brown about adapting the Cormoran Strike series for TV.

For a series that started as a single book put out under a pen name, presumably to test the waters, the Strike series has done remarkably well – in no small part due to its author’s famous name.