J.K. Rowling Returns As Robert Galbraith For New Cormoran Strike Novel, ‘The Silkworm,' Plot Summary And Release Date

J.K. Rowling (“The Casual Vacancy” and the “Harry Potter” series) will return to her Robert Galbraith pseudonym for the next Cormoran Strike novel “The Silkworm.” Little Brown, her publisher, announced the new thriller will be released on June 19, 2014 in the U.K. and June 24, 2014 in the United States.

“The Silkworm” will see the return of private detective Strike taking on the case of Owen Quine, a missing novelist. Strike discovers Quine was working on a book that would destroy the lives of his friends and the novelist is soon found murdered. “The Silkworm” will see Robin Ellacott return as Strike’s assistant.

Galbraith’s first novel, “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” received plenty of good reviews but there was little fanfare for the detective novel until a lawyer revealed the name was a pseudonym for Rowling. “The Cuckoo’s Calling” became an international bestseller following the announcement and Rowling previously stated she would return to the Galbraith pseudonym for new Strike novels.

Prior to the reveal, Galbraith was described as married with a military background and Stirke was meant to reflect his own military experiences. Much like the detective novel itself, speculation led to a tip and the Sunday Times arts editor Richard Brooks began solving the mystery. It was later revealed an employee, Chris Gossage, at Rowling’s law firm, Russells Solicitors, was behind the leak.

While there will be no mystery surrounding Galbraith with the release of “The Silkworm,” a new novel from Rowling will surely please fans. The “Harry Potter” author will not be making the press rounds but will appear at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, in conversation with crime writer Val McDermid on July 18. According to the festival’s website it will be the first and only appearance by Rowling as Galbraith.

The full synopsis of "The Silkworm," courtesy of Little Brown, can be viewed below.

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, she just thinks he has gone off by himself for a few days - as he has done before - and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realises. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were published it would ruin lives - so there are a lot of people who might want to silence him.

And when Quine is found brutally murdered in bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any he has encountered before...

A compulsively readable crime novel with twists at every turn, "The Silkworm" is the second in the highly acclaimed series featuring Cormoran Strike and his determined young assistant Robin Ellacott.