Jk Rowling - Jk Rowling Unveils 'The Casual Vacancy': Is It A Crime Novel?

The story begins with the death of Barry Fairweather, a "stalwart of the town's parish council" who dies in his early forties. What happens after his death sparks "the biggest war the town has yet seen" and sees "teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils." Many insiders in the publishing industry had apparently expected Rowling to enter the world of "hard-boiled Edinburgh crime fiction," so this latest news has certainly raised a few eyebrows in the publishing world.

Neil Denny of Bookseller told The Guardian "It's not the niche people were steering her into. This is clearly not a traditional crime novel, it sounds quirky, it sounds interesting - and ambitious. It's a niche with little else in it, which perhaps only she can fill. A lot of people will be curious to see if she can move from writing young adult titles to writing for adults."