J.K. Rowling, crime writer?

Hey, stop that, it’s not as silly as it sounds. There are only 2 more Harry Potter books to go and no doubt she’s chomping at the bit to write for grownups, so why not crime fiction?

HER children’s books have helped to amass a
fortune of £500m. Now J K Rowling is considering her literary options
as an author of adult fiction.

With the seventh and final Harry Potter book to complete, Rowling, at 39, is contemplating her future as a novelist.

Last
week she teased fans by disclosing that, although she had several
unpublished works “languishing in drawers”, she might write something
“completely different”.

She has a strong interest in crime fiction and would be a
successful writer of detective novels, according to her friend Ian
Rankin, the writer.

The creator of the Inspector Rebus books said: “I know she is
a crime fiction fan, so I would love it if she went on and wrote a
crime novel. I think the Harry Potter novels are whodunnits anyway.
There are lots of red herrings and mystery. As long as she doesn’t set
it in Edinburgh I’ll be quite happy.”’

Granted, no matter what she did it would sell like hotcakes and be greeted by much criticism:

Danuta Keane, a former editor of the
Bookseller, the publishing trade magazine, said she feared Rowling
might struggle to master the demands of more complex, adult emotions in
her work.

“I think her first novels were the most successful, before she
had to start dealing with teenage emotions. They were much tighter. The
last one felt a bit flat. But she is still a great storyteller and
adult fiction badly needs good storytellers.”

Keane added that Rowling might struggle to carry many of her
existing readers with her. “It will be interesting to see if she
attracts a big following after Harry Potter. It can’t be taken as a
given.”

Last night a spokeswoman for Rowling refused to be drawn on
which genre she intended to pursue. “It is far too early for her to
comment in any detail about what she will write next,” she said.

<p>
  Well yeah, but it&#8217;s never too early to speculate, right?
</p>

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