The Strike series is a collection of private detective murder mystery novels featuring the characters Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott written by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
The novels are published by Little, Brown (Sphere) in the UK and Mulholland Books in the US. The first novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling, was published on 4 April 2013 without anyone knowing the author’s true identity. The novel received positive reviews from well-known crime authors such as Val McDermid and Mark Billingham. The world discovered the author’s true identity in July 2013 after it was leaked by a solicitor. The second novel, The Silkworm, was published on 19 June 2014; the third book, Career of Evil, on 22 October 2015; the fourth book, Lethal White, on 18 September 2018; the fifth book, Troubled Blood, on 15 September 2020; the sixth book, The Ink Black Heart, on 30 August 2022; the seventh book, The Running Grave, on 26 September 2023; the eighth book, The Hallmarked Man, on 2nd September 2025. The title of the upcoming ninth book in the series is Sleep Tight, Evangeline.
Click on the titles below to find out more about each book.
| The Cuckoo’s Calling | |
| The Silkworm | |
| Career of Evil | |
| Lethal White | |
| Troubled Blood | |
| The Ink Black Heart | |
| The Running Grave | |
| The Hallmarked Man | |
| Sleep Tight, Evangeline | |
| Untitled Book 10 |
Here is a table showing when the titles were revealed, when J.K. Rowling finished writing them, the announcement of the release dates, and when the cover and blurbs were released.
Book Title Reveals
J.K. Rowling/Robert Galbraith has had a bit of fun on Twitter/X in the past, revealing the titles through guessing games and giving away signed copies. Read more about each title reveal on the page linked below.
How many books?
J.K. Rowling said in an interview with Val McDermid at the Theakston’s Crime Writers Festival in 2014 that there will be more Cormoran Strike books than Harry Potter books, which meant that there will be at least eight books in the series. In another interview, she added that she could ‘easily write ten’. In October 2022, Rowling said she had plotted the novels up to book 9 and thought that there will be ten books in total. This number was confirmed in April 2023 in this press release about the publication of The Running Grave and the special ten year anniversary edition of The Cuckoo’s Calling.
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