JK Rowling confirms when the Cormoran Strike series will end - get the details

Are you ready for book number 8?
Strike - Troubled Blood,12-12-2022,2,(L-R);Cormoran Strike (TOM BURKE);Robin Ellacott (HOLLIDAY GRAINGER),Troubled Blood Limited MMXXII,Sam Taylor (Sam Taylor)

JK Rowling has opened up about her plans for ending the hugely popular detective series Strike - and it’s sooner than you might think! The author has written seven novels about the Cornish private detective Cormoran Strike and his partner, Robin Ellacott - and opened up about how many she has left.

Chatting to The Times, she explained that she thinks she has six more books in general planned, two of which will be Strike novels. She explained: “I’ve got six books in my head. I’ve got the one I’m currently writing. There’ll be two more Strikes, and then there are three more books that I want to get to. [She taps her head] I always gesture to the back of my head.

“I’m sure an MRI scan would prove it’s got nothing to do with the back of my brain, but I always find myself doing this when I’m talking about where it comes from. God knows. But I do have other stories in my head that I really need to get out.”

During the chat, she also alluded to killing off characters in the books, adding: “I don’t like killing off characters, but it’s part of life, isn’t it? Killing Snape was awful. I always knew he was going to go. I couldn’t bear killing Lupin and Tonks [Harry’s teacher and his wife], that was so sad.

Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott in season 6
Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott in season 6

“Oh and Fred [Weasley]. I’ve now killed off a pretty major character in the Strike books which, again, I knew from the start was going to happen. The question was when? I thought it might be in book eight, but I decided seven was the right time.”

The BBC are currently in production for the adaptation of the sixth novel in the series, The Ink Black Heart, which follows Cormoran and Robin as they investigate the murder of a cartoonist who was being harassed by online fans.

Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott in the BBC series
Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger play Cormoran and Robin (Sam Taylor)

The official synopsis reads: “When frantic, dishevelled Edie Ledwell appears in the office begging to speak to her, private detective Robin Ellacott doesn't know quite what to make of the situation. The co-creator of a popular cartoon, The Ink Black Heart, Edie is being persecuted by a mysterious online figure who goes by the pseudonym of Anomie. Edie is desperate to uncover Anomie's true identity.

You may also like

“Robin decides that the agency can't help with this - and thinks nothing more of it until a few days later, when she reads the shocking news that Edie has been tasered and then murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the location of The Ink Black Heart.

The roles are played by Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger
The show is currently filming season 6 (Laurence Cendrowicz)

“Robin and her business partner Cormoran Strike become drawn into the quest to uncover Anomie's true identity. But with a complex web of online aliases, business interests and family conflicts to navigate, Strike and Robin find themselves embroiled in a case that stretches them to their limit.” Will you be watching?