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| This Detective Novel’s Story Doesn’t Add Up | This Detective Novel’s Story Doesn’t Add Up |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| LONDON — “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” a detective novel published here in April, was not a huge commercial success, but it got great reviews. | LONDON — “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” a detective novel published here in April, was not a huge commercial success, but it got great reviews. |
| Readers said it was complex, compelling and scintillating. They compared the author – a former military police investigator writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith — to P.D. James, Ruth Rendell and Kate Atkinson. They said the book seemed almost too assured and sophisticated to be a first novel. | Readers said it was complex, compelling and scintillating. They compared the author – a former military police investigator writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith — to P.D. James, Ruth Rendell and Kate Atkinson. They said the book seemed almost too assured and sophisticated to be a first novel. |
| As it happens, they were right. In one of the great publishing coups in recent years, “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” which has sold just 1,500 copies in Britain so far, turns out to have been written not by an ex-army officer, or by a new writer, or even by a man. Instead, its author is none other than J.K. Rowling, whose “Harry Potter” books have made her perhaps the world’s most famous living novelist. | |
| Ms. Rowling was unmasked as the surprise author by The Sunday Times of London, which, acting on an anonymous tip, embarked on a sleuthing mission of its own and revealed the truth in Sunday’s paper. | Ms. Rowling was unmasked as the surprise author by The Sunday Times of London, which, acting on an anonymous tip, embarked on a sleuthing mission of its own and revealed the truth in Sunday’s paper. |
| In the Sunday Times article, Ms. Rowling confessed to the ruse and spoke somewhat wistfully of her brief, happy foray into anonymous authorship. | In the Sunday Times article, Ms. Rowling confessed to the ruse and spoke somewhat wistfully of her brief, happy foray into anonymous authorship. |
| “I had hoped to keep this secret a little longer, because being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience,” she said in a statement given to the paper. “It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation, and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name.” | “I had hoped to keep this secret a little longer, because being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience,” she said in a statement given to the paper. “It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation, and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name.” |
| Nicky Stonehill, a publicist for the author, said on Sunday that Mr. Galbraith and Ms. Rowling were indeed one and the same. “We can confirm it, but we are not making any further statement,” she said. | Nicky Stonehill, a publicist for the author, said on Sunday that Mr. Galbraith and Ms. Rowling were indeed one and the same. “We can confirm it, but we are not making any further statement,” she said. |
| Many best-selling authors like to write under pseudonyms, particularly when they venture into new genres. The Irish novelist John Banville, a highbrow Booker Prize winner, publishes detective novels under the name Benjamin Black. Anne Rice has written erotic fiction using the name A.N. Roquelaure. | Many best-selling authors like to write under pseudonyms, particularly when they venture into new genres. The Irish novelist John Banville, a highbrow Booker Prize winner, publishes detective novels under the name Benjamin Black. Anne Rice has written erotic fiction using the name A.N. Roquelaure. |
| But it is rare for the existence of such an alter-ego to be kept secret in this way, particularly for someone whose writing life has been as public, and whose books have been as eagerly awaited, as Ms. Rowling’s. | But it is rare for the existence of such an alter-ego to be kept secret in this way, particularly for someone whose writing life has been as public, and whose books have been as eagerly awaited, as Ms. Rowling’s. |
| Ms. Rowling’s first novel for adults, “The Casual Vacancy,” was published in September after a nearly hysterical level of anticipation. A tale of class warfare and economic and social injustice in a small English village, it became an instant best-seller and was reviewed everywhere, but the notices were hardly universally ecstatic, with Michiko Kakutani called it banal, clichéd and disappointing in The New York Times, for instance. | Ms. Rowling’s first novel for adults, “The Casual Vacancy,” was published in September after a nearly hysterical level of anticipation. A tale of class warfare and economic and social injustice in a small English village, it became an instant best-seller and was reviewed everywhere, but the notices were hardly universally ecstatic, with Michiko Kakutani called it banal, clichéd and disappointing in The New York Times, for instance. |
| By contrast, “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” in which a war veteran-turned-private investigator investigates the possibly suspicious suicide of a young model in London, made barely a ripple in the commercial world, but was lavishly praised. | By contrast, “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” in which a war veteran-turned-private investigator investigates the possibly suspicious suicide of a young model in London, made barely a ripple in the commercial world, but was lavishly praised. |
| “In a rare feat, Galbraith combines a complex and compelling sleuth and an equally well-formed and unlikely assistant with a baffling crime in his stellar debut,” said Publisher’s Weekly, in a starred review. “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” the thriller writer Val McDermid said, “reminds me why I fell in love with crime fiction in the first place.” | “In a rare feat, Galbraith combines a complex and compelling sleuth and an equally well-formed and unlikely assistant with a baffling crime in his stellar debut,” said Publisher’s Weekly, in a starred review. “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” the thriller writer Val McDermid said, “reminds me why I fell in love with crime fiction in the first place.” |
| The story of how The Sunday Times found the truth behind the pseudonym is an odd one that involves, as seems so often the case these days, Twitter. It started on Thursday, said Richard Brooks, the paper’s arts editor, after one of his colleagues happened to post a tweet mentioning that she had loved “The Cuckoo’s Calling” and that it did not seem as if the book had been written by a novice. | The story of how The Sunday Times found the truth behind the pseudonym is an odd one that involves, as seems so often the case these days, Twitter. It started on Thursday, said Richard Brooks, the paper’s arts editor, after one of his colleagues happened to post a tweet mentioning that she had loved “The Cuckoo’s Calling” and that it did not seem as if the book had been written by a novice. |
| “After midnight, she got a tweet back from an anonymous person saying it’s not a first-time novel – it was written by J.K. Rowling,” Mr. Brooks said in an interview. “So my colleague tweeted back and said, ‘How do you know for sure?'” | “After midnight, she got a tweet back from an anonymous person saying it’s not a first-time novel – it was written by J.K. Rowling,” Mr. Brooks said in an interview. “So my colleague tweeted back and said, ‘How do you know for sure?'” |
| The person then replied “I just know,” and then proceeded to delete all his tweets and his entire account, Mr. Brooks said. “All traces of this person had been taken off, and we couldn’t find his name again.” | The person then replied “I just know,” and then proceeded to delete all his tweets and his entire account, Mr. Brooks said. “All traces of this person had been taken off, and we couldn’t find his name again.” |
| It is, of course, possible that the anonymous tweets were all part of a cleverly sneaky campaign by the publisher to get the story out. But the paper’s curiosity was piqued, and Mr. Brooks decided to work surreptitiously at first, not alerting Ms. Rowling’s publisher or agent for fear of having the possible news leak to one of his competitors, he said. | It is, of course, possible that the anonymous tweets were all part of a cleverly sneaky campaign by the publisher to get the story out. But the paper’s curiosity was piqued, and Mr. Brooks decided to work surreptitiously at first, not alerting Ms. Rowling’s publisher or agent for fear of having the possible news leak to one of his competitors, he said. |
| First he did some Internet detective work, finding many similarities between “The Casual Vacancy” and “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” including the fact that both books share the same agent, publisher and editor. It seemed particularly odd, he said, that the editor, David Shelley, would be in charge of both someone as important as J.K. Rowling – a very big job indeed — and someone as seemingly unimportant as Robert Galbraith. | First he did some Internet detective work, finding many similarities between “The Casual Vacancy” and “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” including the fact that both books share the same agent, publisher and editor. It seemed particularly odd, he said, that the editor, David Shelley, would be in charge of both someone as important as J.K. Rowling – a very big job indeed — and someone as seemingly unimportant as Robert Galbraith. |
| He then started reading the book. “I said, ‘Nobody who was in the army and now works in civilian security could write a book as good as this,” he said. Next, he sent copies of “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” “The Casual Vacancy” and the last Harry Potter novel, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” to a pair of computer linguistic experts, who found significant similarities among them. | He then started reading the book. “I said, ‘Nobody who was in the army and now works in civilian security could write a book as good as this,” he said. Next, he sent copies of “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” “The Casual Vacancy” and the last Harry Potter novel, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” to a pair of computer linguistic experts, who found significant similarities among them. |
| Mr. Brooks, too, noted that “The Cuckoo’s Calling” contained some Latin phrases, as the Harry Potter books do, and that it had scenes of drug-taking, as “The Casual Vacancy” does. | Mr. Brooks, too, noted that “The Cuckoo’s Calling” contained some Latin phrases, as the Harry Potter books do, and that it had scenes of drug-taking, as “The Casual Vacancy” does. |
| Late on Friday night, Mr. Brooks said, he decided “to go for it.” | Late on Friday night, Mr. Brooks said, he decided “to go for it.” |
| “I e-mailed a blunt question: ‘I believe that Robert Galbraith is in fact J.K. Rowling, and will you please come back with a straightforward answer?'” he related. On Saturday morning, he said, a spokeswoman for Ms. Rowling said that they had “decided to ‘fess up.” | “I e-mailed a blunt question: ‘I believe that Robert Galbraith is in fact J.K. Rowling, and will you please come back with a straightforward answer?'” he related. On Saturday morning, he said, a spokeswoman for Ms. Rowling said that they had “decided to ‘fess up.” |
| Contacted Sunday morning, several bookstores in London said they did not have copies of “The Cuckoo Calling” in stock. But it is clear that they will soon. In the space of a few hours, it had already shot up to No. 1 on the Amazon best-seller lists in both Britain and the United States. | Contacted Sunday morning, several bookstores in London said they did not have copies of “The Cuckoo Calling” in stock. But it is clear that they will soon. In the space of a few hours, it had already shot up to No. 1 on the Amazon best-seller lists in both Britain and the United States. |