Zara Kessler, Columnist

The Mystery of J.K. Rowling’s Mystery

Life imitates art imitating detectives. A mystery emerges, and Harry Potter comes to the rescue.
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Life imitates art imitating detectives. A mystery emerges, and Harry Potter comes to the rescue.

The story begins with Cormoran Strike, the private-investigator protagonist of "The Cuckoo's Calling," a mystery novel released in April. Strike is the creation of writer Robert Galbraith, himself formerly of the Special Investigative Branch of the Royal Military Police. But Robert Galbraith is a pseudonym. And, this weekend, we learned that no such former military cop exists.