J.K. Rowling: Secret Crime Novelist

Even Hermoine might have been fooled by this one. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling was unmasked Sunday as the author of The Cuckoo’s Calling, a detective novel published in April. Writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, the book had received rave reviews, but the Sunday Times launched an investigation into how a “first-time author with a background in the civilian security industry could write such an assured debut novel.” The paper noticed similarities between the novel and Rowling’s other work—and that the publisher, Little, Brown, had also published Rowling’s first adult work. Her publicist confirmed her identity on Sunday to the rest of us Muggles.