There's little wonder that the millionaire Harry Potter author and focus of persistent media attention Jk Rowling would seek to publish new material under a pseudonym. Under the crushing weight of her previous works, which also include post-Potter adult fiction The Casual Vacancy, any subsequent Rowling writing will naturally be subject to fierce scrutiny and unnecessary comparison to her wizard teen fiction that charmed the world and spawned an eight-part movie franchise. The Cuckoo's Calling storyline focusses on Cormoron Strike, a war veteran-turned private investigator whose skills are called upon when a model plunges to her death from a balcony.

JK Rowling
JK Rowling Fooled Readers Under The Pseudonym 'Robert Galbraith.'

Sneaky Rowling certainly fooled them all - from readers to reviewers and even crime writers, no one was any the wiser that Robert Galbraith may not have been who he claimed to be until The Sunday Times had a poke around, wondering how a writer's first work - and one "with a background in the army and the civilian security industry" at that - could be so self-assured and critically successful. Aside from similarities in style, it was uncovered that Rowling and 'Galbraith' shared a literary agent and editor and The Cuckoo's Calling was published by Sphere - the same publishers as The Casual Vacancy, according to The Sunday Times as reported by BBC News.

JK Rowling
JK Rowling & Galbraith's Style Were Found To Be Similar.

Selling 1500 copies since its release in April, The Cuckoo's Calling's popularity has gone through the roof since Rowling has been unmasked, with Amazon reporting a surge in sales of 507,000%, shooting to the top of the online bookseller's 'Movers & Shakers' rankings. JK Rowling has given up the game, owning up to being Galbraith: "I had hoped to keep this secret a little longer because being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience," she said. "It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation, and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name.''

Peter James
Dead Man's Time Author Peter James Was One Of The Hoodwinked Readers of The Cuckoo's Calling.

Crime writer Peter James told The Sunday Times he had noticed that something seemed a little off about Galbraith's "debut": "I thought it was by a very mature writer, and not a first-timer," after posting a review on Amazon lauding the crime novel: "Everytime I put this book down, I looked forward to reading more. Gabraith writes at a gentle pace, the pages rich with description and with characters that leap out of them. I loved it. He is a major new talent."