J.K. Rowling’s 2012 novel about a fictional English town after a council member’s death is The Casual Vacancy.
The Casual Vacancy was Rowling’s first published novel after the Harry Potter series. It is set in Pagford, a fictional English town, and begins when parish council member Barry Fairbrother dies unexpectedly, creating a vacant seat and intensifying local political conflicts.
Unlike the Harry Potter books, the novel is written for adults and deals with class, poverty, addiction, family tensions, and local government. Its title refers to the unfilled elected position created by Fairbrother’s death.
The book is often confused with Rowling’s later children’s novels The Ickabog and The Christmas Pig. Those works belong to different genres and settings and do not center on Pagford’s council election.