Cormoran Strike is J.K. Rowling’s private-investigator protagonist in the Cormoran Strike series.
Strike first appears in The Cuckoo’s Calling, published in 2013 under Rowling’s pen name Robert Galbraith. He is a former military investigator who opens a private-detection agency in London after leaving the army because of a serious leg injury.
Robin Ellacott becomes Strike’s temporary secretary in the first case, but their professional relationship develops throughout the series. Although the books center on individual murders and investigations, the continuing characters and their complicated partnership provide a longer narrative across the novels.
The character’s name is sometimes confused with the title of the series, which is commonly called Cormoran Strike or simply Strike. The television adaptation, Strike, began in 2017 and stars Tom Burke as Strike and Holliday Grainger as Robin.