What is the title of J.K. Rowling’s only adult novel published before the Cormoran Strike series?

The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s only adult novel published before the Cormoran Strike series.

Published in 2012, The Casual Vacancy is a social novel set in the fictional English village of Pagford. Its plot begins after the sudden death of Barry Fairbrother, a parish councillor, creates a vacant seat on the local parish council.

Unlike the Harry Potter books, the novel is written for adults and contains no magic or fantasy setting. It explores class, poverty, family conflict, politics, addiction, and tensions between neighbouring communities. This difference led many readers to view it as a deliberate change of genre.

The book became an international bestseller and was later adapted into a three-part BBC television drama in 2015. Rowling subsequently returned to crime fiction with The Cuckoo’s Calling and its Cormoran Strike sequels.