The Casual Vacancy was the first J.K. Rowling novel published after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Published on 27 September 2012, The Casual Vacancy was Rowling’s first novel for adults. It is set in the fictional English town of Pagford and begins after the sudden death of parish councillor Barry Fairbrother. His vacant council seat exposes conflicts involving class, poverty, drugs, and local politics.
The novel is not part of the wizarding world and contains no Harry Potter characters. That distinction matters because Rowling also published Harry Potter-related companion works and later wrote crime novels under the name Robert Galbraith.
The book was published five years after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which appeared in 2007. The Casual Vacancy was later adapted into a BBC television miniseries broadcast in 2015.