Robert Galbraith’s (a.k.a. J.K. Rowling’s) follow up to The Cuckoo’s Calling is titled The Silkworm and will debut this June, according to the publisher.

As expected, “Galbraith’s” second book is book 2 in the Cormoran Strike series. The first book was written by Rowling under the Galbraith pseudonym and sat on book store shelves for months before the secret was unveiled by U.K. newspaper The Sunday Times.

The Silkworm’s full synopsis is below. This time, Cormoran will be focusing on a case involving a novelist who was working on a book that exposed numerous people in a negative fashion:

Private investigator Cormoran Strike returns in a new mystery from Robert Galbraith, author of the #1 international bestseller The Cuckoo’s Calling.

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days–as he has done before–and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine’s disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives–meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced.

When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before…

A compulsively readable crime novel with twists at every turn, THE SILKWORM is the second in the highly acclaimed series featuring Cormoran Strike and his determined young assistant, Robin Ellacott.

The cover is below and appears to depict Mr. Strike:

The book is 384 pages and hits store shelves June 19 in the U.K. and June 24 in the U.S.

Cuckoo’s Calling was 464 pages and received rave reviews from critics and readers, even before anyone knew it was actually Rowling’s work.

Will you pick up ‘The Silkworm’?

This is Rowling’s third book following the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in July 2007. The first was The Casual Vacancy and the second was Cuckoo’s Calling under the Galbraith pseudonym. Judging by the covering, it looks like Rowling’s name will still stay inside the book’s front flap.

Thanks to Shauki for the tip!