JK Rowling will publish her second crime novel this summer, with her private detective, Cormoran Strike, on the trail of a killer who bumps off a novelist.

The Harry Potter creator was unmasked last year when it emerged she had secretly published a thriller called The Cuckoo’s Calling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

Following the publication this summer of her new book, The Silkworm, Rowling is to discuss her crime-writing venture at a literary festival. She will appear in conversation with Val McDermid at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, West Yorkshire.

The Silkworm is due to be published on June 19 and sees Strike and his assistant, Robin Ellacott, unravelling the death of writer Owen Quine after first being called in to probe his disappearance.

The investigators uncover a manuscript in which many of Quine’s associates are portrayed unflatteringly – which would have ruined their lives if published and could prove to be a motive for a killer.