J.K. Rowling Says 'Robert Strike' Entries Will Outnumber HARRY POTTER Series

J.K. Rowling is betting on Robert Strike, the detective protagonist of THE CUCKOO'S CALLING and THE SILKWORM, to outlast The Boy Wizard.

"I really love writing these books, so I don't know that I've got an end point in mind," Rowling said at Harrogate Crime Writing Festival in the U.K. "One of the things I absolutely love about this genre is that, unlike Harry, where there was an overarching story, a beginning and an end, you're talking about discrete stories. So while a detective lives, you can keep giving him cases."

At the event, Rowling also confirmed that, "I'm about halfway through the third (novel) and I've just started plotting the fourth."

The Harry Potter novels have now sold approximately 450 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 74 languages. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was recently voted the nation's favourite children's book in a poll by reading charity Booktrust.

Rowling was the first children's author to be voted the BA Author of the Year, and also win the British Book Awards Author of the Year. J.K. Rowling lives with her family in Edinburgh.