JK Rowling shelved for trans kill plot

A Perth bookshop has boycotted books by JK Rowling amid controversy about her latest novel, in which a cross-dressing serial killer is suspected of murder.

JK Rowling. Picture: AFP

A Perth bookshop has boycotted books written by JK Rowling amid controversy about the Harry Potter author’s latest novel, Troubled Blood, in which a cross-dressing serial killer is suspected of murder.

Rabble Books said it would not stock the novel, published under the author’s pseudonym Robert Galbraith, and also removed Harry Potter books from its shelves, branding Rowling “transphobic”.

In a Facebook post earlier this week, Rabble owners Sam Baker and Natalie Latter said they were trying to make the bookstore “a safer space for our community”.

“We’re not going to stock new JK Rowling books and we won’t be keeping Robert Galbraith books on the shelf any more … we’re going to phase out the Harry Potter books too.”

Rowling has courted controversy with comments posted on Twitter critical of the transgender community. But other bookstores around the country — including Sydney institution Better Read Than Dead and the Avid Reader in Brisbane’s West End — will stock the new book.

The Avid Reader and a number of other bookstores previously refused to stock a biography of Campbell Newman, written by ex-Liberal National MP Gavin King, in retaliation against the former Queensland premier’s decision to cut the state’s arts grants program and the Premier’s Literary Award.

While Rabble customers will still be able to order Rowling’s novels online, the store said it would not dedicate shelf space to the author. And all profits it makes from the sale of her books will be donated to charity support service TransFolk of WA.

Rowling’s new novel has drawn the ire of transgender activists, after an early review of the book by the London Daily Telegraph labelled one of the main characters as a “transvestite serial killer”, which activists used as further evidence of Rowling’s anti-trans position.

The novel, Rowling’s fifth crime book, is about Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott — partners in a London-based ­detective agency — who investigate the murder of GP Margot Bamborough more than 40 years earlier.

Rowling earlier drew accusations of transphobia after she ­expressed support for Maya Forstater, who lost her job after posting a series of tweets questioning government plans to allow people to declare their own gender.

She later posted an article ­titled “Opinion: Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate”.