Harry Potter and the Murdered Heiress?

J.K. Rowling has been spotted writing something in an Edinburgh cafe like the one where she penned the first Harry Potter book, and fellow author Ian Rankin says she's moving in on his territory—crime fiction. Rankin admits he hasn't personally talked to Rowling about her next project; it was his wife who saw her "scribbling away."

There's no official word from Rowling what she might be working on, but the wordsmith has said she doesn't want to be thought of as just a children's author. Rankin thinks Rowling would do well at detective novels. "Her process is classic crime writing—the set-up, the red herrings, the characters who change as they are revealed, the twists and turns, and finally the big lineup at the end.” (More Harry Potter stories.)