BBC Orders Adaptation of J.K. Rowling's Third Cormoran Strike Novel

'Strike - Career of Evil' will air in 2018 and once again star Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger.

Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger will return for a third story in the BBC's The Strike Series, based on J.K. Rowling’s Cormoran Strike crime novels written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

The U.K. public broadcaster on Sunday announced the latest story, Strike – Career of Evil, based on the third and most recent book in the series, saying it would air later in 2018.

It will follow Strike – The Cuckoo’s Calling (3 x 60 minutes) and Strike – The Silkworm (2 x 60 minutes).

Cinemax has acquired U.S. and Canadian rights to the show.

Burke will return as Strike, a war veteran turned private detective operating out of a tiny office in London. Grainger will return as Robin, Strike's assistant.

When a dismembered leg is sent to Strike’s office, it sends both their lives into disarray, "forcing them to confront ghosts from their pasts," according to a plot summary for the new story. "Their partnership reaches breaking point as Robin’s wedding approaches and they disagree about how to ensnare a man who abuses children."

Rowling, Neil Blair (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Casual Vacancy), Ruth Kenley-Letts (The Casual Vacancy, The Hour) and Elizabeth Kilgarriff executive produce based on a script by Tom Edge (The Last Dragon Slayer, Lovesick), who also wrote the adaptation of The Silkworm and is also an executive producer. Charles Sturridge (Da Vinci's Demons) will direct, and Jackie Larkin (Stella Days, Kings) will produce.

The Cuckoo’s Calling was published in 2013, followed in 2014 by The Silkworm and Career of Evil in 2015.