In an interview airing today on Morning Edition, Rowling tells NPR host David Greene about why she decided to start over under a pseudonym: "I think that Potter was incredible, and I am so grateful for what happened with Harry Potter, and that needs to be said. The relationship I had with those readers, and still have with those readers is so valuable to me. Having said that, there was a phenomenal amount of pressure that went with being the writer of Harry Potter, and that aspect of publishing those books I do not particularly miss. So you can probably understand the appeal of going away and creating something very different, and just letting it stand or fall on its own merits."

She continues: "My publisher didn't know who I was when they first saw [The Cuckoo's Calling]."

On how researching serial killers and accounts of murder for the third Cormoran Strike book Career of Evil affected her, Rowling says: "This is the first time ever that a book has literally given me nightmares. And it wasn't the writing of the novel that gave me nightmares, it was the research."

She continues: "I thought it was really important to understand the mindset, because some of the chapters are written from the point of view of a psychopathic killer. So what do those men say about what they feel about what they do? ... What do those men feel is a very interesting question, because I think their capacity to feel is very blunted. So researching all of that was simultaneously fascinating and incredibly disturbing."

On why she used Blue Oyster Cult lyrics throughout Career of Evil, Rowling says: "To be honest, it's the guitar hook. I'm a real sucker for guitars. I've had a crush on many, many a guitarist."

On her relationship to Strike, she says: "It would be wrong, wholly wrong, to suggest he's an autobiographical character — he's a disabled veteran, he's a man, obviously ... however there are things that I like in him, and that I would like to feel that we share. He has a very strong work ethic. He is a tryer, in all circumstances. And at the point where we meet him in the very first book, he is absolutely on his uppers, in a way that I too have experienced, in that he is as poor as you can be without being homeless."

On Strike and discussing the oddities of fame, Rowling explains: It's at a remove, because he himself when the series starts is not famous, but he's the son of a famous man — so he has all of the drawbacks of being associated with fame and none of the advantages. So I look at the effect that an individual's fame has on their family, for example, and the limitations that places upon your life to an extent — of course, it brings marvelous things too, but it brings them mainly to the individual. The people around the famous person often pay a price without reaping many of the rewards. And I find that an interesting area, and obviously yes that very much comes from my own experience.

During an interview for the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, NPR books editor Barrie Hardymon asks Rowling about the inspiration for Strike's character. She explains: "Some [characters] just walk out of your subconscious and stand in front of you. And he just did that. Or he limped out of my subconscious. If I want to analyze why he was in my subconscious, I could say that I know several veterans."

She continues: "I am interested, as I think a lot of people are, in what happens to people who leave the forces and have to make their way in civilian life. That seems, you know, a real issue for our times. I did happen to know someone, although the person I know who's ex-Special Investigation Branch is female, not male – but she was very generous in letting me interview her extensively about what her career had been like."

On the intricate scaffolding of the novel, Rowling says: "I planned this book to a degree that I have never planned a novel before."

On the way her character Robin Ellacott's assault is revealed in the book, she says: "And that is something that can very easily be lost in life and in literature when you're talking about this kind of mindset and this kind of violence. Giving the survivor a voice, a face, giving them their due humanity is really important to me."

She continued: "As Robin says in the book, this does not define her. She is many, many, many, many things. And that's about giving her weight as a human and not seeing her merely as the vehicle for some grotesque act that someone else decided to perpetuate."

On what informed terrifying, baroque nature of the violence against women in this book, Rowling says: "One [inspiration] was accounts that Ted Bundy himself left, which I think were among the things that gave me nightmares. And he was articulate on the subject of how he felt about women and to a degree, articulate about what he'd done. Reading those accounts greatly informed the perspective of the killer in those books."

When asked about when Galbraith might be back at work, Rowling replies: "He is actually back to work already."