LONDON - British bookshops opened their doors early Thursday and some grown-up Harry Potter fans lined up overnight as J.K. Rowling launched her long-anticipated first book for adults, "The Casual Vacancy."
The lines were shorter and the wizard costumes missing, but the book was published to some of the same fanfare that greeted each Potter tome, with stores wheeling out crates of the books precisely at 8 a.m.
Published five years after the release of the last book in the boy wizard saga, "The Casual Vacancy" is already at No. 1 on Amazon's U.S. chart, and bookmaker William Hill put 2/1 odds on it outselling "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," which shifted 2.6 million copies in Britain on its first day.
Many of the early buyers were Harry Potter fans who, like the author, have moved on to more adult fare.
"I just like how much excitement there is about a book," said 23-year-old Grace Proctor, a "massive" Potter fan who was first to buy the book at one London store.
"I think there are going to be people who will hate it just because they can hate it," she said. "But she's such an amazing writer, I don't think she can go wrong."
A story of ambition and rivalry set in the fictional English village of Pagford, the novel recounts the civic warfare sparked when the unexpected death of a town official leaves a vacancy on the governing body.
Rowling has said she was aiming for Dickensian sweep in the multi-character saga, whose doses of sex, satire and swearing mark a distinct departure from wholesome Harry.
![Three weeks ago, Octavio Rodriguez switched from making transmission parts to casting parts for hospital bed brake assemblies at Twin City Die Castings. ] GLEN STUBBE • glen.stubbe@startribune.com Thursday, April 9, 2020 How employee-owned Twin City Die Casting, which just laid off 40 production workers of its 250 employees in what was supposed to be a good year, is trying to accelerate its pivot to growing medical parts business for ventilators, hospital beds, etc as it copes with instan](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/WNZYKGTZ5IYMUCO3KI5TR3N7WI.jpg?&w=80&ar=1:1&fit=crop)
djoles@startribune.com As boaters flock to Minnesota lakes and rivers this holiday weekend for the unofficial kick-off to the boating season, they'll face more inspections in and out of the water as local cities and counties ramp up their work to stop the spread of invasive species. Across the metro, more boat accesses will be staffed by watercraft inspectors thanks to $10 million funneled to county government programs this year, up from $4.5 million the state allocated last year. ORG XMIT: MIN1505222156290209 ORG XMIT: MIN1506021218440580](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/34QSKO44B2XKVNUZCO5SLJQSLY.jpg?&w=80&ar=1:1&fit=crop)
