Now Rankin has told The Guardian that something he said at the Edinburgh book festival about J.K. Rowling’s new project was a “joke that got out of hand.”

A report that his wife, Miranda, had seen JK Rowling “scribbling away” in an Edinburgh café, supposedly hard at work on a detective novel set in the Scottish capital, was dismissed as a classic silly season story when the Guardian contacted him by telephone earlier today.

“This is a joke that got out of hand,” said Rankin, describing how the remark was made on stage during the course of a festival event.

With rumours of Rowling’s work on a detective novel squashed in the gate, speculation on what her next project might be continues.

According to her agency, “JK Rowling is taking a well-earned break following the English language publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and there are no firm plans as yet as to what her next book may be.”