The Casual Vacancy

The Casual Vacancy is a novel targeted at adult audiences by J.K. Rowling. Little, Brown Book Group described the plot on their website:

"When Barry Fairbrother dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?"

Publicity
The title is being promoted with a "minimalist" approach, with no advance copies being released (similar to later Harry Potter releases) with few appearances by Rowling herself and only one appearance in the United States, well following the novel's official release. While social media ads have been purchased online, bookstore promotion for the novel is said to be "muted."