Last night saw JK Rowling’s grumpy private investigator Cormoran Strike solve his first case on TV, in BBC drama adaptation Strike: The Cuckoo’s Calling.

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But the murderer wasn’t who many viewers suspected. The man Tom Burke’s character revealed was the killer of Lula Landry (Elarica Johnson) was... her adoptive brother John (Leo Bill).

However, the twist left viewers with an entirely new mystery: if John killed his sister, why on earth did he hire Strike to investigate her death in the first place?

Don’t worry though, Strikers, as we’ve fully explained here, there was a reason for John’s actions.

In JK Rowling’s original novel, John hires Strike in order to frame Jonah Agyeman (Lula’s biological half-brother, played by Abubakar Salim), in an effort to conceal the fact that Jonah stood to inherit Lula’s fortune in the event of her death. So, although the motive wasn't fully explained in the BBC show, it all came down to money.

But don’t worry if that episode confused you – last night the BBC was asking viewers who killed ‘Lulu’...

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This isn't the last we've seen of Strike though – he's back this weekend for a new mystery (in which, again, nobody kills Lulu).

Authors

Thomas LingDigital editor, BBC Science Focus

Thomas is Digital editor at BBC Science Focus. Writing about everything from cosmology to anthropology, he specialises in the latest psychology, health and neuroscience discoveries. Thomas has a Masters degree (distinction) in Magazine Journalism from the University of Sheffield and has written for Men’s Health, Vice and Radio Times. He has been shortlisted as the New Digital Talent of the Year at the national magazine Professional Publishers Association (PPA) awards. Also working in academia, Thomas has lectured on the topic of journalism to undergraduate and postgraduate students at The University of Sheffield.

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