Niall Horan of One Direction stars in new JK Rowling book as murdered girl's imaginary boyfriend

Career of Evil references the hugely popular boyband in a very clever move by the Harry Potter author

Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson of One Direction

(Getty Images)

JK Rowling has pulled a master move in getting teenagers to read her crime novels by referencing boyband One Direction in new book Career of Evil.

The Harry Potter author, who goes by the pen name Robert Galbraith for her stories about detective Cormoran Strike, features a young girl who imagines she is going out with singer Niall Horan.

Screenshots posted by excited fans on Twitter reveal character Hazel discussing her murdered friend Kelsey’s boyfriend, who she claims is called Niall. Soon it is implied that Niall was Kelsey’s imaginary lover because she was “obsessed” with him and the group.

The excerpt reads as follows: “Hazel returned carrying a tray bearing mugs of tea and a plate of biscuits. After she had carefully positioned his tea on a coaster beside her mother’s photograph, Strike said: ‘I hear Kelsey had a boyfriend.’

‘Rubbish,’ retorted Hazel, dropping back into her armchair. ‘More porkies.

‘What makes you —?’

‘She said his name was Niall. Niall. Honestly.’

Her eyes leaked more tears. Strike was at a loss to understand why Kelsey’s boyfriend might not have been called Niall and his incomprehension showed.

‘One Direction,’ she said over the top of her tissue.

‘Sorry,’ said Strike, completely at sea. ‘I don’t —’

‘The band. They’re a band that came third on The X Factor. She’s obsessed - she was obsessed - and Niall was her favourite. So when she says she’s met a boy called Niall and he’s eighteen and he’s got a motorbike, I mean, what were we supposed to think?’

‘Ah. I see.’"

Niall Horan is a popular member of One Direction

(Getty Images)

This all gets even creepier when the reader finds out that Kelsey wrote sick things about being ready to cut her own leg off so she could go to a One Direction gig in a wheelchair, get closer to the stage, and have the boys make a fuss of her, according to Unreality TV. Terrifying, or just proof that Rowling is a hardcore Directioner?

Career of Evil received largely warm reviews from critics upon its release last month, while One Direction’s fifth album Made in the A.M drops this coming Friday 13 November.