After the Telegraph described “Troubled Blood,” the fifth installment in Rowling’s mystery series, as “a book whose moral seems to be: never trust a man in a dress” in its Sunday review, it was perhaps inevitable that her detractors would latch onto the novel’s plot as “proof” of her alleged transphobia - despite not having read it.

The book, set for release on Tuesday, centers on a cold case investigation where the victim - a female doctor - is believed to have been killed by a man who dresses up as a woman in order to kill ‘other’ women. While the killer isn’t actually transgender, that didn’t stop Pink News - an LGBT-focused UK outlet - from hyperventilating that it was the second time in the series Rowling had portrayed a trans character negatively, after its second installment depicted a trans-woman as “unstable and aggressive.”

The Telegraph’s review didn’t help matters by suggesting “one wonders what critics of Rowling’s stance on trans issues will make of the book,” practically inviting said critics to tear it to shreds. Would they take issue with the book’s excessive length (900 pages, made up of “a series of interminable conversations with various elderly witnesses”)? Its sludgy pacing (“an almost perverse lack of excitement”)?

Not quite. Perhaps seeing the murder mystery format as something of a creative challenge, Rowling-haters on social media tagged their jabs with #RIPJKRowling, pouring on the animosity so hard the topic was trending at #1 on Twitter by Monday - forcing Twitter to include a disclaimer “explanation” that the author was not, in fact, dead.

“She ain’t dead,” conceded one user, before twisting the knife: “but she killed her own career by proudly hating trans people.” 

Others tried to expand their critiques beyond Rowling’s alleged transphobia, with varying degrees of success.