The Construction of Queer-Coded Villain, Dennis Creed, in JK Rowling’s Troubled Blood

Troubled Blood is the fifth crime thriller by J.K. Rowling, written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. This thriller is in Strike series, and revolves around two detectives Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacot investigating the cold case of a missing doctor Margot Bamborough who disappeared almost 40 years ago leaving behind a forever-changed husband and a daughter who wouldn’t rest until she knows all the answers. The novel unfolds between 2013 and 2014, and the crime it investigates unfolds in 1974. The prime suspect in Bambourough’s case is the infamous serial killer Dennis Creed who was in Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital during this investigation after having served his prison sentence for some of his murders. This article is an attempt to understand the characterization of Dennis Creed, a queer-coded serial killer in J K Rowling’s crime thriller Troubled Blood written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, examine the inherent transphobia in the way he has been sketched, the role the text and the discourse around it plays in influencing the mainstream readership and the dangers of such stereotyping to queer and trans individuals in real life. This article is a close examination of how Troubled Blood’s author shapes Dennis Creed as a queer-coded villain through descriptions of his attire, demeanour, his kidnapping tactics and violent behaviour, and how his villainy is posed as a product of his queerness.