LONDON (AP) — J.K. Rowling launched her long-anticipated first book for adults to publishing hype, mixed reviews and an enthusiastic welcome from Harry Potter's legion of now grown-up fans.

The lines were shorter and the wizard costumes were missing Thursday but "The Casual Vacancy" appeared to some of the same fanfare that greeted each Potter tome, with stores wheeling out crates of the books precisely at 8 a.m. as part of a finely honed marketing strategy.

Almost 1,000 people were attending a reading Thursday evening at London's Southbank Centre, most of them clutching copies of the book to be signed by the author.