category: Fiction

What She Left Behind

Published in September, WHAT SHE LEFT BEHIND follows Lauren as she begins a new life with her therapist husband Paul. Things gradually become not quite as they seem, and the mystery enhances as we are introduced to Paul’s first wife Eliza as she desperately tries to escape Paul’s web, whilst Lauren becomes more and more trapped in it. As we move between the perspectives, we are left with the question – what ever did happen to Eliza? With a chilling twist, WHAT SHE LEFT BEHIND feels reminiscent of compulsive thrillers such as THE GIRL BEFORE and CLOSE TO ME.

Lauren can’t believe she’s escaped her old life in London for a new start with her partner, Paul, and his two young children. Haunted by her past, Lauren knows how lucky she is: a dream home, a ready-made family. And she also knows how much she could lose.

But as Lauren struggles to adjust to motherhood, her fears grow. She’ll never live up to the ghost of Paul’s perfect wife, or help him forget his grief over her tragic death. And as village rumours begin to swirl about their house in the woods, Lauren feels ever more isolated – despite Paul’s reassurances. She wants to trust Paul – she owes him everything – but how can she, when she can barely trust herself?

In her other life, Emily makes TV – having worked on award winning television programmes including EDUCATING YORKSHIRE, FIRST DATES, and SAD: WHO DARES WINS – as well as developing original programming for all the main broadcasters. Her lifelong fixation with story and character is the thread that runs through her work, and ultimately led to the pursuit of a writing career. Her debut MY BEST FRIEND’S SECRET was published by Quercus in 2021, and WHAT SHE LEFT BEHIND was published by Quercus in September 2022. Emily is represented by Teresa Chris at Teresa Chris Literary Agency.

How To Solve Your Own Murder

This title is currently under option.

In 1965, when Frances Adams was seventeen, a fortune teller at a country fair told her that one day she’d be murdered. Thus began a lifetime of trying to prevent the crime that would be her eventual demise.

No one took Frances seriously for sixty years – until, of course, she was murdered. But for Frances, being the village busybody was a form of insurance. She’d spent a lifetime compiling dirt on every person she met, just in case they might turn out to be her killer. In the heart of her sprawling country estate lies an eccentric library of detective work, where the right person could step in and use her findings to solve her murder, if they can make sense of her superstitious filing system first.

When her great-niece Annie arrives from London and discovers that Frances’ worst fear has come true, Annie is thrust into her great-aunt’s last act of revenge against her sceptical friends and family. Frances’ last will and testament stipulates that the person who solves her murder inherits her millions, and she’s challenged a group that includes Annie to prove to the world that Frances was right all along about her future. Can Annie unravel the mystery and find justice for Frances, or will digging up the past lead her into the path of the killer?

K L Perrin is originally from Seattle, Washington, where she spent several years working as a bookseller before moving to the UK to do a Masters and PhD. She lives with her family in Surrey, where she can be found poking around vintage bookstores, stomping in the mud with her two kids, and collecting too many plants. Perrin is represented by Zoe Bent at The Bent Agency.

Queen K

QUEEN K by Sarah Thomas was inspired by Thomas’ work as a private tutor to the super wealthy. The events of QUEEN K are narrated by an unreliable tutor who, while teaching an oligarch’s daughter, becomes privy to suspicious deaths and to the downfall of his wife. Exploring the dark side of Russian money and what happens to oligarchs who get on the wrong side of Putin, QUEEN K is a topical, pertinent and thrilling debut that pulls back the curtain on power plays within one extraordinary family. You can check out the Bookseller announcement here.

On a balmy evening in late March, Kata hosts a party on the superyacht that she owns with her husband. Tables cover the massive deck, adorned with orchids, champagne bottles, name cards of famous people, while uniformed staff flank a red carpet on the landing dock. This night marks the attainment of something she’s wanted for a long time: acceptance into the glittering world of high society. But there are those who wish to come between Kata and her goal. They are complex and angry, full of resentment. And they are closer to home than she could ever have imagined.

Sarah Thomas is represented by Katie Greenstreet at Paper Literary, and QUEEN K will be published by Serpent’s Tail in February 2023.

Appliance

APPLIANCE is a highly inventive and humane novel about a world obsessed with progress, and a story of how technology and our hunger for new things has the capacity to erode our human rights and freedoms. It is the first novel from the award-winning poet, and has received excellent reviews (including in The Telegraph and The Scotsman) since its publication in May 2022, and has been included in the best science fiction lists of 2022 in The Guardian, The Times, and the Financial Times.

 ‘Are they paying you extra for this? You’d better be getting something. For the inconvenience, I mean. Here for the whole weekend is what they said. What if we’d had guests? They never asked. And in any case what are the dangers? Being tested like lab rats, we are. Did they even try to provide any assurance it was all perfectly-‘This is the prototype. The first step to a new future. A future that will be easy and abundant. A future in which distance is no longer a barrier to human contact. And all it takes is a simple transport unit, in every home, every street, every town. Quick. Clean. Easy. A future driven by data, not emotion. And so begins the journey of a new technology that will soon change the world and everyone in it – the sceptics and the converts, the innocents and the evangelists. A scientific wonder that quickly becomes an everyday aspect of life.

 But what of our inherent messiness? In a world preoccupied with progress, what will happen to the things that make us human: the memories, the fears, the love, the blood, the contradictions, the mortality? As we push for a sense of perfection, what do we stand to lose?Questioning, innovative and shot through with a rich humanity, Appliance is much more than a novel. It examines our faith in technology, our hunger for new things and the rapid changes affecting all our lives. It challenges us to stop and reflect on the future we want, the systems we trust, and what really matters to us.

J O Morgan is a Scottish author. His 2018 work Assurances, looking at the RAF’s early involvement with maintaining the nuclear deterrent, won that year’s Costa Poetry Award. He has been twice shortlisted for both the Forward and the T S Eliot prize. His novel Pupa, in which human society is depicted with a different biological lifecycle, was published in 2021.

J O Morgan is represented by Eleanor Birne at PEW Literary Agency, and APPLIANCE was published by Jonathan Cape in May 2022.

Fearless

*This book is currently under option*

FEARLESS is a fast-paced thriller featuring lone-wolf protagonist Ben Koenig, who, six years after disappearing off the face of the earth, is hunted down and recruited for a dangerous mission – he’s the only man for the job, as he is incapable of experiencing fear…. There is also a fascinating central female character, US Marshal Jen Draper – smart, ruthless, with a passionate dislike for Ben – but is she working with him or against him?

The new series was signed by Constable in a six-figure deal in the UK and by Flatiron in the US, along with the continuation of the Sunday Times bestselling and Dagger winning Washington Poe series, which was previously in development for TV and has been the recipient of numerous awards and accolades (listed below). You can read the Bookseller announcement here.

Six years back Ben Koenig headed up the US Marshal’s Special Operations Group. They were the unit who hunted the bad guys. The really bad guys. They did this so no one else had to.

And then one day Ben sold his house, liquidated his assets and disappeared off the face of the earth. He told no one why and left no forwarding address. For six years he became a grey man. Someone you didn’t remember. He drifted from town to town, from state to state, never visiting the same place twice. He was untraceable – officially, he no longer existed.

But now his face is plastered across every television screen in the country. Someone from Ben’s past is going to extraordinary lengths to find him and they don’t care how they do it. They have a job for him, a revenge mission, one Ben won’t be able to refuse. Because in the hellish heat of the Chihuahuan desert lies a town called Gauntlet. Some people in Gauntlet have a secret and they’ll do anything protect it. And they know Ben is coming. They’ve killed before and they’ll kill again.

It’s easy to dismiss Ben Koenig as just another drifter, someone you don’t need to concern yourself about. But that would be a mistake. Because Ben has a condition, a unique disorder that means he is incapable of experiencing fear. And that makes Ben Koenig a different kind of animal . . .

Multi-award-winning author M. W. Craven was born in Carlisle but grew up in Newcastle. He joined the army at sixteen, leaving ten years later to complete a social work degree. Seventeen years after taking up a probation officer role in Cumbria, at the rank of assistant chief officer, he became a full-time author. THE PUPPET SHOW, the first book in his Cumbria-set Washington Poe series, was published by Little, Brown in 2018 and went on to win the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger in 2019. It has now been translated into twenty-five languages. BLACK SUMMER, the second in the series, was longlisted for the 2020 Gold Dagger as was book three, THE CURATOR in 2021. The fourth in the series, DEAD GROUND, was published in 2021, became an instant Sunday Times bestseller and has been longlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and the Theakston Old Peculiar Novel of the Year 2022.

Craven is represented by David H Headley at D H H Literary Agency, and FEARLESS will be published by Constable in the UK and Flatiron in the US in Summer 2023.

Unraveller

UNRAVELLER is another stunningly imaginative new world in which anyone can create a life-destroying curse – but only one person has the power to unravel them. World Rights were acquired by Macmillan Children’s in the UK, and in the US by Abrams – you can read the Bookseller announcement here.  Four of Frances’ novels are currently or have been in development for Film/TV – including DEEPLIGHT (Euston), A SKIN FULL OF SHADOWS (Calamity), THE LIE TREE, and CUCKOO SONG.

In a world where anyone can create a life-destroying curse, only one person has the power to unravel them. Kellen does not fully understand his talent, but helps those transformed maliciously—including Nettle. Recovered from entrapment in bird form, she is now his constant companion and closest ally.

But Kellen has also been cursed, and unless he and Nettle can remove his curse, Kellen is in danger of unravelling everything—and everyone—around him . . ..

Frances’ debut novel, FLY BY NIGHT, was published in 2005 to global critical acclaim. It won the Branford Boase Award in 2006 and was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Award in the same year. The sequel, TWILIGHT ROBBERY, was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Award in 2012. Frances’ next three novels, VERDIGRIS DEEP, GULLSTRUCK ISLAND and A FACE LIKE GLASS (shortlisted for the Kitschies in 2013) have all garnered stellar reviews. CUCKOO SONG, published in 2014, won the Robert Holdstock Award, was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. Her seventh novel, THE LIE TREE, also optioned for film/TV, was short-listed for The Guardian Fiction Award and the Carnegie Medal and went on to win the 2015 Costa Book of the Year Award, only the second time in the Award’s history that a children’s author has scooped the prize. DEEPLIGHT, published in October 2019, showcases once again Frances’ extraordinary imagination, originality and talent for world building and storytelling.

Frances is represented by Nancy Miles at Miles Stott Agency, and UNRAVELLER will be published by Macmillan in the UK on 01/09/2022, and by Amulet in the US on 10/01/2023.

In The Heart of Hidden Things

IN THE HEART OF HIDDEN THINGS is an atmospheric and enchanting coming-of-age story that mixes myth and folklore with an engrossing mystery at its core, conjuring a world that explores human virtues, conflicts and contradictions. Since its publication earlier this month, it has been receiving a brilliant response – including rave reviews in The Guardian, Daily Mail, and in SFX’s July magazine.

IN THE HEART OF HIDDEN THINGS is set in a rural community where disputes between landowners and the common folk threaten to disrupt “the People” and destroy everybody’s fragile existence. John the son of the local Smith, struggles to find his place in this reckless and hostile world and when his father and grandfather convince him that the very stability of the village depends on the containment of wild Tobias Ware, he is forced to question their motives and sets out to understand what goes on in Tobias’ heart…

A coming-of-age story in which John learns that humans can be as capricious and irrational as “the People”, that actions have consequences and that above all the human and the inhuman must learn to live alongside each other.  

Kit Whitfield grew up in London, and went to Christ’s College, Cambridge, and has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. In addition to writing, she has trained as a chef and a masseur, as well as working as a website editor, quote hunter, toy shop assistant and publisher.. She is the author of BAREBACK (published in the US as Benighted), which was shortlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award, and IN GREAT WATERS, which was nominated for the World Fantasy Award.

Kit is represented by Sophie Hicks, and IN THE HEART OF HIDDEN THINGS was published on 9th June by Jo Fletcher Books.

Tick Tock

Simon Mayo’s chilling new thriller, TICK TOCK, sees a mysterious tinnitus-like illness take root and start spreading like wildfire. Exciting and urgently contemporary, the piercingly insightful novel tells the story of a global catastrophe through the eyes of three people at the heart of the storm. Simon’s book series, ITCH, has been developed in to a returning series, now 2 series in, for ABC and the BBC. MAD BLOOD STIRRING is being developed as feature by Jack Thorne for House Productions. And KNIFE EDGE is in development with Kommix.

It starts quietly enough. A tick-tick-ticking you can hear in your ear. Tinnitus, you think. It will pass. But it doesn’t. It gets worse – and then you pass it on.

Before you know it, it spreads. Elsewhere across the globe, it emerges: small outbreaks at first, but then suddenly it’s a plague – and only days later it is already killing people.

In an increasingly affected north London school, teacher Kit Chaplin is struggling to understand what he is witnessing. Even Lilly Slater, his partner and an eminent vaccinologist, can’t work out what’s happening. As it spreads, little by little, they are inexorably drawn into the mystery behind the illness. And what they discover will change the world as they know it…

Simon Mayo is one of Britain’s best-loved and well-known radio presenters who worked for BBC Radio 1 from 1982 until 2022. His first novel, ITCH, was featured in The Sunday Time’s UK top 10 and was the debut children’s hardback of the year. His latest novel, KNIFE EDGE, was published in 2020. Simon is represented by Sam Copeland at RCW Literary Agency, and TICK TOCK will be published by Transworld in August 2022.

Birdgirl

BIRDGIRL is a mindful, reflective and uplifting account of a life devoted to avian observation, and an activist’s journey towards environmental and racial justice. But more than that – it is a deeply moving story about family and mental health, and how her passion has enabled her to cope with challenging life situations and unexpected trauma. It was snapped up by Jonathan Cape in a 14-way publisher auction, with the rights sold in a string of other territories including a significant US deal.

Meet Mya-Rose – otherwise known as ‘Birdgirl’. Birder, environmentalist, diversity activist. To date she has seen over five thousand different types of bird: half the world’s species.

Every single bird a treasure. Each sighting a small step in her family journey – a collective moment of joy and stillness amidst her mother’s deepening mental health crisis. And each helping her to find her voice. Since she was young, she has visited every continent to pursue her passion, seeing first-hand the inequality and reckless destruction we are inflicting on our fragile planet. And the simple, mindful act of looking for birds has made her ever-more determined to campaign for all our survival.

This is her story; a journey defined by her love for these extraordinary creatures. Because large or small, brown, patterned or jewelled, there is something about birds that makes us, even for just moments at a time, lift our eyes away from our lives and up to the skies.

Mya-Rose Craig is a British-Bangladeshi ornithologist and campaigner for equal rights. In February 2020, she received an honorary doctorate in science  (DSc hc) from the University of Bristol – awarded for her creation of the non-profit organisation Black2Nature, which runs nature camps for black and minority ethnic children – and is said to be the youngest British person to receive such an award. She is now studying Human, Social and Political Science at the University of Cambridge. Mya-Rose is represented by Claire Paterson Conrad at Janklow and Nesbit, and BIRDGIRL was be published by Cape on 30th June 2022.

Blood To Poison

Blazingly original and steeped in darkly fantastical imagery, BLOOD TO POISON spins a mesmerising saga of preordained demise, South African witchcraft and apocalyptic rage through the suspenseful story of seventeen-year-old Savannah. It was published in April and has been met with fantastic praise.

Seventeen-year-old Savannah is cursed. It’s a sinister family heirloom; passed down through the bloodline for hundreds of years, with one woman in every generation destined to die young. The family call them Hella’s girls, named for their ancestor Hella; the enslaved woman with whom it all began. Hella’s girls are always angry, especially in the months before they die.

The anger is bursting from Savannah – at the men who cat-call her in the street, at her mother’s disingenuous fiancé, even at her own loving family. Each fit of rage is bringing her closer to the edge and now Savannah has to act to save herself. Or die trying. Because the key to survival lies in the underbelly of Cape Town, where the sinister veilwitches are waiting for just such a girl.

Watson grew up in Cape Town during the apartheid years and did a Master’s in creative writing with André Brink. She won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2006 and appeared on the Hay Festival’s Africa39 list of influential writers. Blood to Poison is her third novel for young adults and the first rooted in her South African heritage.

Watson is represented for books by Claire Wilson at RCW Literary Agency, and BLOOD TO POISON was published by Bloomsbury on 14th April 2022.