The Leviathan is a stunning historical mystery with a supernatural twist, reminiscent of The Essex Serpent, with unforgettable settings and characters.
In 1703, in an isolated farmhouse far from the sea, old soldier Thomas Treadwater protects a secret: a nameless woman, locked in an endless sleep. But as the storm of the century rises, his captive wakes, and he must make an impossible choice… But who is she? And why has he imprisoned her? The answers lie in a Norfolk hamlet in the war-torn winter of 1643. Thomas returns from battle to discover his sister Esther harbouring a tale of witches and seduction in the servants’ hall. Craving only peace, he doubts her story, but when death strikes close to home, with his family’s reputation compromised, he delves further into the mystery, only to find himself facing an unimaginable enemy, and the end of the world he has known.
Richly researched, incredibly atmospheric, and deliciously unsettling, The Leviathan is set in England during a time of political and religious turbulence. It is a tale of family and loyalty, superstition and sacrifice, but most of all it is a spellbinding mystery and a story of impossible things.
Rosie Andrews was born and grew up in Liverpool, as the third of twelve children. She studied History at Cambridge before becoming an English teacher. She lives in Hertfordshire with her husband and daughter. The Leviathan was published on 3rd February by Raven Books, and Rosie is represented by Sam Copeland at RCW Literary Agency.
Winner of the Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition, Ajay and the Mumbai Sun is a funny, optimistic and resourceful modern story centring on children – but with fantastic adult characters too. It is reminiscent of Slumdog Millionaire and Emil and the Detectives, and masterfully tackles tough topics such as social justice and truth in journalism, with a lightness of touch.
Abandoned on the Mumbai railways, Ajay has grown up with nothing but a burning wish to be a journalist. Finding an abandoned printing press, he and his friends Saif, Vinod, Yasmin and Jai create their own newspaper: The Mumbai Sun. As they hunt down stories for their paper, the children uncover corruption, fight for justice and battle to save their slum from bulldozers. But against some of the most powerful forces in the city, can Ajay and his friends really succeed in bringing the truth to light? Not to mention win the most important cricket match ever…
Varsha loves books that blend humour and story and has always wanted to be a writer. She has had non-fiction articles published in Legal Week, Legal Week Global, the on-line edition of economia, the on-line edition of Harper’s Bazaar, and the Times Education Supplement. A former Solicitor, she is now an English Language and Literature teacher. She has also taught English as a foreign language in Japan and Canada, and often draws on her travels in her writing. Varsha is represented by Barry Cunningham at Chicken House Books, and Ajay and the Mumbai Sun will be published by Chicken House on 7th April 2022.
Ava is fun, informative and empowering with endless potential for a long running series.
A little girl must use her coding skills to save her video-game home in Ava in Code Land, an adorable debut picture book by Jess Hitchman and Gavin Cullen, illustrated by Liere Martin.
Ava thinks living in a video game is pretty cool. She and her cat, Pixels, spend their days riding breakfast rollercoasters and heading to underwater discos. And if something isn’t exactly perfect, Ava can reprogram the world to be just the way she likes it.
But then the game’s villain, Max Hacksalot, comes along on his magical pirate unicorn and breaks all of Ava’s code. When Max manages to send them all to the Game Over screen, it’s up to Ava and her coding skills to save the day!
Gavin is a BAFTA nominated screenwriter and Jess worked at BBC Children’s. They’re represented on the publishing side of things by Gemma Cooper at The Bent Agency.
*This title is currently under option*.
Lies We Sing to the Sea is a sapphic, feminist reimagining of The Odyssey, in which a failed oracle and a vengeful immortal must break the curse on their kingdom by killing its prince.
In the cursed kingdom of Ithaca, each summer brings the hanging of twelve maidens, a tithe to the vengeful Poseidon.
When Leto is sacrificed, she awakens on the shore of a long-forgotten island, home to the immortal Melantho. Eternally bound to guide the girls that the sea gives back, Melantho tells Leto that there is only one way to break Ithaca’s curse: kill the prince before the winter solstice.
Together, Leto and Melantho escape the island and infiltrate the palace, assuming the guise of an Athenian princess and her handmaid. To their dismay, the last son of Ithaca – Prince Mathias – is no monster; he is guilt-ridden by his role in overseeing the yearly executions, grieving the loss of his beloved sister, and searching for his own way to end Ithaca’s curse.
As Leto becomes closer to Melantho and Mathias, she must unravel Ithaca’s terrible history – a history that binds the three of them together – before the sea claims them all.
A reclamation of a story from thousands of years ago, LIES WE SING TO THE SEA is about fate, about grief and sacrifice, and the power we can find within.
Sarah Underwood grew up in Devon, England. She obtained her MEng in Computational Bioengineering at Imperial College, London, and is now studying for her MPhil in Population Health Sciences at the University of Cambridge. Sarah is currently working on a second novel called THE LOVELY GRAVE OF KITTY JAY, based on the folklore of Dartmoor. Sarah is represented by Catherine Cho at Paper Literary. Lies We Sing To The Sea will be published March 2023.
*Currently under option*
This title is currently under option.
The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr is a witty and gloriously uplifting debut, reminiscent of The Thursday Murder Club, with an ensemble cast of eccentric puzzlemakers and a young protagonist who inhabits their spirit. We think there are some truly fantastic casting opportunities here. It wassnapped up by Orion in the UK in a major two-book deal after an 8-way auction, and in a major two book deal in US with Anchor Books/Random House – with pre-emptive deals in several countries.
Clayton Stumper is an enigma. He’s twenty-four years old, but he dresses like your grandad and drinks sherry like your aunt. Abandoned at birth on the front steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, he was raised by a group of enigmatologists and finds himself among the last survivors of a fading institution. When Clayton’s best friend – the esteemed crossword compiler Pippa Allsbrook – passes away, she bestows her final puzzle to him. It promises to reveal the mystery of his parentage and prepare him for life beyond the walls of the commune.
But as Clay begins to unpick the clues, he uncovers something even the Fellowship have never been able to solve. It’s a secret that will reshape his future for good…
Samuel studied at Westminster Film School and now works as a freelance TV producer, developing and creating popular-factual shows including the BAFTA-nominated Secret Life of 4-Year-Olds. A documentary he shot inside a retirement village when he was eighteen-years-old launched his career in television and inspired this novel. Samuel’s writing was shortlisted for Penguin’s WriteNow scheme and in 2021 he graduated from the Faber Academy. In his spare time he volunteers for elderly charities Age UK and Re-Engage. He lives in London with his partner Tom and their cat Muriel. THE FELLOWSHIP OF PUZZLEMAKERS is his debut novel. He has always been old at heart.
BERLIN is a fresh, wry, piercingly contemporary novel written by Bea Setton.
A young woman moves to Berlin to turn over a new leaf. Things begin auspiciously: Daphne has means and brains. She rents a flat in fashionable Kreuzberg and starts attending German lessons. She makes friends among the other young people who flock to the city in pursuit of the promised liberal lifestyle, joins a running group, and tries online dating. However, the demons she thought she had left behind have followed her on her German odyssey, and a series of mysterious and violent incidents transform what should have been a chapter in a joyfully misspent youth into a fight for survival. Who is Daphne, and who or what is she running from? Why does she leave people and places suddenly and without warning? Even if she knows the answers, will she face up to them?
In the vein of Otessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation, this is a razor-sharp and darkly funny story of a young woman coming of age, coming apart and eventually putting herself back together again.
Bea Setton was born in France and spent her early years in the Parisian suburbs before moving to the USA to study philosophy. Upon graduating, she relocated to Berlin, and the city became the inspiration for her first novel. She is now working on plans for her second novel.
The Three Dahlias is a contemporary country house murder mystery with three beguiling central female characters. In this thrilling take on golden age crime, three rival actresses’ team up to solve a murder at the stately home of Lettice Davenport, the author whose sleuthing creation, Dahlia Lively, had made each of them famous to a new generation. We’re particularly excited about the potential for three compelling and challenging roles for actresses of varying playing ages – from an ex-child star to a ‘past-her-prime’ national treasure.
Three rival actresses team up to solve a murder at the stately home of Lettice Davenport, the author whose sleuthing creation, Dahlia Lively, had made each of them famous to a new generation. In attendance at Aldermere: the VIP fans, staying at house; the fan club president turned convention organiser; the team behind the newest movie adaptation of Davenport’s books; the Davenport family themselves; and the three actresses famous for portraying Dahlia Lively through the decades. There is national treasure Rosalind King, from the original movies, who’s feeling sensitive that she’s past her prime, TV Dahlia for thirteen seasons, Caro Hooper, who believes she really IS Dahlia Lively, and ex-child star Posy Starling, fresh out of the fame wilderness (and rehab) to take on the Dahlia mantle for the new movie – but feeling outclassed by her predecessors.
Each actress has her own interpretation of the character and her own secrets to hide – but this English summer weekend they will have to put aside their differences as the crimes at Aldermere turn anything but cosy.
Growing up in a family of murder mystery addicts, Katy Watson learned early to look for means, motive and opportunity. After studying English Literature – with a side-line in crime fiction – at Lancaster University, she set about teaching herself to write her own stories, while also experiencing enough of the world to have things to write about. Two careers, a lot of airmiles, one husband, two children, three houses and forty-five published books for children and adults later, lockdown finally gave her the means, motive and opportunity to create her own murder mystery – with the aid of her scientist husband’s knowledge of poisons. Three Dahlias is the result. Katy also writes for adults as Sophie Pembroke, and for teenagers and children as Katy Cannon. Katy is represented by Gemma Cooper at The Bent Agency, and The Three Dahlias will be published by Constable in July 2022.
The Girl Upstairs is a spine-tingling psychological thriller of grief and obsession, by debut novelist Georgina Lees. It explores the loneliness of London life with two compelling central female characters, and how sometimes it’s our neighbours that know us best of all…
I heard Emily before I saw her. The harsh smack of heels against cheap wooden floorboards. The loud phone calls. The incessant music.
I knew Emily before I met her. Discarded receipts in our communal hallway. Sticky leftovers in the shared food waste bin. Wine shop vouchers in the letterbox.
Now she’s gone missing, and I’m the only one who can find her. The only one who can save her.
Because I know her best, and I heard everything.
Georgina has been writing since she was little, from scrawling ideas in notepads, to tapping away on keyboards. She studied creative writing and film and has since pursued videogames journalism, writing about some of the most popular games in the world. Georgina draws inspiration from her surroundings from the congested London streets to the raw English countryside. She can be found playing games, writing books, and reading something that makes her equally parts terrified and emotional.
The Other Half is a deliciously entertaining mystery that channels the best of classic whodunnit ingenuity through a thoroughly modern cast of characters that readers are guaranteed to love and loathe. Detective Caius Beauchamp – a charming hero with an Empire-sized chip on his shoulder – is tasked with solving the murder of London socialite/social media influencer Clemency O’Hara. The investigation takes him deep into the underbelly of London’s millennial elite, with plenty of surprising twists and turns along the way.
What sort of man hosts a debauched, black-tie dinner party in McDonald’s for their thirtieth birthday? Rupert Beauchamp – member of the landed gentry, failed author, and cad. Who attends? Flicky-haired PR girls, prep-school chums turned insurance brokers, and waspish, bluestocking Nell, who has her own dark, tragic, secrets. Rupert’s girlfriend Clemmie fails to show up to the extravaganza and isn’t found until the following morning when DI Caius Beauchamp, on a post-break up health kick, spots a stiletto poking out from the scrub on his morning run. Caius initially suspects Rupert of the murder – partly because Rupert’s ancestors owned his ancestors – but as the case progresses Caius uncovers a world of upper-class organised crime. Meanwhile Nell finds herself caught in the middle as the conspiracy and danger grow.
Charlotte Vassell is half Jamaican and half British and grew up in the Midlands in a working-class family. She studied History at the University of Liverpool and completed a Masters in Art History at the School of Oriental and African Studies, before training as an actor at Drama Studio London. Other than treading the boards Charlotte has also worked in advertising, as a head-hunter, and as a purveyor of silk top hats. Charlotte watched an inordinate number of Agatha Christie dramas with her grandmother at a very young age.
The Marmalade Diaries by Ben Aitken tells the true story of an unlikely friendship struck up between two unlikely housemates – 35-year-old Ben Aitken and 85-year-old recently widowed Winnie. From the author of The Gran Tour, The Marmalade Diaries tells a story of grief, family, friendship, loneliness, life, love, lockdown and marmalade – reminiscent of the critically acclaimed Lady in the Van. It was signed by Icon Books for a significant 5-figure advance.
“Had I known that a lockdown would commence 10 days after I arrived, I don’t think I would have moved in with a recently widowed 85-year-old.”
One house. Two housemates. Three reasons to worry: Winnie and Ben are separated by 50 years, a gulf in class, and major differences of opinion.
When hunting for a room in London, Ben Aitken came across one for a great price in a lovely part of town. There had to be a catch. And there was. The catch was Winnie: an 85-year-old widow who doesn’t suffer fools.
Full of warmth, wit and candour, The Marmalade Diaries tells the story of an unlikely friendship during an unlikely time. Imagine an intergenerational version of Big Brother, but with only two contestants. One of the pair a grieving and inflexible former aristocrat in her mid-eighties. The other a working-class millennial snowflake. What could possibly go wrong? What could possibly go right?
Ben Aitken was born under Thatcher, grew to six foot then stopped, and is an Aquarius. He is the author of Dear Bill Bryson: Footnotes from a Small Island (2015, 2022), A Chip Shop in Poznań: My Unlikely Year in Poland (2019) and The Gran Tour: Travels with my Elders (2020). Ben is represented by Ed Wilson at Johnson and Alcock, and The Marmalade Diaries will be published on 10th March 2022 by Icon Books.
