Some bookish news!

 According to Deadline news Harper Collins have confirmed its big multimillion-dollar, multi-book deal with Michael Mann. Harper Collins is to be the “home” of Michael Mann books.  The first novel to be published will be a collaboration with The Cartel author Don Winslow. The novel will be about the complex relationship between two Organized Crime giants, Tony Accardo and Sam Giancana and will be published in 2017.  More information can be found here.

Also with London Book Fair starting today various things have been happening on the book front.

According to the Bookseller Trapeze’s commissioning editor Sam Eades has pre-empted a debut author’s killer crime series within 48 hours of receiving the manuscript.  The full news can be ready here.  The author is a former paramedic and the TV rights have also been bought by Sid Gentle whose adaptation of the Durrell’s is currently being shown on television.  The first book in the series is Ragdoll and will be published in January 2017 in hardback, e-book and audio.

In other book news Headline have bought the high concept thriller by Faber Academy graduate Felicia Yap entitled The Day After Yesterday.  Headline have also snapped another high concept thriller from debut author Nick Clarke Windo.  The book is entitled The Feed and is set in a near future world where people can download a social media feed directly to their brand. More information can be found here. The Feed is due to be published in 2018.

Karen Sullivan of Orenda Books also bought the world English rights to Norwegian crime writer Kjell Ola Dahl’s next two books in the Gunnarstranda series.  The two titles The Faithfull Friends and The Ice Swimmer will be published in 2017.  More information can be read here.

Fans of Alienst author Caleb Carr will welcome the news that he is to return to the series after 20 years. According to EW, Carr will return to the historical mystery with two new books. The first of the books is set 20 years after The Angels of Darkness.

Avon have bought Katerina Diamond’s two new psychological thrillers.

Fiona Barton’s novel The Widow is set for the screen with (according to the Bookseller) the TV rights being bought by the production company Playground.

Michael Joseph have also bought the trilogy Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know by debut writer Chloé Esposito. Another Faber Academy graduate the first book in the series Mad is due to be published in June 2017.  More information from the Bookseller can be found here.

Jonathan Cape is due to publish a new book in September by Ian McEwan. The novel entitled The Nutshell is according to the Bookseller a classic story of murder and deceit.

In job news Alison Hennessey has moved from Harvill Secker to become editorial director of Bloomsbury Crime.  More information via The Bookseller can be found here.

Sandstone Press have also (according to booktrade info) signed second novels by German crime writer Volker Kutscher and David McCallum. The Silent Death is the second book in the Gereon Rath series and will be published in May 2017.  Provisionally entitled Once a Upon a Crooked Time is the second book in the Harry Murphy series by McCallum and it is to be published in mid-2017.

Mark Billingham is also to have three new novels published by Little Brown.   According to Booktrade info, the first of the three novels will be published in 2017.  His newest novel Die of Shame is due to be published on 5^th May 2016.

More crime fiction splatterings

According to the Bookseller and from the London Book Fair Patrick Janson- Smith at Harper Collins imprint Blue Door has won the battle to sign Swedish trilogy by Anders de la Motte. The three linked books are entitled Geim, Buzz and Bubble.

Congratulations go to all the nominees shortlisted for the Kim Scott Walwyn prize and especially to Donna Condon senior commissioning editor at Piatkus, Little, Brown and Bethan Jones, head of Yellow Jersey Press/crime fiction and senior publicity manager at Chatto and Windus, Harvill Secker and Square Peg.  The award recognises promise among women in the industry who have worked in publishing in the UK for up to seven years, and is sponsored by the Society of Young Publishers and administered by BookTrust.  The winner of the £1,000 prize will be announced on 9th May at the Free Word Centre in north London.

In more news from the Bookseller Selina Walker has acquired for Random House imprint Hammer Books “long short stories with a paranormal twist” by Melvin Burgess, Julie Myerson and Sophie Hannah, and each are scheduled for 2013 publication.

In what is seen as a surprising move, Amazon (via their  Thomas & Mercer imprint) have bought a 10-year license for North American rights to the entire series of Ian Fleming's James Bond books in both print and e-book form from the summer.

Orion have acquired two novels from CWA Gold Dagger winner Robert Wilson.  The first title, Capital Punishment, opens a new crime series featuring Charles Boxer, ex-army, ex-police with a speciality in kidnap and rescue.  He is hired to find Alyshia D’Cruz, the kidnapped daughter of an Indian billionaire.  Capital Punishment is due to be published in January 2013.  Shots blogged here about the filming of his Javier Falcón books.

In more rights news, Harvill Secker senior crime editor Alison Hennessey has acquired Black Chalk by Christopher J Yates, a psychological thriller set in New York and Oxford University.  In the intimidating surroundings of Oxford University a group of six friends begin to play a game – an elaborate variation on truth or dare played in escalating rounds, in which losers had to perform mildly embarrassing tasks as consequences. But the game quickly assumed a life of its own: the stakes grew higher, and the consequences more humiliating, finally evolving into a vicious struggle with unpredictable and tragic results.  Now, years later, one player, who believed he had fled the Game long ago, discovers that it is far from over. Black Chalk will be published in spring 2014.

News from the London Book Fair!

Hot off the press from the London Book fair is news that Selina Walker has acquired British Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Angharard Kowal at Writers’ House in a literary thriller, The Malice of Fortune by Michael Ennis.  The Malice of Fortune will be published by Century will publish in hardcover in 2013.

According to the Bookseller Pan Macmillan have acquired UK and Commonwealth rights for four more novels by bestselling thriller writer David Baldacci.  The first title in the new deal, which will be the sixth in his King and Maxwell series, is scheduled for spring 2013.  The second book in the deal will be the sixth title in his Camel Club series, with plans to bring back the character of Will Robbie from The Innocent.

Agents Curtis Brown have sold the rights of the novel Line-Up to HarperCollins.  Line Up is by Israeli thriller writer Liad Shoham and is said to be a superbly plotted, uncompromising crime thriller with a mean streak that exposes the dark and treacherous underbelly of the legal system in Israel.

Gregory and Company have sold the rights to TV Scriptwriter Michele Rowe’s debut novel What Hidden Lies which is set amid the violent gang-ridden townships and the wealthy seaside resorts of Cape Town in South Africa.  They have also sold the rights of former LA based scriptwriter Evan West’s thriller High Rollers to Transworld.  In High rollers Tom Patrick risks everything in a race against time and ruthless killers before people and planes start falling out of the sky like bloody confetti.

Dead Men and Broken Hearts by Craig Russell is the latest in his series about a Canadian private investigator in 1950s Glasgow - now soon to be developed for TV

MBA Literary Agents have sold the rights to a number of books.  These include San Carlos by Neil Forsyth.  San Carlos is a thriller set in 1980a Britain where Craig Turner is a 23 year old former right-wing extremist living under the Witness Protection Scheme.  San Carlos Has been sold to Cape.  Cartoonist and satirist Barry Fantoni's debut Harry Lipkin PI introduces us to the world's oldest private detective, part Sam Spade, part Woody Allen, all mensch.  Harry Lipkin has been sold to Polygon.  Debut novelist Victoria Whitworth’s The Bone Thief has been sold to Ebury.  The Bone Thief is a detective-quest fiction in the mould of Ellis Peters and CJ Sansom and is set in 10^th C Mercia.

Agents A P Wyatt have the rights of Ben Cheetham’s thriller Blood Guilt under submission to Simon and Schuster.  Blood Guilt is a thriller about a former policeman’s fall from grace and subsequent struggle to atone.  They have also sold to Simon and Schuster Jane Thynne’s novel Black Roses which is a gripping spy thriller set in Berlin in 1933 and gives a rare view of the private lives of the Nazi wives.  To Bloomsbury where Nick Lake has drawn on all-too-real life for his thriller Hostage 3, about a yacht hijacked by Somalian pirates.

Ebury have the world rights to Sherlock: The Casebook the tie-in to the acclaimed BBC series, featuring extracts from Dr Watson's blog, Inspector Lestrade's police reports, newspaper articles about the crimes, Sherlock's detective notes, and clues from the cases. Sherlock will be published in October 2012.

Harper Fiction have the world rights to Michael Russell's novel The City of Shadows which is a murder mystery involving the Church and the Nazi party in 1930s Dublin.  The City of Shadows will be published in September 2012.

Anton Gill's The Sacred Scroll a thriller centred on the Knights Templar, and set in Constantinople in 1204 and in Istanbul in the present day will be published by Michael Joseph who have the world rights in April 2014.

Little Brown have the world rights and will publish in March 2013 The Collector od Lost Things by scriptwriter and editor for Film Four Jeremy Page.  Set in 1850, it is the story of a young researcher who finds intrigue and danger on an Arctic expedition.  Little Brown (who also have the world rights) will also publish in late 2013 the latest William Brodrick Father Anslem novel No Hurry in her Feet which is about a murder with a background in the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Orion have the world rights to Michael Marshall’s new thriller is The Forgotten, about a budding writer who finds himself pursued by "The Followers".  The Forgotten will be published in March 2013.

Random House will publish in October 2012 Silent Witnesses a history of forensic science by Nigel McCrery a former police officer and creator of the TV series Silent Witness.

Simon and Schuster will publish (with world rights) Dead Man’s Land by Robert Ryan in January 2013.  Dead Man’s Land is a literary thriller set in the trenches of the First World War and stars Dr John Watson.

Harvil Secker will publish (and have the English world rights) to Plan D Simon Urban’s bestselling German thriller set in a world in which the Berlin Wall never fell in June 2013.