Ampersand’s happy new year
A good news update from us is long overdue. Here are some of the highlights since our last bulletin.
Book deals
Alan Robert Clark’s moving Edwardian love story The Redemption of Isobel Farrer has been acquired by Fairlight Books and will be published in June.
T L Huchu has signed up with Tor (Macmillan) for two more novels in his highly praised urban fantasy series Edinburgh Nights.
Chosen Suspects, a stand-alone thriller by best-selling crime writer Rachel Lynch, has just been snapped up by Canelo.
Following the success of The Great Book of King Arthur, John Matthews has been signed by HarperCollins for a second volume of Arthurian stories Sir Thomas Malory either left out or didn’t know about.
Stephen Williams has a new contract with Joffe Books for the second thriller in his edgy and compelling series featuring a memorably quirky trio of central characters.
The late Philip Purser’s backlist of novels will be published by Lume Books.
Mike Walters has been signed up by Canelo for another of his popular Peak District crime stories featuring DI Annie Delamere.
Books published
Sharon Bolton’s long-awaited The Buried, part of The Craftsman series (Orion), featured strongly in both the Times and Observer reviews of best new crime fiction published in November.
J D Davies’ thrilling new naval adventure series, set during the Napoleonic Wars, will be launched by Canelo with Sailor of Liberty on 19 January.
H R F Keating’s A Perfect Murder, the first book starring the immortal Inspector Ghote, has been chosen by Reader’s Digest for their Greatest Mysteries of All Time series.
Slaughtered Gods, the electrifying final novel in Thilde Kold Holdt’s Hanged God trilogy was published by Solaris in October.
Silent Victim, the tenth book in Michael Wood’s very successful DCI Matilda Darke crime series, was published in November by One More Chapter (HarperCollins).
Prizes and shortlists
Tariq Ashkanani’s acclaimed debut thriller Welcome to Cooper won Bloody Scotland’s Scottish Crime Debut of 2022 Prize.
Moses McKenzie’s outstanding literary novel An Olive Grove in Ends has recently been nominated for the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain First Novel Award 2023. Also, in its December listing of best books of the 2022 The Guardian hailed Moses’ novel as one of 3 debuts that ‘shone out…delves deep…with power and grace.’
TV/film news
Bev Jones’s thriller Wilderness will soon be available as a television series on Amazon Prime, starring Jenna Coleman.
Rachel Lynch’s series of Lake District crime novels featuring DI Kelly Porter has been optioned for film and television by Jules Baker-Smith and Peter Howitt, writer and director of the award-winning film Sliding Doors.
The dramatization of Vikas Swarup’s Six Suspects continues to entrance Indian viewers as The Great Indian Murder, distributed by Hotstar.
More from us soon!