Rights

• Slovak rights to THE FAMILIARS by Stacey Halls have sold to Grada – its 22nd territory!

• Rosanna Forte, commissioning editor at Sphere, has acquired world English rights to THE NIGHT THEY VANISHED. It will published simultaneously by Little, Brown in North America. The story follows 30-year-old Hanna, who discovers her estranged family are missing when her old house is posted on a website as the location of a shocking recent crime. In order to discover what happened to her family, she will have to confront the scandal that tore them apart 14 years ago, and the person determined to make them pay for it.

• THE HOUSE OF FORTUNE by Jessie Burton has been taken up by her Bulgarian option publisher Ciela Norma Ad, and the contract for THE MINIATURIST has been renewed.

• THE WINNOWING FLAME series by Jen Williams has sold to Popcorn Books in Russia. Both THE NINTH RAIN and THE BITTER TWINS won the British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel the year they were published.

• Slovene rights to LAST SEEN ALIVE and LOCAL GIRL MISSING by Claire Douglas have gone to Založba Učila. 

• Andrea Stewart’s THE DROWNING EMPIRE series have all been taken up in Poland by Fabryka Slów, while Russian rights to the second book in the series, THE BONE SHARD EMPEROR have been taken up by her option publisher, Azbooka-Atticus. 

• A German audio book of NOBODY BUT US by Laure Van Rensburg will be produced by Hörbuch Hamburg.

• A German audio book of BREATHLESS and UNTITLED 2 by Amy McCulloch will also be produced by Hörbuch Hamburg.

• Turkish rights to THE SILENT COMPANIONS by Laura Purcell have been taken over by Ithaki.

• Spanish rights to SOMETHING WICKED have gone to Urano in Spain. SOMETHING WICKED is a Gothic suspense set against the backdrop of a Victorian theatre. Inspired by five classic plays, Greek mythology and The Phantom of the Opera, the book explores obsession, superstition, and the cost of ambition.

• Slovak rights to THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE have gone to Slovart, Bulgarian rights have been taken up by Soft Press, and Ukrainian rights went to Family Leisure Club.

News

• Susan Stokes-Chapman’s debut novel PANDORA has been chosen by the Sunday Times as their Historical Fiction Book of the month. It was published on 27 January 2022, and was the #1 Sunday Times bestselling hardback immediately upon publication.

• Laura Purcell’s THE SHAPE OF DARKNESS has been nominated for Best Paperback Original at this year’s Edgar Awards. The 76th annual Edgar Awards will celebrate the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television from 2021. Winners will be announced on April 28th 2022 in New York.

• Richard Osman was the Christmas hardback #1 and paperback #1 with THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE and THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB respectively. Total sales for THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE are now at 605,000. Richard’s second novel also became an instant German bestseller, debuting at #2 on the paperback list, with his first book remaining strong in the #12 position.

• Lia Louis’ EIGHT PERFECT HOURS has also made its way onto the German Bestsellers list where it comfortably sits at #19!

• Abigail Dean’s GIRL A has now sold over 350,000 copies across all formats in the UK. Published in hardback by HarperCollins in January last year, GIRL A became an instant Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, also topping the charts in Ireland and Australia. It spent six weeks in the hardback top ten followed by 15 weeks in the paperback top ten, and the paperback was the third biggest selling of the year, reaching #1 in the UK Kindle charts too.

• Congratulations to two of our Mushens Entertainment authors, who have been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize x Good Housekeeping Futures Award! Abigail Dean was chosen for GIRL A, and Stacey Halls was nominated for her novel MRS ENGLAND. To celebrate 100 years of Good Housekeeping, the magazine teamed up with the Women’s Prize to launch the Women’s Prize x Good Housekeeping Futures Award. A panel of judges have been tasked with finding the most promising female authors under the age of 35.

• ARIADNE by Jennifer Saint has been chosen as Waterstones’ Fiction Book of the Month for January. It then immediately charted at #7 on the Sunday Times Bestsellers paperback list upon publication.

• MRS ENGLAND by Stacey Halls was published in paperback on 6th January 2022 and immediately charted at #9 on the Sunday Times Bestseller list. This means that every title written by Stacey Halls has now charted in both hardback and paperback.

• Nell Pattison’s HIDE has stormed to #1 on the Apple Audiobook Charts after topping the Apple Book Charts in December. Published on December 9th by Lucy Frederick at Avon, it is also garnering rave reviews and has been chosen by The Times as one of The Best New Thrillers for December 2021! Their incredible review says: “There’s a touch of Agatha Christie to Hide...her humour is crisp and even and the plotting as keen as an axe in the skull.

February Publications

17th February: BREATHLESS by Amy McCulloch follows a struggling journalist who is invited on an expedition to climb one of the world’s tallest mountains. But as the team climbs, things go wrong and it quickly becomes clear a murderer is amongst them. It is out in hardback from Michael Joseph.

17th February: ALL THAT LIVES by James Oswald is the latest in the Sunday Times bestselling Inspector McLean series. It is out in hardback from Wildfire.

22nd February: WOULD I LIE TO YOU? by Aliya Ali-Afzal is a page-turning, warm and funny debut about what happens when you have your dream life - and are about to lose it. Out in paperback from Grand Central Publishing in the US.

23rd February: THE LIFE YOU LEFT BEHIND is Debbie Howells’ first women’s fiction novel that follows Casey as she faces a year of firsts after her partner leaves her. When an opportunity to spend time in rural France comes around, she jumps at the opportunity not knowing how much can change in a year. Out in ebook from Boldwood Books.