Welcome to our May Rights Update! There’s been a lot of international love and exciting news for Mushens Entertainment books this month - check out what we’ve been up to below…

Rights

• Turkish rights to HOLD BACK THE STARS by Katie Khan have been renewed by Yabanci.

• The 12th and 13th territories for MRS ENGLAND by Stacey Halls have sold to Piper in Germany, and Neripozza in Italy.

• PANDORA by Susan Stokes-Chapman has sold in Poland to Kobiece.

• Bulgarian rights to Elodie Harper’s THE WOLF DEN have gone to Ciela Norma. Both THE WOLF DEN and THE HOUSE WITH THE GOLDEN DOOR have sold in Slovakia to Ikar!

• Romanian rights to TWELVE SECRETS by Robert Gold have sold to Niculescu.

• German rights to Taran Matharu’s debut adult fantasy trilogy, DRAGON RIDER have sold to Heyne.

• BREATHLESS by Amy McCulloch has sold in Slovakia to Slovensky – her 15th publisher!

• Romanian rights to Claire Douglas’s THE COUPLE AT NO 9 have sold to Grup Media. Furthermore, German rights to THE GIRLS WHO DISAPPEARED have sold to Penguin.

• Lithuanian rights to Richard Osman’s THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE been taken up by his publisher Jotema. Furthermore, Catalan rights to THE BULLET THAT MISSED sold to Columna.

News

• ELEKTRA by Jennifer Saint debuted at #1 on the Sunday Times Bestseller list in hardback upon publication! She returns to the charts with another spellbinding reimagining of Greek myth, this time focused on the origins of the Trojan War and the dreadful curse blighting the House of Atreus.

• Louise O’Neill continues to dominate the Irish chart with IDOL which retained its #1 position. Furthermore, it zoomed to #12 on the Sunday Times List in the UK this week! Riveting, compulsive and bold, IDOL interrogates our relationship with our heroes and explores the world of online influencers, asking how well we can ever really know those whose carefully curate profiles we follow online. And it asks us to consider how two memories of the same event can differ, and how effortlessly we choose which stories to believe.

• THE HOUSE WITH THE GOLDEN DOOR, the second in the WOLF DEN series by Elodie Harper, debuted at #9 on the Sunday Times Bestseller list in hardback. Freed from Pompeii's brothel, yet now owned as a courtesan, Amara is determined to have revenge on those who wronged her. Yet what will she risk to retain her newfound power?

• Claire Douglas was awarded the Nielsen Silver Bestseller Award for selling over 250,000 copies of THE COUPLE AT NO 9.

• Richard Osman and Abigail Dean were victorious at the CrimeFest 2022 Awards. Richard was awarded the Audible Sounds of Crime Award for the audio version of THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE. Meanwhile, the eDunnit Award for the best crime fiction ebook first published in both hardcopy and in electronic format was won by Abigail Dean for GIRL A.

• GIRL A by Abigail Dean has been longlisted for the prestigious Theakston old Peculier Crime Novel of The Year. You can read more about the award and vote here!

• This week we received the amazing news that Richard Osman’s THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE sold over 85,000 paperback copies within 10 days of sales. Across all formats, this book has now sold over 1,073,000 copies in the UK. Furthermore, THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB has sold over 2,835,000 copies across all formats.

June Publications

• 2nd June: Jaq Silver is back with a bang in this high-octane third novel in the Chemical Detective series. THE CHEMICAL COCKTAIL by Fiona Erskine follows Jaq after her mother dies and she inherits conspiracies and mysteries that she must unravel. This is out in paperback from Point Blank books.

• 2nd June: Mary Chamberlain’s “utterly absorbing novel” THE FORGOTTEN tells the story of Betty Fisher, one of the first to join the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and attend its inaugural meeting, where she meets John Harris. Posted to Berlin towards the end of the war, John has been left traumatised by his experiences in Germany. John's increasing fragility brings to the surface Betty's own memories. And soon her past, too, begins to unravel. Published in paperback by Oneworld.

• 9th June: Natalie Chandler’s debut thriller BELIEVE ME NOT follows Megan as she awakes after giving birth only to find her baby isn’t there, and that she isn’t in a maternity ward – she’s in a psychiatric facility. But a mother knows – doesn’t she? Out in paperback from Headline Accent.

• 9th June: MEREDITH ALONE by Claire Alexander follows the titular character as she hasn’t left her house for over 1,200 days. But as new people enter her life, she goes on a journey that is more than just finding the courage to walk out the front door. Out in hardback from Michael Joseph.

• 21st/23rd June: THE FINAL STRIFE by Saara El-Arifi is the first in a new epic fantasy series that follows three women, divided by blood colour, but united in challenging the Empire. This is one you absolutely do not want to miss. It is out in the US and the UK respectively from Del Rey and HarperVoyager.