Sunday, July 10, 2016

Looking Ahead to 2017

Three debut books/authors have been getting some press attention this week.

Out in January 2017 is Rattle by Fiona Cummins, published by Macmillan. My proof copy gives little away about the plot but does say: "If you only read one thriller this year make it this one".

I have found a bit of a synopsis;

Erdman Frith’s life is falling apart. His beloved son Jakey is suffering from a singularly cruel progressive disease, his wife is threatening divorce, and he’s in a dead end job. What Erdman doesn’t know is that someone is watching him and his son and they won’t stop at anything to get hold of what they want. Jakey Frith suffers from Stone Man Syndrome, his bones are fusing together and he is slowly becoming imprisoned by his own skeleton. The shadowy, threatening character of the Bone Collector has inherited a macabre and gruesome museum of medical oddities. He knows about Jakey’s condition and longs to possess his skeleton for his collection. When five year old Clara Foyle, who also suffers from an unusual medical condition goes missing the police, headed up by feisty Detective Sergeant Etta Fitzroy, embark on a hunt for what seems to be a sinister figure who has access to medical records. As the lives and the fates of all the characters become more desperately entangled, Erdman helps Fitzroy to track down the Bone Collector and restore his family. 

Out in November 2017 is Lara Dearman's debut, The Devil's Claw, published by Trapeze. This is the first in a series set on the Channel Islands. From The Bookseller:
Trapeze has signed a crime series set in the Channel Islands by debut author Lara Dearman.

Sam Eades, senior commissioning editor at Trapeze, struck a two-book deal ... The first book in the series The Devil's Claw will be published in November 2017.

The Devil's Claw follows journalist Jennifer Dorey and DCI Michael Gilbert, who pair up after the discovery of a drowned girl on a local beach and Dorey uncovers a pattern of similar deaths over the last 50 years. Together, their investigation will lead them to expose the island’s historical scars, and to ‘Fritz’, the illegitimate son of a Nazi soldier, whose carefully constructed world is now crumbling because of Dorey.

Eades said: "Crime fiction fans love to be transported to different locations, from the wilds of Shetland to the brooding Scandinavian landscape. I cannot wait for readers to explore the island world Lara Dearman has created in her atmospheric debut The Devil's Claw. The Guernsey setting is both beautiful and deadly, and on this stunning backdrop unfolds an ambitious murder mystery interwoven with local tradition and folklore. Lara is a voracious reader of crime fiction and plays with the conventions of the genre, masterfully weaving together crimes from that past and the present told from three characters."

Dearman, a graduate of the Creative Writing MA at St Mary’s University, grew up on Guernsey before moving to the UK to study. Since graduating with a distinction in 2016, she now lives in New York with her husband and three children and is intending to write full-time.

She said: "I was born and raised on Guernsey and have always felt a deep-rooted connection, a longing even, for the familiarity of my island home. It was this feeling together with a desire to explore the darker side of the island’s history - Nazi occupation and folk tales of witchcraft and Devil worship - which led to the idea for The Devil's Claw. I wondered, what it would be like to return to this small, close-knit community after years away. What would happen if, having returned, those feelings of comfort and familiarity so many of us associate with home were shattered – if the island’s dark past caught up with its present and a body washed up on the beach with the driftwood? Sam’s enthusiasm for The Devil's Claw has been overwhelming and I am so excited to be starting my writing career as part of the Orion/Trapeze family."

The Devil's Claw will be published by Trapeze in November 2017 in paperback, e-book and audio with the second book following in Spring 2018.

And out in December 2017 is Jane Robins' Hitchcock-inspired debut, White Bodies, published by Harper Collins' new division HQ:

HQ are delighted to announce acquisition of UK and Commonwealth rights to White Bodies, a unique attention-grabbing debut novel by journalist and author of three non-fiction books Jane Robins. Cleverly reworking Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train for the internet age, White Bodies follows the story of an abusive relationship that tests the unbreakable ties that bind twin sisters.

White Bodies will be published on 28th December 2017 in hardback, ebook and audiobook.

Sally Williamson, Jane Robins’s editor at HQ, said: “Jane has written an utterly mesmerising book that I devoured in one sitting, gripped by every exquisite page. Unique, addictive and darkly twisted, this is going to be huge.” 

White Bodies follows bookseller, Callie, as she watches her beautiful, talented sister visibly shrink and diminish under the domineering love of her new boyfriend. Tilda has stopped working and pretty much stopped eating. Her flat is freakishly clean and tidy, with mugs wrapped in cling film and ominous syringes in the bathroom bin. So worried is Callie that she joins an internet support group – controllingmen.com – for the victims and families of women enduring abuse from their partners. But when one of Callie’s new internet friends is murdered by her abusive partner both Tilda and Callie’s lives spiral out of control.

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