The next selection of novels for the BBC Radio 2 Book Club have been announced, and we are delighted to see that Stuart Turton's second highly-anticipated novel, The Devil and the Dark Water has been included in the line-up.

The books will feature with Jo Whiley, over the next three months. 

HarperCollins has swooped to secure a new wartime saga from former The Archers writer Joanna Toye.

Lynne Drew, publishing director, bought world English rights from Broo Doherty at DHH in a two-book deal.

The Victory Girls will be published in May 2021. It traces the fortunes of Toye’s popular Shop Girls series characters Lily, Beryl and Gladys as the war enters its final year. The finale of the book takes place during the VE Day celebrations in London on 8th May.

The series was inspired when Toye visited an archive exhibition about her own local department store, Beatties, in Wolverhampton and memorabilia from the store planted the seed of an idea. The publisher said: “In this new novel, the store (Marlow’s) continues to feature as it recovers from bomb damage and battles with rationing and shortages but the girls are spreading their wings, as marriage, babies and the lure of call-up posters pose fresh challenges.”

Drew said: “It has been so exciting to work with Jo and see the reader passion for her books grow so quickly and I can’t wait to bring The Victory Girls to readers old and new next spring. She has a pitch-perfect eye for the kind of uplifting, warm wartime drama that it’s bliss to escape into.”

Toye worked on the production team of "The Archers" for 10 years and was a scriptwriter for the programme for over 20. On television she has written for Crossroads, Family Affairs, Doctors and EastEnders. Toye’s fourth novel with HarperCollins, Christmas for the Shop Girls, will be published in October this year.

She said: “After four books in the Shop Girls series, I didn’t want to leave the characters and readers didn’t want me to either. I feel very lucky that the team at HarperCollins feel the same and [lucky] to be working with them again.”

​Taken from The Bookseller article | Mark Chandler

Last wee, The Bookseller ran a fantastic interview with the man who puts the 'DHH' into well, DHH Literary Agency - David Headley!

In the run-up to Frankfurt, we were delighted to see such a brilliant piece, detailing our history as an agency, and our recent successes.

With the publication of Jean Levy's second psychological thriller Other Women just over two weeks ago, the book has been picking up fantastic reviews throughout the blog tour, and we are delighted to share a few of them with you:

"I thoroughly enjoyed this beautifully written book; the riveting plot twists and turns, the dialogue often sparkles with humour amidst the drama and the characters are compelling and authentic. Very highly recommended." Hair Past A Freckle

"Levy’s writing is seriously clever and must be appreciated fully. This is not your usual easy thriller, but it’s a clever, intense, unique novel that really hooked me from the start. I loved this." Bookish Blogging

"I thought this was a brilliant read. It really thrust me into the heart of the action, I enjoyed the characterisations, the unfolding mystery, and it’s just a really cracking story." Short Book and Scribes

"Other Women is a twisted domestic take on a psychological thriller, one that kept my attention constantly throughout and was absolutely worth the late night! Yes, I loved it." The Reading Closet

Published just last week was the eBook for Jo Thomas' brand new warm and romantic feel-good book, Finding Love at the Christmas Market. 

Already off to a flying start, it has been selected for the Zoella Book Club pick for December, and readers adore this festive, sparkly read.

"It's Christmas in a book!" Katie Fforde
"Sprinkled with Christmas magic." Milly Johnson
"With a wonderful cast of characters and an evocative setting, it just wouldn't be Christmas without Jo's book in your stocking." Jill Mansell
"A scrumptious seasonal treat!" Heidi Swain

Published later this week, Clare Whitfield's debut People of Abandoned Character featured in both Woman & Home and the Sunday Times Crime Club. This dark and gothic tale set in Victorian London is the perfect read as the nights draw in and there's all the more reason to snuggle up with a good book!

Finally, congratulations to Joanna Toye - her new saga series, beginning with The Victory Girls, has been bought by HarperCollins, the home of her first Shop Girl series. The deal was negotiated by Broo Doherty.

The book traces the fortunes of the girls from the Shop Girls series, Lily, Beryl and Gladys as the war enters its final year. The finale of the book takes place during the VE celebrations in London on 8th May. 

The Victory Girls will publish in May 2021.

Bonnier Books UK has acquired an "intensely creepy" serial killer thriller debut, The Art of Death by David Fennell, to publish under the Zaffre imprint in February 2021.

UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, were acquired by Katherine Armstrong, editorial director at Zaffre, from David Headley at the DHH Literary Agency.

According to the publisher, the book will appeal to fans of Chris Carter, M W Craven and The Whisper Man, and is "incredibly timely" as the killer uses the internet to stalk and catfish his victims.

The book opens with a scenario in which an underground artist leaves three glass cabinets in Trafalgar Square that contain a gruesome installation: the corpses of three homeless men. The synopsis reads: "With the artist promising more to follow, newly promoted Detective Inspector Grace Archer and her caustic DS, Harry Quinn, must race against time to follow what few clues have been left by a savvy killer."

Armstrong, editorial director at Zaffre, commented on the deal: "When I first read The Art of Death, I was really drawn to the character of DI Grace Archer. She is a woman who has survived a traumatic past, but who is determined not to let it define her. Grace is a believable and relatable character and her new partnership with DS Harry Quinn is brilliantly played out – Quinn is a caustic Belfast man with a dry, black humour that I am very familiar with! London, too, is almost another character and you can really visualise the city as Archer and Quinn – and the killer – wander through its chartered streets. With a serial killer every bit as devious and deranged as the one in Mark Billingham’s debut Sleepyhead, I can’t wait to introduce readers to this deliciously dark and twisted thriller. You’ll certainly be more wary of what you put online after you read this!"

Fennell, from Belfast, has been working in the software industry in cyber security for the past 14 years; this is his debut crime novel. He said: "I'm absolutely delighted to be joining Katherine Armstrong and the amazing team at Bonnier Books UK. Katherine has a brilliant reputation for publishing crime novels and I'm excited to be working with her."

Taken from The Bookseller article | Katherine Cowdrey

Amanda Jennings' The Storm picked up a fantastic review, courtesy of Mystery People:

"In The Storm, Amanda Jennings has taken the elements of the psychological thriller and domestic noir, and woven them into an unputdownable story."

​Full review here.

If you haven't read this gripping book on coercive control and the consequences of mistakes past, what are you doing still read this?? Go and buy a copy!

M. W. Craven's The Curator, the third in his Washington Poe series, has had Czech Republic rights sold to Dobrovsky, the same home as the first two: The Puppet  Show and Black Summer.

We're welcoming a new client to DHH this week.

Judith Parker joins Hannah Sheppard's list and we're doubly delighted as Judith's joining us, as she was one of our pitchers at Pitch DHH: York back in 2018. 

Currently Judith is an actress and also works in the education sector, after having worked in administration for Children's and Young People's Services. Earlier this year, Judith was longlisted for the Hachette Children's Northern Writers' Award. She lives in County Durham and is working on her first book.

Finally, and some of the most exciting news to start the week with:

CBS Studios has struck a global first-look deal with Greg Silverman's Stampede Ventures International and has set its first project - an adaptation of Ragnar Jónasson's best-selling Nordic Noir book, The Darkness.  

The series will be eight parts, and takes it setting from the book: Reykjavík in Iceland. It follows Hermansdóttir, who is given two weeks before retirement to solve the cold case of a young Russian woman whose body washes up on the Icelandic shore. Hulda discovers that another young woman vanished at the same time, and that no one is telling her the whole story. 

Stay turned for more on this exciting news, but in the meantime, congratulations, Ragnar!

We welcomed two new clients to the agency this week. 

Rebecca Griffiths joins Broo Doherty's list, and Sarah Jackson will be represented by Harry Illingworth.

Rebecca grew up in mid-Wales and went on to gain a first class honours degree in English literature. After a successful business career in London, Dublin and Scotland, she returned to rural mid-Wales where she now lives with her husband, a prolific artist, four vampiric cats and pet sheep the size of sofas. 

Sarah is an ecologist specialising in botany and has a keen human-wildlife coexistence, conservation, climate change and microplastics pollution. Her job has taken her all around the UK, and provides plenty of inspiration for her wiring. Before completing a Masters in Conservation Ecology at Oxford Brookes University, Sarah studied Psychology and Criminology at Cardiff University.

Femi Kayode took part in an interview for University of East Anglia's blog and you can catch up with it here. 

In 2018, Femi - a previous creative writing student of UAE - won the Little, Brown award for his debut crime fiction novel Lightseekers, which was subsequently snapped up for publication by Bloomsbury's Raven imprint. 

The book is out in February 2021 and is the first in the Philip Taiwo series. 

Three young students are brutally murdered in a Nigerian university town, their killings - and their killers - caught on social media. The world knows who murdered them; what no one knows is why.

Also published last week was L. C. Tyler's new John Grey mystery, Death of a Shipbuilder. This is the sixth in the series, and true to form, it is fabulously gritty and a fantastic addition to the series. 

It has already picked up a brilliant review from Classic Mystery blog:

"What is ultimately chilling about the whole thing though is that while nothing in the plot is so odd that it couldn’t have happened, as per the author’s afterword, almost all of it actually did. Len has used these events to produce another outstanding historical tale. This series of historical crime tales is definitely one that should be on your must-read list."

​You can read the whole review here.

Carys Jones' new psychological thriller, The List, is just over a month away from its paperback publication and we were delighted over the weekend to see this brilliant pre-pub quote from fellow author Lesley Kara:

"I can't put it down ... addictive reading."

Five names on a list. The first two are dead. The third is yours. Pre-order your copy here.

Stuart Turton's The Devil and the Dark Water is among the seven books that will be featured on the new BBC2 book club programme "Between the Covers", hosted by Sara Cox.

The show will launch on Friday 9th October and will run as seven 30-minute episodes. Four celebrity guests—identities still to be unveiled—will join Cox each week to discuss the chosen book of the week, with an introduction via a recorded clip featuring an interview with the author.

All the featured books will be stickered and available in bookshops, libraries and online with viewers encouraged to join in the discussion using #betweenthecovers.


​Taken from The Bookseller article | Benedicte Page

Jo Thomas' gorgeous books The Olive Branch and Escape to the French Farmhouse have both been sold to Polaris in Sweden. 

The Olive Branch was published in 2015 by Headline, and Escape to the French Farmhouse was released by Transworld, last month in paperback. 

These brilliant tiles are included in September's Kindle Monthly Deal, for a fraction of their usual price!

Sara MacDonald's The Hour Before Dawn (99p)

Anita Frank's haunting and gothic debut, The Lost Ones (£1.99)

To take advantage of either of these brilliant deals, simply click on the title above.

Lightseekers, the highly-anticipated debut novel from Femi Kayode, has been sold to Bazar Kustannus Oy in Finland.

This will make it the eighth territory the book has sold in pre-publication. 

Lightseekers will be published in February 2021 by Bloomsbury Raven.

Also published last week was Cut Short, the eBook of three brand new short stories by M. W. Craven, in the Washington Poe series. 

The Killing Field, Why Don't Sheep Shrink? and Dead Man's Fingers​ are available now for only £1.99, sent direct to your eReader.