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DHH News Roundup 21st - 27th November 2022

11/27/2022

Richard Swan appeared on the podcast Page One last week, to talk about his Empire of the Wolf series, and how how long love of Sci-Fi led to him picking up that pen to write his own stories.

You can catch up wherever you get your podcasts, here.

Congratulations to Ragnar Jónasson who last week won the Le Prix Points Par Points Award in Paris, for his debut novel Snjór (Snowblind). The Award celebrates the "best books of the past 50 years", to coincide with 50 years of Le Point.

Readers were asked to vote on their favourite crime novel and, by a huge margin, we were delighted to see Jónasson's book take home the coveted prize.

We are very happy to welcome to the Agency this week, L. J. Weller.

L. J., who joins Harry Illingworth's list, is currently working on her debut novel, a Norfolk-set supernatural mystery inspired by her lifelong interest in urban legends, folktales and ghost stories.

The paperback for M. W. Craven's fifth Washington Poe book, The Botanist, was released last week, as was The Judas Tree by Amanda Jennings (previously published in 2014 as The Judas Scar).

With the festive season fast approaching, look no further than Phillipa Ashley's The Christmas Holiday, which last week was included in LoveReading's November Highlights:

"A gorgeously heart-warming tale of friendship and romance in the perfect setting of the wilds of the Lake District."

Also included was the aforementioned M. W. Craven book, The Botanist:

"An addictively perfect example of a locked room mystery (or two) awaits in this latest addition to one of the best crime series around."

We had some fantastic endorsements come in last week, for upcoming novels to look forward to in 2023:

"Intensely moving, genuinely gripping, plausible and absorbing; this is a stunning debut by a truly talented new writer."
Charlotte Mendelson on Not Alone by Sarah K. Jackson (Picador, April 2023)

"Wow. Swanson gives us what few writers can— a thriller with heart. END OF STORY will undoubtedly be the hit of 2023!"
Christina Dalcher on End of Story by Louise Swanson (Hodder & Stoughton, March 2023)

"So Pretty is like Stephen King on crack; the most accomplished book I've read this year. Dark, gothic as hell, and genuinely scary, Turner has managed to portray loneliness, obsession and monster-worship in one neat little package. I dare you to open it ... Oh, and that curiosity shop is the stuff of nightmares."
M. W. Craven on So Pretty by Ronnie Turner (Orenda Books, January 2023)

The debut crime fiction novel from Graham Bartlett, Bad For Good, has been shortlisted for The Crime Fiction Lover Awards 2022.

Graham's novel was released earlier this year and hailed as a "cracking debut" by fellow novelist Mark Billingham, with the Daily Mail stating that fellow Brighton-based author, Peter James "had better watch out, he has a new competitor."

You can vote in all categories here, and voting closes at noon on 30th November.

Finally, huge congratulations to A. J. West, who last week took home the HWA Debut Crown Award for his novel, The Spirit Engineer, fighting off stiff competition.

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DHH News Roundup 14th - 20th November 2022

11/20/2022

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Over the weekend, we were delighted to see Noel O'Reilly's upcoming novel, The Darlings of the Asylum (HQ, December 2022) reviewed in The Times, who branded this fabulous historical tale "always engaging".

Last week, we welcomed the first of three new clients to the Agency.

Boston-based Ryan Rose, who works in event production, joins Harry Illingworth's list, and will be working on his debut novel, Seven Recipes for Revolution.

The Danish rights for M. W. Craven's forthcoming standalone, Fearless, were sold to current Denmark publishers, Jentas.

Fearless is the first in a new series, featuring Ben Koenig, and will be released in June 2023.

David Headley saw two new clients join his list last week:

Jón Atli Jónasson is one of Iceland's foremost playwrights and his plays have been performed in London, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Athens. He has also written several scripts for film, most notably The Deep, produced by 101 Studios Iceland, based on his own play. Jón Atli has various projects in different stages of development, with companies including Warner Brothers TV in Germany and Turbine Studios in the UK.

Kathy Lette is a journalist, sitcom writer and author, who has several international bestsellers under her belt, including Mad Cow, How To Kill Your Husband (And Other Handy Household Tips) and The Boy Who Fell To Earth. Her novels have been published in seventeen languages around the world - and we have very exciting news about Kathy, coming very soon...!

Get your diaries out, bookworms: client Victoria Selman will be taking part in a 2023 event at Goldsboro Books Brighton: Celebrating Women In Crime Fiction.

Victoria will be sitting down with fellow female crime heavyweights, Elly Griffiths, Araminta Hall and Ruth Ware on Wednesday 1st March at 6.30pm.

Head to this link to book tickets.

The covers for both the UK (below left) and US (below right) versions of M. W. Craven's Fearless, were revealed last week:

Everyone is looking for Ben Koenig. Be careful what you wish for.

Ben Koenig is a ghost. He doesn't exist any more.

Six years ago it was Koenig who headed up the US Marshal's elite Special Ops group. They were the elite unit who hunted the bad guys - the really bad guys. They did this so no one else had to.

Until the day Koenig disappeared. He told no one why and he left no forwarding address. For six years he became a grey man. Invisible. He drifted from town to town, state to state. He was untraceable. It was as if he had never been.

But now Koenig's face is on every television screen in the country. Someone from his past is trying to find him and they don't care how they do it. In the burning heat of the Chihuahuan Desert lies a town called Gauntlet, and there are people in there who have a secret they'll do anything to protect. They've killed before and they will kill again.

Only this time they've made a mistake. They've dismissed Koenig as just another drifter - but they're wrong. Because Koenig has a condition, a unique disorder that makes it impossible for him to experience fear.

And now they're about to find out what a truly fearless man is capable of. Because Koenig's coming for them. And hell's coming with him...

Finally, we were thrilled with the news last week that Sean Lusk's debut, The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley, as well as appearing on BBC2's Between the Covers, was shortlisted for the Scottish First Book of the Year Award 2022.

The Scottish National Book Awards have been awarded by the Saltire Society since 1937 and in 2022 are supported by The National Library of Scotland and the Scottish Historical Review Trust. All entrants must be born in Scotland, live in Scotland or their books must be about Scotland.

The winners of each category will receive a bespoke Award created by Inverness-based artist Simon Baker of Evergreen Studios. Winners of all the Awards will be announced at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh on the evening of 8 December attended by the judges, shortlisted authors and publishers.

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DHH News Roundup 7th - 13th November 2022

11/13/2022

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Happy Publication Day to million-copy bestseller, Anna Jacobs, who last week saw the publication of the first in her brand new Jubilee Lake series, Silver Wishes:

Lancashire, 1895. When her controlling stepfather suddenly dies, it seems that Elinor Pendleton finally has a chance of freedom. But her hopes are soon dashed when she learns that the thuggish Jason Stafford has inherited every penny, and is determined to have Elinor too.

Forced to flee with her beloved maid, Maude, Elinor finds shelter with Maude's distant cousin in the remote village of Ollerthwaite, on the shore of Jubilee Lake.

But Walter Crossley has troubles of his own. Having lost his closest family in a tragic accident, he needs one of his grandsons to return from America to inherit his farm - and when practical, kindhearted Cameron arrives, he appears to be the perfect heir.

But is this young man everything he seems? And will Elinor's secret wish to have a family of her own ever come true...?

Congratulations to Eve Seymour, who has sold two more titles to current publisher, Joffe Books.

Beautiful Losers and An Imperfect Past (previously published by Midnight Ink), starring clinical psychologist Kim Slade, are due for publication in 2023.

More to come on these titles soon!

Also published last week was the paperback for The Christmas Castle In Scotland, the brand new 'Romantic Escapes' novel from Julie Caplin.

Izzy McBride had never in a million years expected to inherit an actual castle from her great uncle Bill but here she was, in the run up to Christmas, Monarch of her own Glen – a very rundown glen in need of a lot of TLC if her dream of turning it into a boutique bed and breakfast was to come true.

But when Izzy’s eccentric mother rents a room to enigmatic thriller author Ross Adair and the Scottish snow starts to settle like the frosting on a Christmas cake, it’s a race to get the castle ready before they’re all snowed in for the holidays.

If you're looking to bump up your holiday reading even further, then Phillipa Ashley's The Christmas Holiday, published last week, will tick every box you could have:

Krystle didn’t have a normal childhood and longed for warm family Christmases with presents under the tree. Now she makes sure everyone else has the perfect Christmas she never had, bringing beautiful decorations to cheer as many people as possible.
With her festive business booming, she decides to celebrate by renting a secluded house in the Lakes, with a plan to make this the ultimate yuletide getaway.

But fate immediately throws a spanner in the works in the form of a broken-down car, a flooded river and Max; a man who despises Christmas.

Krystle becomes determined to show Max the joys of the holiday. She won’t take no for an answer. Can she melt Max’s Grinch-like heart? And can he show her that life doesn’t need to go to plan to take you somewhere magical…

The paperback cover for Clare Whitfield's second novel, The Gone and the Forgotten, was revealed over the weekend.

Hot on the heels of the announcement of her second two-book deal with current publishers, Head of Zeus, the paperback will be published in January 2023.

Pre-order here!

The last book to be published last week was the new murder mystery from our resident 'King of the Locked Room', Chris McGeorge. A Murder at the Castle (set during a snowy Aberdeenshire Christmas) is out now:

During a violent snowstorm, the Royal Family gather at the Castle for a traditional Christmas together. Amid rumours that he plans to name a new successor, King Eric stands to make his traditional after-dinner speech. He sips from a glass of his favourite whisky- and drops dead.

The king has been poisoned, and only one of the royals could have done the deed. Trapped by the raging blizzard, it is up to Eric's beloved head chef, Jonathan Alleyne, to play detective and get to the bottom of this heinous crime.

Jon is determined to expose the truth, even if it puts him in grave danger, and threatens to shake the entire monarchy to its core...

Finally, we are delighted to remind you that The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley, the debut novel from Sean Lusk, will be featured on BBC2's Between the Covers tomorrow evening at 7pm. Make sure to tune in!

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DHH News Roundup 31st October - 6th November 2022

11/6/2022

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A brand new month equals a new set of Kindle Monthly Deals for your eReading pleasure. Click on the covers below to take you straight to the deal.

Our thanks to Woman & Home for reviewing two festive sparklers: The Christmas Holiday by Phillipa Ashley and Keeping A Christmas Promise by Jo Thomas:

The Christmas Holiday is also a LoveReadingUK Pick of the Month:

"A gorgeously heart-warming tale of friendship and romance in the perfect setting of the wilds of the Lake District ... it is a perfect Christmas treat for anyone wanting to experience some sparkle and joy."

The cover reveal for the upcoming memoir from Louise Beech, Eighteen Seconds, was revealed last week:

Family is the best thing in your life. And the worst.

My mother once said to me, ‘I wish you could feel the way I do for eighteen seconds. Just eighteen seconds, so you’d know how awful it is.’

I thought about it. Realised we could all learn from being in another person’s head for eighteen seconds. Eighteen seconds inside Grandma Roberts’ head as she sat alone with her evening cup of tea, us girls upstairs in bed. Eighteen seconds inside one-year-old Colin’s head when he woke up in a foster home without his family. Eighteen seconds inside the head of a girl waiting for her bedroom door to open.

Writer, Louise Beech, looks back on the events that led to the day her mother wrote down her last words, then jumped off the Humber Bridge. She missed witnessing the horror herself by minutes.

Louise recounts the pain and trauma of her childhood alongside her love for her siblings with a delicious dark humour and a profound voice of hope for the future.

The book will be published by Mardle in April 2023.

Congratulations to Julie Caplin, whose new Romantic Escapes book, The Christmas Castle in Scotland, was published last week in eBook.

Unwrap this gorgeous gift of a book for an escape to the snow-peaked caps of the Scottish Highlands and a romance that will melt your heart...

A few months ago, we told you of the fantastic news that T. M. Payne's debut novels starring Detective Sheridan Holler, had been sold to Amazon in a three-book deal, with the first, Already Dead, set to publish in January 2024.

We are delighted to reveal that the books have also been sold to Thomas & Mercer in Germany.

Another cover revealed last week was Sarah Bonner's second book, Her Sweet Revenge.

Secrets and lies ruin lives

Two women receive an anonymous note.
For one it's a threat.
For the other it's an invitation for revenge.

Helena is beautiful, successful, and living in married bliss in Exeter. But she's hiding a secret that could tear her perfect life apart. When the notes begin to arrive, she realises someone else must know her secret. But what might her husband and his overbearing family do if they find out the truth?

Thea is reeling from her best friend Helena's death. But when she starts digging into the circumstances, she receives a threatening note warning her to stop. She knows her friend's death wasn't an accident. This was murder. And she is determined to get revenge...

The book will be published by Hodder & Stoughton in April 2023.

The recently-published second YA novel from Amy Beashel, We Are All Constellations, received a fantastic review from The Irish Times:

"[Amy's second novel] echoes the emotional authenticity of her first ... This is a book about mental illness without being anything as reductive as an "issue book"; it is both insightful and compulsively readable."

Finally, huge congratulations to Victoria Selman, who this week finalised a deal with Union Square & Co publishers in the US, for her latest book, Truly, Darkly, Deeply - a huge hit of summer 2022 and a Sunday Times bestseller.

Congratulations, Victoria!

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DHH News Roundup 21st - 27th November 2022

DHH News Roundup 14th - 20th November 2022

DHH News Roundup 7th - 13th November 2022

DHH News Roundup 31st October - 6th November 2022

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