Alex Clark debut DOVECOMBE lands with Norton

Photo credit: Andy Pilsbury

World English language rights for Alex Clark’s debut gothic mystery DOVECOMBE have been sold to Nneoma Amadi-obi at Norton by Siân Ellis-Martin at Blake Friedmann Literary Agency. The book is set to publish in January 2027.

In DOVECOMBE, intense, repressed Dorrie is secretly in love with vivid, self-assured Alys. When Dorrie’s abusive marriage implodes, the two women flee to Alys’ remote family home, Dovecombe Manor. Hoping for a haven, Dorrie finds instead a ruin sunk deep in eerie woodland, haunted by an historic curse and held in limbo by a decade-old unsolved arson.

When suspicions about the fire focus on Alys, eroding Alys’s sanity, Dorrie sets out to protect the woman she loves. Her quest draws her into the sinful pasts of the manor and its secretive and vengeful occupants, including calculating matriarch Caroline, who will stop at nothing to restore Dovecombe and her family to their former grandeur. But in this bleak, wild landscape stalked by violence, pulsing with malice and dread, the most dangerous thing of all might be Dorrie…

Written in an evocative literary style, rich in atmosphere and sensory details, DOVECOMBE is a modern gothic for readers of Daphne du Maurier and Sarah Waters.

Alex Clark said ‘DOVECOMBE is a love letter to the Gothic, and I was lucky enough to find an agent and an editor who share that love. Nneoma’s editorial vision has made the book the best version of itself, and I could not be happier to be working with the fantastic team at WW Norton.’

Nneoma Amadi-obi said ‘DOVECOMBE is immersive storytelling, from the well-drawn characters, to the richly-imagined setting, to the arresting plot. I can't wait for readers to be introduced to DOVECOMBE and to characters that will stay with you long after reading.’

Sian Ellis-Martin said ‘DOVECOMBE’s opening lines had me immediately hooked and it was impossible to put the book down. Working with Alex is such a joy and I’m so pleased we’ve found the perfect home for DOVECOMBE in Norton. I’m excited for readers to meet Dorrie and Alys and to experience the spine-tingling tension and beauty of Alex’s writing.’

About Alex Clark

Alex Clark is a novelist, short story writer, poet, and connoisseur of all things Gothic. She is an undercover Northerner based in Cheltenham, where she lives with her husband and children. Her career has been varied, including stints as a cathedral stonemason, industrial archaeologist and gardener. Her short stories and poems have appeared in The Mechanics’ Institute Review Online, Shooter Literary Magazine, Prole, Litro Online, Lighthouse Journal, The North, and anthologies by The Fiction Desk. She’s read at the Cheltenham Literature Festival and received a mention in Salt Publishing’s Best British Short Stories 2019.

Harry Whitehead’s WHITE ROAD longlisted for 2026 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize

WHITE ROAD – the ‘spellbinding’ arctic-set ecothriller by Harry Whitehead – has been longlisted for the tenth Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, awarded by The Wilbur & Niso Smith Foundation. The award celebrates the very best in paperback books, across a number of genres, ‘where adventure can be found’, in the spirit of the award’s co-founder, the late international-bestselling author Wilbur Smith.

WHITE ROAD – the thrilling, unforgettable story of two survivors of a devastating oil rig explosion in the high arctic, and the mystery behind the catastrophe – was published in September 2025 by indie publisher Claret Press, and audiobook publisher WF Howes, gaining plaudits from Liz Jensen, Mark Cocker and Eve Smith, who named the book one of her favourite reads of 2025 in the Daily Express.

‘It feels fortuitous to be celebrating a decade of adventure fiction in the National Year of Reading,’ said Niso Smith, prize founder, on the announcement of the longlist. ‘Adventure stories are a gateway into reading for both children and adults, but they can also offer devoted readers something new – as this expansive longlist does! Wilbur Smith shared over 60 years of his adventures with the world and now we’re proudly working with readers to celebrate and support the contemporary writers who are redefining the genre. The focus on paperback will allow us to bring adventure stories to even more readers, and to do so with such accomplished books is incredibly exciting. Congratulations to each of the authors!’

The shortlist will be announced on Thursday 28 May, and the winner will be announced at a reception at Foyles’ flagship Charing Cross Road bookshop on 17 September, with the victor taking home the trophy and a £10,000 prize. Previous winners include Costanza Casati, Francesca de Torres, Emma Styles, Abir Mukherjee and Stef Penney.

Congratulations Harry!

About WHITE ROAD

‘An intelligent, urgent, white-knuckle ride… a novel that will get you thinking, keep you guessing – and leave you reeling.’ – Liz Jensen

‘A compelling eco-thriller with big themes and an unforgiving icescape that’s a character in itself.’ – Eve Smith

‘A spellbinding adventure story, told with anger, wit and a sense of beauty.’ – Mat Coward, Morning Star

Only one knows the truth. Only one can reveal it. Only one can save them all…

Carrie, a Scottish rescue swimmer out of her depth in the High Arctic. Ross, the owner of an oil rig with a guilty conscience. Amaruq, an Inuvialuit oil-rig worker caught between two worlds.

Stranded on the Arctic ice with a starving polar bear and a half-dead stranger, Carrie’s left with nothing but deadly choices. Ross and Amaruq face their own crossroads. Lives hang on their decisions.

From the cruel Arctic to the corporate backrooms of shady Big Oil, WHITE ROAD is an authentic and gripping eco-thriller of survival, battled out at the edge of everything.

About Harry Whitehead

Harry Whitehead is a novelist and Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Leicester, where he directs the annual free literature festival, Literary Leicester. He has been a Wingate Scholar and an Eccles Centre Fellow in North American Studies at the British Library. Before academia, he lived for several years in the Far East before returning to the UK to work in the film business as an assistant director, location manager and, latterly, a story consultant.

His debut novel, THE CANNIBAL SPIRIT (Penguin Canada) is a work of literary historical fiction set among the First Peoples of Canada at the turn of the twentieth century. The product of some fifteen years of historical and ethnographic research, it was reviewed as ‘powerful, brave, ambitious’ (The Globe and Mail), ‘a thriller with a Joseph Conradian plot’ (The Walrus), ‘a unique work, compelling, complex, thought-provoking and impressive’ (Quill and Quire).

His second novel, WHITE ROAD, a literary thriller set in the High Arctic, was published in September 2025 by Claret Press and WF Howes.

Visit Harry’s website

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GUNNER by Alan Parks longlisted for 2026 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award

Edgar Award and McIlvanney Prize-winning author Alan Parks has received his second consecutive nomination – and third overall – for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, this time with his World War Two thriller GUNNER. The award is given by a votes from both the votes from the Theakston Crime Academy and the general public – you can cast your ballot for Alan and GUNNER via the official Theakston Old Peculier Crime Award website from now until Thursday 28 May at 23:59 BST.

Presented as part of Harrogate’s annual Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, to be held from 23-26 July 2026, the award celebrates excellence, originality and the very best in crime fiction from UK and Irish authors. The winner – following in the footsteps of recent victors Mick Herron, Val McDermid, Denise Mina, Chris Whitaker and Abir Mukherjee – will be revealed on Thursday 23 July, the opening night of the Festival, and will receive £3,000 and a handmade, engraved beer barrel.

GUNNER marks its third prize nomination, following nods for the CWA Historical Dagger and the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year.

Alan Parks’s GUNNER was published by John Murray’s Baskerville imprint in the UK last year and made its debut last month in North America, where it’s published by Pegasus Books and garnered starred reviews from Publishers’ Weekly and Booklist. GUNNER will soon be followed by Book Two in the trilogy, DECEPTION, which whisks Joseph Gunner from Blitz-torn Glasgow to the streets of 1941 New York, following Gunner as he is drawn into a Secret Service conspiracy to lead the Americans into the war – no matter what the cost. Baskerville publish DECEPTION in the UK on 2 July, followed by Pegasus Books in North America on 1 September.

Rights to GUNNER have also sold in Spain, France, Italy and the Netherlands.

Congratulations Alan!

About GUNNER

‘Great storytelling… I loved it’ – Peter James

‘Great stuff… a vivid sense of place and time and what a main character!’ – Ian Rankin

‘In this superb historical espionage thriller, Parks excels at capturing the brutality of war… Gunner, meanwhile, is a clever, endearing hero whose personal and professional baggage have enough heft to sustain future instalments. This is a winner.’ – starred review, Publishers’ Weekly

March, 1941. Joseph Gunner is back on the streets of Glasgow after being wounded on the front lines in France.

Keeping the pain in his leg at bay with the help of morphine, Gunner, a former detective, is hoping to keep his head down as the Luftwaffe begin bombing Glasgow.

But when he runs into his old boss Drummond, he is persuaded to help examine a body found in the wreckage. When the body turns out to be that of a German, mutilated to disguise his identity, Gunner reluctantly agrees to investigate.

As Gunner begins to hunt for the truth he runs into old flames, bitter enemies, before finding himself embroiled in a high-level conspiracy that reaches far beyond his hometown of Glasgow.

Partly inspired by the true story of Rudolph Hess's secret mission to broker appeasement with Britain during WWII, GUNNER is an atmospheric and addictive new thriller from one of Britain's best-loved writers.

Credit: Euan Robertson

About Alan Parks

Alan was born in Scotland and attended The University of Glasgow where he was awarded a M.A. in Moral Philosophy. He still lives and works in the city that is so vividly depicted in the 1970s setting of his Harry McCoy thrillers – and now in his WWII GUNNER series too!

He was Creative Director at London Records in the mid 1990’s, then at Warner Music, where he created ground-breaking campaigns for artists including All Saints, New Order, The Streets, Gnarls Barclay and Cee Lo Green. His debut novel BLOODY JANUARY propelled him onto the international literary crime fiction scene immediately and his work has been sold in many languages and recognised by critics and prize judges alike.

BLOODY JANUARY was shortlisted for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière; FEBRUARY’S SON was nominated for an Edgar Award; BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER won the 2022 Edgar Award for Paperback Original, the 2023 Prix Mystère de la Critique and was shortlisted for the Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel as well as being a The Times ‘Best Book of the Year’ pick; THE APRIL DEAD was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year in 2021, which MAY GOD FORGIVE won in 2022. MAY GOD FORGIVE was shortlisted for the 2023 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and longlisted for the 2023 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. His work is translated into ten languages and film/TV rights have been optioned.

Praise for Alan Parks

‘One of the great Scottish crime writers’ – The Times

‘Tipped to become an enduring classic of tartan noir.’ – Sunday Post

‘Dark and gritty… Gripping.’ – Crime Monthly

‘A brilliant series’ – Sunday Times Crime Club

‘Bloody and brilliant’ – Louise Welsh (on BLOODY JANUARY)

‘Pitch-black Tartan noir: bleak, but with an emotional heart that's hard to ignore.’ – Daily Mail (on FEBRUARY’S SON)

‘Manoeuvering through the mean streets of Glasgow, the morally ambiguous, deeply flawed McCoy makes an ideal antihero.’ – Publishers Weekly (on BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER, Edgar Prize Winner 2022)

‘Altogether one of the best police thrillers of the last few years.’ – Morning Star (on THE APRIL DEAD)

Visit Alan’s website

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Penguin Random House South Africa to publish WILD THINGS NEVER DIE by Sally Andrew

We’re delighted that Tannie Maria is back for South African readers! Penguin Random House South Africa will publish WILD THINGS NEVER DIE, the fifth title in Sally Andrew’s bestselling and award-winning Tannie Maria Mystery series, on 1st May 2026. To celebrate the launch of WILD THINGS NEVER DIE, Sally will be attending book launches and festivals across the country in May and June, including Franschhoek Literary Festival and Kingsmead Book Fair.

In WILD THINGS NEVER DIE, Tannie Maria is wrestling with a fear of the dark and Henrietta has PTSD. But this doesn’t stop the intrepid agony aunt – and her hen – from going undercover with Maria’s fiancé, Detective Henk Kannemeyer, to the Karoo Wilderness Reserve. Their mission is ‘Save the Vetplantjies!’ – as they seek to protect rare and endangered indigenous plants. At the luxury game lodge, they spy on guests and support the Anti-Poaching Unit in a battle against dangerous gangsters. Maria’s reporter friend Jessie attends the Succulent Symposium, which is tackling the poaching problem internationally. Then, there is a murder...

Our favourite Ladismith sleuths engage with some colourful suspects, including a barefoot artist, a botanist cowboy, a singing gardener, and a sangoma. Between solving murders, writing agony-aunt letters, eating spectacular food, and having spiritual epiphanies, Maria and Henk get fashion tips from a couturier and his Baroness. But fashion is forgotten when their own lives are at stake…

The Tannie Maria series has been translated into fifteen languages and in 2026, RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER, the first book in the series, was selected as one of the Booksellers Awards’ four favourite books over the last 10 years. Subsequent titles have been Nielsen Booksellers Choice Best Fiction Books of the Year too. The cookbook companion to the series, RECIPES TO LIVE FOR (also published by Penguin Random House), won the 2025 Gourmand World Cookbook award in the Acknowledgements category and the ‘Best of the Best in the world over the last 30 years’ award. The TV series, RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER, is broadcast in over 100 countries and has been recognised for many awards: it recently won multiple awards from the Directors Guild of South Africa: Best Actress (Maria Doyle Kennedy) Best Actor (Tony Kgoroge) and Best Directors (Karen Jeynes and Jozua Malherbe). See more details below.

About Sally Andrew

Photo credit: Joanne Olivier

Sally Andrew divides her time between the Cape Town coast and a nature reserve near the small town of Ladismith in the Klein Karoo, South Africa, the setting of her hugely popular Tannie Maria novels. She lives with her renowned wildlife artist partner, among various wild creatures (including, as she says, ‘a giant eland and a secretive leopard’). Sally has also published a number of non-fiction books on adult and environmental education.

You can see lots of excellent video clips – featuring beautiful nature and appetising food –  on Sally’s YouTube channel and get a glimpse of Sally and Tannie Maria’s world on her website. Sally sometimes writes for the Daily Maverick in South Africa, featuring the delights of food and the natural world, often including delicious recipes.

With RECIPES TO LIVE FOR: A Tannie Maria Cookbook and International Gourmand Award, the fictional character of Tannie Maria competed with chefs and cooks from 222 countries and won a Best in the World award for the category of Acknowledgments, 2025. It won second place in the Regional category and was subsequently Winner of the Gourmand Best of the Best award in its category, over the last 30 years.

TV rights for a series based on the Tannie Maria books were bought by French-South African Both Worlds Productions, with the support of Edinburgh-based Pirate Productions and with Creative Scotland contributing to funding. The series was selected for the Berlinale ‘Series Markets Selects’ and began broadcast in South Africa on M-Net in March 2022 to brilliant reviews and social media praise. The series was nominated for three awards at the 2023 South African Film & Television Awards (Best Supporting Actress in a TV Drama, Best Achievement in Editing in a TV Drama, and Best Achievement in Directing in a TV Drama), Best Writing for a Television Series at the 2023 WGSA Muse Awards, Best Cinematography at the 2023 Venice TV Awards, and was also shortlisted for a Rose d’Or Award. In 2026 it received awards from the Directors Guild of South Africa for Best Actress (Maria Doyle Kennedy) Best Actor (Tony Kgoroge) and Best Directors (Karen Jeynes and Jozua Malherbe). Acorn TV distributes the series around the world. Watch the trailer here.

Praise for Sally Andrew

‘If you want a vivid, amusing and immensely enjoyable read about detection (and cooking) in an intriguing part of southern Africa, then this is the book for you. A triumph.’ – Alexander McCall Smith

‘Detection, recipes and a cracking mystery. An irresistible page-turning debut.’ – Woman & Home

‘Winning debut culinary cozy. Take a pinch of Alexander McCall Smith, a dash of Diane Mott Davidson, and add a smidge of the wild veld and you’ll get a taste for this lekker story (that’s “delicious” in Afrikaans). … With a fascinating setting, engaging characters, and a full complement of drool-worthy recipes, this is sure to leave readers craving more.’ – Library Journal

‘An intriguing mystery in an exotic locale, a work of enormous charm.’ – Wall Street Journal

‘For something completely different, I suggest RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER. Our detective is a chef turned agony aunt and the story includes recipes – and has a pleasing bite.’ – Cathy Rentzenbrink, The Bookseller

‘Utterly delicious, to the very last morsel.’ – Deon Meyer

Follow Sally Andrew on Instagram.

Viper signs three new thrillers by Will Dean in six-figure deal

Photo credit: Rosalind Hobley

Miranda Jewess, Publishing Director at Profile Books’ crime imprint Viper, has acquired three thrillers by Will Dean. Jewess acquired UK and Commonwealth rights plus audio from Kate Burke at Blake Friedmann Literary Agency. The first book in the deal, titled THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE WORLD, and described as STATION ELEVEN meets AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, will be published in hardback, e-book and audio in April 2027.

The synopsis reads: Nature is reclaiming London. Grass grows through the pavements, buildings are left to crumble, and herds of deer roam the streets. While most Londoners now choose to live in a virtual world, Wendy is one of the few people who still value real human connection enough to stay in the abandoned city. She even finds what might be love, and the hope of a family. But something is very wrong. Her few friends start to disappear one by one, and there is no-one left for Wendy to turn to. No police or authorities to stop the violence or find the culprit. And soon Wendy finds herself completely alone in the city with a killer…

Miranda Jewess commented: ‘I’ve been reading and loving Will’s work since his debut DARK PINES back in 2017, and it is genuinely a dream come true to now be his editor and publisher. The fictional universe in THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE WORLD is an extraordinary creation; this combined with Will’s genius for writing incredibly real, fallible characters and his mastery of the propulsive plot makes this a gamechanger. We’re so pleased to welcome him to the Viper list.’

Will Dean added: ‘I am absolutely thrilled to join Viper. I’ve admired Miranda’s work (and superb list of authors) for years, and I’m excited to work with her team to bring atmospheric, genre-bending fiction to readers.’

Kate Burke said: ‘I’m delighted for this next chapter Will’s publishing. It’s a pleasure and a privilege to work with someone so creative and hardworking, and be on this journey with him.’

About Will Dean

Will Dean grew up in the East Midlands. After studying law at the London School of Economics and working in London, he settled in rural Sweden where he built a wooden house in a vast forest, and it’s from this base that he compulsively reads and writes.

Dean is the author of eleven novels, the six-book Tuva Moodyson series (Oneworld/Hodder) and five standalone thrillers (Hodder). His books have been selected for the Zoe Ball Book Club and the Richard & Judy Book Club, and shortlisted for the National Book Awards, the Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize and the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award.

Praise for Will Dean

‘Will Dean manages to accomplish the rare blend of excellent writing and intriguing, ingenious plotting.’ – Liz Nugent

‘Will Dean is a master at creating moody, oppressive thrillers that are equally as unsettling as they are gut-wrenching, with characters you can’t stop thinking about long after the last page.’ – Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of LOCAL WOMAN MISSING

‘Will Dean writes a mean thriller, with a keen ear for what scares us.’ – Sarah Hilary

‘Like Chris Whittaker, Will Dean is a master of the tense, morally complex, emotionally devastating modern thriller.’ – William Hussey

‘Will Dean’s writing continues to elevate the thriller genre.’ – Anna Bailey’

‘One of the best psychological thriller writers to ever put pen to paper.’ – Stuart Ashenbrenner

Follow Will on X (previously Twitter) and Instagram

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