Paul Finch’s new thriller ASHES TO ASHES published today by Avon!

ASHES TO ASHES, the sixth novel in Paul Finch’s crime thriller series featuring Detective Mark ‘Heck’ Heckenburg, is published today by Avon.

Readers first met ‘Heck’ in Finch’s debut crime novel STALKERS (2013), which was a number 1 eBook bestseller – the second novel in the series was the most pre-ordered title in HarperCollins history. In 2016, ‘Heck’ took a break and the debut DC Lucy Clayburn novel, STRANGERS, became a Sunday Times Bestseller. The sequel to STRANGERS will be published September 2017.

John Sagan is a forgettable man. You could pass him in the street and not realise he’s there. But then, that’s why he’s so dangerous.

A torturer for hire, Sagan has terrorised – and mutilated – countless victims. And now he’s on the move. DS Mark ‘Heck’ Heckenburg must chase the trail, even when it leads him to his hometown of Bradburn – a place he never thought he’d set foot in again.

But Sagan isn’t the only problem. Bradburn is being terrorised by a lone killer who burns his victims to death. And with the victims chosen at random, no-one knows who will be next. Least of all Heck…

Paul recently participated in a ‘live podcast’ with fellow novelist C. L. Taylor, in which they discussed their tips for writing thrilling fiction.

He is also embarking on a blog tour, the first guest spot being posted today on the book blog For Winter Nights, where Paul answers the question: ‘What seven things should you know if you want to write crime fiction?’

Paul’s short story THE BELFRIES is currently being adapted in Hollywood, and his movie script WAR WOLF is under development by Amber Entertainment.

Praise for Paul Finch and his novels:

 ‘Finch is a born storyteller and writes with the authentic voice of the ex-copper he is.’ – Peter James

‘An ingenious and original plot. Compulsive reading.’ – Rachel Abbott

‘A deliciously twisted and fiendish set of murders and a great pairing of detectives.’ – Stav Sherez

‘Avon’s big star…part edge-of-the-seat, part hide-behind-the-sofa! An excellent series.’ – The Bookseller

‘An explosive thriller that will leave you completely hooked on Heck.’ – We Love This Book

‘Edge-of-the-seat reading…Heck is formidable – a British Alex Cross.’ – The Sun

SLEEPER’S CASTLE by Barbara Erskine – published today in paperback by HarperCollins!

Today sees the paperback publication by HarperCollins of SLEEPER’S CASTLE – the latest novel by the Sunday Times bestselling author Barbara Erskine.

SLEEPER’S CASTLE returns to the setting of Hay, shared by her much-loved debut novel LADY OF HAY, which was recently republished in a limited hardback edition to mark its 30 year anniversary. Erskine was also presented with an Outstanding Achievement Award by the RNA (Romantic Novelists’ Association) in March this year.

SLEEPER’S CASTLE revolves around two women, centuries apart. One endless nightmare is tearing Wales apart – and only they can stop it.

Hay-On-Wye, 1400 – War is brewing in the Welsh borders, Catrin is on the brink of womanhood and falling in love for the first time. Her father is a soothsayer, negotiating a dangerous game playing on the mixed loyalties and furious rivalries between Welsh princes and English lords. For two hundred years, the Welsh people have suffered under the English yoke, dreaming of independence. And finally it looks as though the charismatic Owain Glyndwr may be the man legend talks of. In the walls of Sleeper’s Castle, Catrin finds herself caught in the middle of a doomed war as she is called upon to foretell Wales’s destiny… And what she sees, is blood and war coming closer…

Hay, 2015. Miranda has moved to Sleeper’s Castle to escape and grieve. Slowly she feels herself coming to life in the solitude of the mountains. But every time she closes her eyes her dreams become more vivid. And she makes a connection with a young girl, who’s screaming, who’s reaching out… who only Miranda can help. Is she losing herself to time?

Barbara will appear at the Charroux Festival in France on 24 August, to talk about her inspiration and her novels spanning the past 30 years. She will also be at the Wrexham Carnival of Words on 6 May.

Praise for Barbara Erskine and SLEEPER’S CASTLE:

 'Barbara Erskine's storytelling talent is undeniable.' - The Times

'The Queen of timeslip epics.' - The Bookseller

'Stephen King meets Ruth Rendell.' – Frank Delaney

‘SLEEPER’S CASTLE is a haunting tale, confirming that Barbara Erskine remains the mistress of the time-slip novel.’ - acclaimed historian and novelist, Alison Weir

‘Captivating . . . Beguiling ghosts that whisper to us from the past and seek to stamp their will upon the present.’ - Richard and Judy bestseller, Rachel Hore

‘Evocative and haunting, [I was] every bit as captivated as I was when I was swept away by LADY OF HAY.’ - Sunday Times bestselling author, Elizabeth Chadwick

About Barbara Erskine

An historian by training, Barbara Erskine is the author of 14 bestselling novels, beginning with the much-loved classic, LADY OF HAY, which has sold over 3 million copies. She has also published three highly successful volumes of short stories. Her books, which have appeared in 24 languages, demonstrate her masterful storytelling abilities and her fascination with history and the supernatural. She lives with her family in an old police station in Hay-on-Wye.

Visit Barbara Erskine’s website

Follow Barbara on Twitter

Carole Blake Open Doors Project

Blake Friedmann has decided to offer two places on their inaugural Carole Blake Open Doors Project, as well as a further three-month paid internship to a third applicant.

Ada Igwegbu, from Aberdeen, will take the first placement, from 8th to 19th May 2017. She said: ‘At the risk of resurrecting clichéd words, I am terribly excited to be part of the Carole Blake Open Doors Project. I heard about the programme by complete accident: a friend mentioned it in passing, I applied and here I am. I am thrilled.’

Connor Faulkner, from Doncaster, has been offered a second placement from 31st July to 11th August. He writes: 'I'm incredibly excited to be chosen as a candidate for the Carole Blake Open Doors Project. It's not very often that you're presented with such a brilliant opportunity, and I can't wait to get stuck into an industry which has eluded me for so long.'

Grace Kabeya, from Zimbabwe by way of University of Exeter, will take up a 3-month paid internship from May to July 2017. ‘A chance. A platform. An opportunity to learn more about the industry in one of the best possible ways. I could not be more grateful and excited. It is all I can talk about and I cannot wait to begin.’

Isobel Dixon added: 'All of us at the agency - and many of our internship alumni now working across the book trade - are looking forwar‎d to welcoming the first Open Door candidates to Mandela Street and sharing insights into this brilliant industry. We're very grateful to David Hicks and The Book Trade Charity (BTBS) for their generous support of this initiative, and to others who have offered to help in many ways including, crucially, with their time and experience. It's this generosity and energy that makes ours one of the great creative industries, one we seek to make even more varied, dynamic and inclusive.' 

The Carole Blake Open Doors Project is a programme specifically aimed at encouraging candidates from a diverse range of backgrounds to enter the publishing industry. Applications will re-open in July for a placement in late autumn 2017 – details of how to apply will be published on the Blake Friedmann website.

The Carole Blake Open Doors Project offers 10 days of work shadowing to selected applicants over a two-week period, including funding for travel and up to twelve nights’ accommodation in London. The programme, which will run twice a year, will include close mentorship with Blake Friedmann’s book agents, the opportunity to attend selected meetings with authors and others working in the publishing industry, and the chance to be involved in every aspect of day-to-day life as an agent. It is intended that candidates will come away from the project with varied knowledge of working for a leading literary agency, the beginnings of new and essential relationships in the publishing industry, and some excellent experience to include on their CVs.

Carole Blake and the Blake Friedmann team have always placed great value on diversity and openness, in the company's client list as well as its hiring practices. We aim to build on this foundation and be proactive about drawing from a wider pool of talented applicants who are passionate about books and ambitious about getting a job in publishing.

For more details on how to get involved with the project please contact Hattie Grunewald hattie@blakefriedmann.co.uk

A STREET CAT NAMED BOB WINS BEST BRITISH FILM AT THE NATIONAL FILM AWARDS!

We are delighted for our clients Tim John and Roger Spottiswode that ‘A Street Cat Named Bob’ has won Best British Film at this year’s 3rd annual National Film Awards UK. The National Film Academy’s annual awards celebrates the UK’s best films and talent both in front and behind the cameras, and this year’s event, hosted at Porchester Hall in London, was home to a plethora of stars of industry.

The award, voted for by audiences, was hotly contested, and ‘Bob’ beat off competition including ‘Our Kind Of Traitor’, directed by Susanna White and starring Damien Lewis and Alan Skaarsard, and  ‘A United Kingdom’, directed by Amma Asante and starring Rosamund Pike and David Oyelowo.

Directed by Roger, screenplay by Tim (and Maria Nation), and adapted from James Bowen’s international bestselling novel, ‘A Street Cat Named Bob’ is based on Bowen’s true life experiences on the streets. Produced by Adam Rolston at Shooting Script Films, and financed/exec produced by Prescience, the theatrical release was November 2016, and was greeted by warm reviews and strong box office. The film stars Luke Treadaway, Ruta Gedmintas, Joanne Froggatt, Anthony Head and Bob the Cat as himself. It is now available on DVD.

THE SATANIC MECHANIC serves up a sublime second helping in the Tannie Maria series!

US and Canadian readers hungry for the sequel to Sally Andrew’s delicious debut RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER are in for a treat, as Ecco and Harper Avenue publish the second of the Tannia Maria Mysteries, THE SATANIC MECHANIC, in North America today. It’s already received praise with a Starred Review in Publisher’s Weekly who described it as ‘sublime’, while Seattle Review of Books called it ‘something to savor’. ‘I couldn’t resist diving into this book, almost as soon as I got the copy, and have read it twice since, says another reviewer. See more praise for the series below.

Tannie Maria is the plucky and endearing recipe writer turned crime fighter – and before she has time to take her Venus Chocolate Cake out of the oven, our glorious heroine finds herself embroiled in another mystery. In this wonderful sequel to RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER, Slimkat the land rights activist finds his life under threat and Tannie Maria is determined to find out who wants to kill him. But her boyfriend is keen to keep Tannie out of danger, and she's pretty sure he's hiding something so Tannie has mysteries of her own solve… Blending a perfect whodunnit with lovable characters, Sally Andrew really does have the perfect recipe for a crime series.

RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER was a Kirkus Best Book of 2015, A Wall Street Journal Best Mystery Book 2015, The Bookseller Fiction editor’s Choice 2015 and A Good Housekeeping Book of the Month. It was published in the UK by Canongate, the US by Ecco Press, Canada by HarperCollins, Australia by Text and South Africa by Umuzi, and sold into 14 languages (and counting) across 5 continents. You can read here about how Sally created Tannie Maria, and here Sally writes about the appeal of ‘cosy’ crime.

Sally Andrew divides her time between the Cape Town coast and a nature reserve near Ladismith in the Klein Karoo, which she shares with her artist partner, a giant eland and a secretive leopard.

Praise for the Tannie Maria series:

‘Vivid, amusing and immensely enjoyable read about detection (and cooking) in an intriguing part of southern Africa. …  A triumph.’ – Alexander McCall Smith

‘A culinary and linguistic treat … and has a pleasing bite.’ – Cathy Rentzenbrink, Editor’s Choice, The Bookseller

‘In a suspense fiction world filled with serial killers, dead girls and gratuitously detailed depravity, the intelligently written cozy is an increasingly rare bird.’ – Kate Sharper News

‘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.’ – * Starred Library Journal

‘A delightful debut, tender and funny. The mystery takes on the worldwide problem of abused women while revealing both the beauties and problems of South Africa. And the recipes will make you want to drop everything and start cooking.’ – * Starred review, Kirkus

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

‘Delectable. …Mouth-watering descriptions of food and landscapes delivered in an Afrikaans patois produce a distinctly new kind of tea cozy, one just right for curling up on a winter afternoon while daydreaming about the heat of the African sun’—Leigh Haber, O Magazine, ’16 Books to Start 2016 Right’

 ‘A sincere, charming South African debut…its many irresistible recipes are the creation of Tannie Maria, a gentle-souled widow who believes that good food can solve problems bigger than hunger…Tannie Maria’s painful experiences of domestic abuse give Andrew’s novel a credibility and depth that nicely ballast its many heartwarming moments.’— Charles Finch, USA Today