Delacorte Re-Ups Benjamin
Kate Burke Miciak at Delacorte closed a six-figure two-book deal with Melanie Benjamin, author of Alice I Have Been, which the Random House imprint published in January. Agent Laura Langlie brokered the world rights agreement—both novels will be historical fiction. Alice I Have Been, a novel based on the real-life Alice who served as the basis for Lewis Carroll's famous young heroine, will be a Books-A-Million Literary Book Club Pick when it comes out in trade paper in December, and foreign rights to the book have sold in 10 countries.

Dorman Goes with Brit Bestsellers
Pamela Dorman, for her eponymous imprint at Viking, bought North American rights to two novels by British bestsellers, and husband-wife writing duo Nicci Gerrard and Sean French. The pair, who write under the pen name Nicci French, were represented in the deal by agent Joy Harris, who was working with Simon Trewin and Sarah Ballard from the U.K. agency United Agents. Both books are psychological suspense, and the first, Blue Monday, introduces psychotherapist Frieda Benjamin, an insomniac who's drawn into a murder investigation when the dark fantasies of one of her clients overlap with the particulars of an actual crime; the book is scheduled for winter 2012.

Sterling Inks Four from McKenna
Sterling Publishing's Michael Fragnito signed Paul McKenna, author of I Can Make You Thin and I Can Make You Sleep, to a new four-book North American rights deal. In the deal, which extends through 2013, McKenna will release Control Stress: Stop Worrying and Feel Good Now! in fall 2011, following with I Can Make You Happy, Change Your Life in Seven Days, and I Can Make You Rich. McKenna will be starring in the A&E show The Healer in early 2011, and, according to Sterling, his books have sold more than five million copies worldwide. McKenna's lawyer, Michael Sherman, brokered the deal.

S&S Looks into Brain Injuries
Agent Jane Dystel, of Dystel & Goderich, sold North American rights to Invisible Wounds by Linda Carroll and David Rosner to Roger Labrie at Simon & Schuster. The book combines research and patients' stories in looking at the devastating realities of brain injuries, which are surprisingly prevalent in the U.S. Carroll and Rosner, journalists who've written extensively about brain science, provide, in the agency's wording, "necessary reading for parents, coaches, educators, health care workers and politicians, as well as those merely interested in the workings of the human brain." The book is tentatively scheduled for fall 2011.

Briefs
John Glusman at Crown took world rights to a new thriller by Taylor Stevens called The Doll. The novel, a sequel to the forthcoming The Informationist (Mar. 2011), also features Vanessa "Michael" Munro, a protagonist with, as Glusman put it, "an uncanny knack for languages and a flair for killing." Anne Hawkins at John Hawkins & Associates brokered the deal, and the novel is scheduled for March 2013.

Juliet Grames at Soho Press bought world English rights to The Boy in the Suitcase, the first title in a bestselling Danish crime series by Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis. Julie Lovgren at ArtPeople closed the deal for the authors; the book follows a nurse trying to unravel the identity of a five-year-old boy she finds in a suitcase.