Lescroart Moves to Atria
Bestselling thriller writer John Lescroart signed a multibook contract with Simon & Schuster, decamping from Penguin’s Dutton imprint. Editorial director Peter Borland took North American rights from agent Barney Karpfinger at the Karpfinger Agency. Lescroart has written over 20 thrillers, many of them legal, and launched his career in 1989 with the novel Dead Irish; his latest, The Hunter, was released by Dutton in January. The first book in the new deal, which will feature the author’s popular hero Dismas Hardy (who is a lawyer and former cop), is set for 2013.
Johnson Gets into Casualties of War for Scribner
Agent Katherine Flynn at Kneerim & Williams sold former aid worker Kirk W. Johnson’s narrative nonfiction debut, Fugue State, to Paul Whitlatch at Scribner. Whitlatch bought world rights to the book at auction. Johnson began working for the government-run humanitarian organization USAID in Fallujah in 2005. The book focuses on four Iraqis who worked for the U.S. and then found themselves in lethal situations once the West pulled out of the region. Johnson also explores his personal struggles with PTSD and his founding of the List Project, a nonprofit that supports Iraqis whose lives have been upended because of the U.S. invasion. Johnson was a fellow at the Yaddo artists’ community and at the American Academy of Berlin. The book is set for 2013.
Palgrave Nabs NYPD Book
Emily Carleton at Palgrave Macmillan took North American rights to The NYPD Tapes, a book that grew out of reporter Graham Rayman’s 2010 five-part Village Voice investigative series into police corruption. Agent Jason Allen Ashlock at Movable Type represented Rayman. The book, which is subtitled Courage and Corruption Inside America’s Most Secretive Police Force, expands on the series, which explored a deep coverup within the NYPD and led to the transfer of two commanders within the force, as well as a number of journalism honors for Rayman, including a Pulitzer nomination. Ashlock said the book will “tell the full story for the first time.”
Dymott Goes to Norton
Elanor Dymott sold her debut novel, Every Contact Leaves a Trace, along with a second novel, to Norton’s John Glusman. Agent Zoë Pagnamenta handled the U.S. rights deal, selling Contact, as well as Dymott’s Too Many Strangers, at auction, on behalf of Simon Trewin at the London-based agency United Agents. Dymott is a British novelist, and Contact is a murder mystery set in Oxford; Cape released the book last month in the U.K., where it’s drawn strong reviews and comparisons to work by Ian McEwan and Donna Tartt. Norton is planning to release the book stateside in May 2013.
