Gardiner Sells Latest Unsub to Dutton

In a North American rights deal, Meg Gardiner sold the third book in her Unsub series to John Parsley at Dutton. Shane Salerno at the Story Factory brokered the agreement for the novel, The Dark Corners of the Night, which again follows FBI profiler Caitlin Hendrix. In the book, the publisher said, Hendrix is “hunting a ruthless killer who roams L.A.’s freeways and randomly, silently kills mothers and fathers as they sleep.” The series is currently in development as a series at CBS; Dark Corners is set for an early 2019 release.

Bass Takes ‘Crisis’ to Penguin
Making his first acquisition at Penguin Press since joining the imprint from the Wall Street Journal, Warren Bass took world rights to The Crisis: Democracy Under Siege by Larry Diamond, preeminent Stanford scholar of democracy. The book, Penguin said, makes the case that “an authoritarian wave now threatens democracy at home and around the world.” It is, the publisher continued, “a deeply informed and inspiring call to arms to help free governments and citizens overcome the assault on our liberties.” Diamond was represented by Scott Mendel at Mendel Media Group.

‘Lost Boys’ to Gallery
For Gallery Books, Jackie Cantor preempted world English rights to Amanda M. Fairbanks’s The Lost Boys of Montauk. The book, subtitled A True Story of the Wind Blown and Four Men Who Vanished at Sea, was sold by agent Laura Dail, who has an eponymous shingle. Dail said the book follows a commercial fishing boat that disappeared after setting out from Montauk harbor in 1984 “and the wrenching aftermath of the tragedy, both for the survivors and the town.” The book is set for a 2020 publication. Fairbanks is a journalist who has worked for the New York Times and the East Hampton Star.

Hyde Inks Quad at Amazon
For high six figures, Catherine Ryan Hyde (Pay It Forward) closed a four-book deal with Jodi Warshaw at Lake Union Publishing. Warshaw took world rights to a new novel called Have You Seen Luis Velez?, slated for May 2019, from Laura Rennert at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. The novel, Rennert said, follows “an adopted high schooler of mixed race who decides to search for the missing caretaker of a 92-year-old blind Holocaust survivor he befriends, with unexpected, life-changing consequences.” Hyde’s books with Lake Union, according to Rennert, have reached three million readers through a combination of print sales and downloads.

Graydon House Buys U.K. Thriller
Brittany Lavery at Graydon House bought a buzzed-about debut British thriller that recently sold in the U.K. at auction. The North American rights deal for Karen Hamilton’s The Perfect Girlfriend and another book was brokered by Hillary Jacobson at ICM Partners on behalf of Sophie Lambert at the London-based C+W Agency. The thriller, the publisher said, follows “a woman who will stop at nothing to reclaim her ex-boyfriend” and compared it to “The Last Mrs. Parrish meets Fatal Attraction.” The book is set for a winter 2019 release, and will be published in the U.K. by Hachette’s Wildfire imprint this March. To date, the novel has sold in 10 territories.

Bloomsbury Gets ‘Holy’
Bloomsbury’s Lea Beresford nabbed world English rights to Amanda Sthers’s Holy Lands. The publisher said the epistolary novel is about “a dysfunctional family—headed by a Jewish pig farmer in Israel—struggling to love and accept each other.” The book has been adapted into a film that is currently in postproduction, directed by Sthers, a French novelist and filmmaker (Madam), and starring James Caan and Rosanna Arquette. Sthers was represented in the book deal by Todd Shuster at Aevitas Creative Management in association with David Unger of Artists International Group.

Correction: At the request of the author, Amanda Millner-Fairbanks' name has been changed from how it appeared in the original version of this article. Additionally, due to publisher error, this original version of this article incorrectly listed Larry Diamond's title at Stanford. It has since been updated.