This summer Dutton will relaunch pulp noir publisher Guilt-Edged Mysteries (1947-1956) as a digital imprint under the direction of Dutton editor-in-chief Ben Sevier. The timing is intended to coincide with the 65th anniversary of Guilt-Edged’s publication of Mickey Spillane’s first Mike Hammer novel, I the Jury.
The first title in the series, which will mix original crime short stories and novellas to be released as Penguin eSpecials with classic mysteries from the original imprint, will be a debut novella by NPR news editor Krishnadev Calamur, Murder in Mumbai. Also coming up is an original Dismas Hardy story by New York Times bestselling author John Lescroart. The imprint will publish books submitted by agents as well as individual authors and will partner with Penguin's Book Country to publish at least one writer a year from the online writers' community.
“The re-launch of Dutton Guilt-Edged Mysteries is a fitting tribute to Mickey Spillane, one of the twentieth century’s bestselling and most beloved novelists,” says Sevier. “The new imprint is built to find fresh voices in crime fiction and publish them using distinctly 21st-century techniques.”
