Putnam Nabs Its ‘Prey’
Neil Nyren at Putnam bought North American rights to the 25th book in John Sandford’s Prey series. ICM’s Esther Newberg brokered the deal. The novel is set to be released in 2015 and continues a longstanding collaboration between Nyren and Sandford, who have been, respectively, editing and writing the bestselling series since it debuted in 1989. The deal also included another installment in the author’s Virgil Flowers series, which was launched in 2007.

Greenwillow Takes Middle-Grade
Debut Author-artist Nicholas Gannon sold his debut middle-grade novel, The Doldrums, to Martha Mihalick at Greenwillow Books. Rebecca Sherman at Writers House represented the author, selling North American rights, in a two-book deal, with the second title slated to be a sequel. The Doldrums, which the publisher said was pitched as “The Mixed-Up Files meets Lemony Snicket,” follows an unlikely trio: the grandson of famous explorers who were long ago lost at sea, a former ballerina, and the grandson’s best friend. The group, the house explained, “discover that friendship can be quite the adventure.” The Doldrums is scheduled for a 2015 release.

Larsen’s YA Debut Lands at HC Children’s
On the heels of the success of Jen Larsen’s talked-about memoir Stranger Here: How Weight-Loss Surgery Transformed My Body and Messed Up My Head (Seal Press, Feb. 2013), HarperCollins Children’s Books has acquired the author’s debut YA novel, Future Perfect. Kristen Petit bought world English rights to the book from Cheryl Pientka at Jill Grinberg Literary Management, and the title is slated for either summer or fall 2015. The novel takes its cue from the themes Larsen explored in the memoir (which is an adult title) and follows a teenager with, as HC put it, a “painful dilemma”: get weight-loss surgery or “stay true to her body and her sense of self.”

Briefs
Tom Ellsworth at Premier Digital Publishing bought world English rights to Leon Berger’s JFK trilogy, a series of thrillers based on three crises from the Kennedy era. Carolyn Swayze, who has an eponymous agency, represented the author. The books—The Kennedy Imperative, The Kennedy Momentum, and The Kennedy Revelation—are slated for September 15, October 15, and November 1, respectively. They follow a CIA agent named Philip Marsden and cover events in, consecutively, Berlin, Cuba, and Dallas.