Quercus promotes Richard Arcus to commissioning editor

Quercus has promoted Richard Arcus to the role of commissioning editor, focusing on “commercially saleable literary fiction as well as crime fiction with an imagination-capturing premise”.

Arcus, who moves up from the role of editor, has been at Quercus since 2010.

His first acquisition in his new role is the Japanese crime book Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama, which sold more than a million copies in six days when published in paperback in Japan.

Arcus said: “Six Four deploys iniquity, intricacy and ingenuity to leave a three-pronged impression that does not quickly fade.

“It combines the social insight and impossible mystery of The Devotion of Suspect X with the building tension and shattering denouement of Presumed Innocent.

“For me personally it ticks every single box, and I could talk a glass eye to sleep extolling its virtues.”

Six Four will be published by Quercus in hardback on 3rd March 2016