Hennessey's new Bloomsbury imprint named Raven Books

Raven Books, the new crime imprint from Bloomsbury, will launch in January with the publication of Erica Ferencik’s The River at Night.

The name of the new list, which will specialise in literary crime, thrillers and suspense, was chosen by editorial director Alison Hennessey pictured, who joined Bloomsbury in June from Harvill Secker to set up the imprint.

Hennessey chose the name as it is suggestive of the “dark and the literary”, with a link to Bloomsbury’s publishing heritage: from the “iconic” raven which appears on the jacket of Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, to the Ravenclaw house at Hogwarts in J K Rowling’s Harry Potter series.

The logo for the new imprint was designed in-house by deputy art director Greg Heinimann, who said: “The raven in literature and cinema has always struck a foreboding and creepy presence. I went through several iterations of the logo, before settling on a raven perched on the sharp ‘R’ of the Bloomsbury logo; the ‘R’ is his perch and Bloomsbury his home.”

Other key titles from the imprint include Laura Purcell’s gothic ghost story The Silent Companions, a major lead in Autumn 2017; Stuart Turton’s high-concept murder mystery The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle; and a standalone suspense title from Eva Dolan, who followed Hennessey in switching from Harvill Secker. The last two titles will both be published in 2018. Raven Books will also release titles in translation.

Hennessey said: “Raven Books will be the home of the best and the brightest in new writing for all those who love their books with a touch of the dark side. One of the less well-known collective nouns for ravens is a ‘storytelling’ of ravens, and I am so looking forward to publishing my own storytellers here at Bloomsbury.”