Windmill acquires Swedish suspense novel The Dying Game

Windmill Books has acquired a suspenseful Swedish debut, The Dying Game, by Asa Avdic.

The Dying Game, said to be "a locked-room mystery for our modern times", combining "psychological gamesmanship and a sinister dystopian future", will publish in paperback in August 2017. Laurie Ip Fung Chun, editor at Windmill Books, did the deal for UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) with Sabila Khan at Penguin US.

In the book seven people are brought to the remote island Isola to compete in a 48-hour test for a top-secret intelligence position. One of them is Anna Francis, a workaholic with a nine-year-old daughter she rarely sees and a secret that haunts her.

But Anna is not actually a candidate for the position: in fact, she’s the test itself. Her assignment is to stage her own death and then to observe, from her hiding place inside the walls of the house, how the six other candidates react to the news that a murderer is among them. Who will take control? Who will crack under pressure? As soon as she sets foot on the island, Anna realises the game is not as straightforward as it seems.

Ip Fung Chun said: "I’m thrilled to have acquired Asa Avdic’s brilliant debut which captures the suspense, drama and paranoia that will keep you turning the pages until the big reveal. Full of intrigue, unexpected twists and a compelling narrative at its heart, The Dying Game has been published to great acclaim in her native Sweden and I’m delighted to introduce her to our readers."

Avdic is a journalist who for years was a presenter for Swedish Public Service Radio and Television and is currently a host of Sweden’s biggest morning current events programme.