Crime writer A L Gaylin moves to Orion Fiction

Crime writer A L Gaylin is publishing two novels with Orion Fiction, the first of which centres on a young woman who becomes the focus of a true crime podcast.

Francesca Pathak, senior commissioning editor at Orion Fiction, bought UK and Commonwealth rights, with non-exclusive Europe, from Alice Lutyens at Curtis Brown on behalf of Deborah Schneider at Gelfman Schneider/ICM Partners.

The deal follows the recent publication of Gaylin's suspenseful thriller If I Die Tonight with Cornerstone in August, with the Arrow paperback due out at the end of this year.

The first book in the two-book deal, Closure, is about Robin, a young woman who becomes the focus of a true crime podcast when the host thinks her family are behind a week-long killing spree in Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley 40 years ago.

Pathak said: "From the moment we saw the material for Closure, we just knew Orion had to publish Alison in the UK. In placing a true-crime podcast at the heart of the novel, this really is the crime novel all fans of Serial and S-Town will want to read."

Orion Fiction will publish Closure alongside William Morrow in the US in early 2019.