HQ scoops two more from Skuse

HQ has bought two more books from Sweetpea author C J Skuse.

The two-book deal includes the third instalment in the author’s comic thriller series, which began with Sweetpea last year and follows girl-next-door serial killer Rhiannon Lewis.

HQ editor Clio Cornish bought World English rights from Jenny Savill at Andrew Nurnberg Associates. The deal with the HarperCollins imprint also covers a stand-alone novel about a woman who is a compulsive liar.

Sweetpea will be published in the US by MIRA later this year and TV rights were sold been sold to See-Saw Films, producers of the Emmy-award winning “Top of the Lake”, “Lion” and “Love, Nina” in a "major" deal. The second novel in the series, In Bloom, will be published on the 9th August 2018 in paperback original, e-book and audiobook.

Skuse has written various YA novels previously; Sweetpea, billed as Bridget Jones’s Diary meets "Dexter", was bought by HQ in 2016 and published last April.

The author said: ‘I'm really happy to be working with HQ again and that they've given me permission to see Rhiannon's story through to its conclusion. A female serial killer was always going to be a hard sell but the HQ team have looked after Sweetpea superbly and I feel in very safe hands with them.”

She added: “I don't ever take for granted that what I write will be picked up as my books and my sense of humour are definitely an acquired taste so it's still very nice to be wanted.”

Cornish said: “I’m a sucker for an anti-hero and Rhiannon is one of the best, so it’s a real privilege to be working with CJ on the third book in her series. Sweetpea has, quite rightly, received stunning praise – and thanks to C J’s ingenious imagination and knack for dark, twisty storytelling, I know we’ll be in for a treat with the upcoming standalone, too.”

Savill described HQ as “the perfect home for C J’s dark yet often shockingly humorous thrillers”.