Pan Mac scoops 'perfect thriller' from Ewan in two-book deal

Pan Mac has scooped a “perfect” locked-room thriller by Chris Ewan in a two-book deal.

Editor Vicki Mellor acquired UK & Commonwealth from Camilla Bolton at the Darley Anderson Literary Agency. The first novel, A Window Breaks, will be published under the name C M Ewan in e-book this October, with a mass-market paperback in Spring 2020. It tells the story of a family who are targeted at a remote Scottish retreat.

Ewan said: “It’s a real thrill to be joining the wonderful team at Pan Macmillan and I’m absolutely delighted to be working with Vicki and Camilla. A Window Breaks couldn’t be in better hands.”

Ewan has already penned a number of mysteries and thrillers. His first standalone thriller Safe House (Faber), was a number one bestseller in the UK and shortlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award in 2013.

Mellor said the deal would take Ewan to “even greater heights”. She said: “A Window Breaks is a perfect thriller – full of tension and pace, it takes place over the course of one night and shows the resilience of a family who have been targeted at a remote house in Scotland. It explores everyone’s worst fears of what you would do if someone broke into your home in the middle of the night. Would you run or would you stay and fight? I am so excited by this new direction for Chris and can’t wait to publish.”

Bolton said: “To have Chris and Vicki working together is an absolute commercial dream team. We’re incredibly excited for readers to read A Window Breaks and for them to be part of this thrilling new chapter in Chris’s career.”