Atom nets Wilson's 'gripping and prescient' YA debut

Little, Brown imprint Atom has netted the debut YA novel from crime writer and Guardian critic Laura Wilson, writing under the name Jamie Costello.

Stephanie Melrose, deputy publicity director, bought world rights from Veronique Baxter at David Higham Associates. Monochrome will be published in September 2022, with a second YA novel coming the following year.

Monochrome is billed as “a gripping and prescient debut YA thriller set in a world drained of its colour, in which a group of young people must fight against the forces that threaten the natural world, and their very lives”.

The synopsis states: "Sixteen-year-old Grace awakes one morning to find the sky leaden, the sun a huge ball of ash, the clouds like threatening rubble, and reports of unexplained accidents occurring on roads and rail. These are the hallmarks of an apocalyptic movie, but it quickly becomes apparent that everything, to the rest of her family, seems normal; Grace is one of only a handful of people in the country who are seeing the world in shades of grey.”

Melrose commented: “Laura Wilson’s YA debut is an expertly wrought thriller that is completely original and surprising, yet feels incredibly of our time. Within an exciting, fast-paced and frighteningly believable plot, Laura also brilliantly interweaves a robust examination of the nature of power structures, the taut relationship between consumerism and the natural world, and the crucial role of young people at the forefront of change.”

"When I started writing Monochrome in 2018, nobody had any idea of the world-altering event that was to come,” said the author. “By the time the first lockdown was announced in 2020, the book was finished, and the ever-shrinking distance between the world I had imagined and the world as it now was had become weirdly unnerving—and, ominously, it feels more so by the day... That said, writing my first book for a YA audience has been one of the happiest experiences of my creative life, and I’m delighted that it has found a home on such a strong and exciting list. I’m very much looking forward to working with Stephanie Melrose and the team at Atom.”

Under her own name, Wilson is the author of six educational books on historical subjects for eight to 12-year-olds, and 13 psychological thrillers, including the DI Stratton series. Her books have been shortlisted for many awards, including the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger, and she has won both the CWA Historical Mystery Award and the French Prix du Polar Européen. She was the programming chair for the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival in 2009, and co-programmes the Killer Women Crime Writing Festival. She is also the Guardian's crime fiction reviewer.