Bloomsbury co-founder David Reynolds' crime debut goes to Muswell Press

David Reynolds, a co-founder of Bloomsbury Publishing, is to publish his debut novel, The Lady in the Park, with indie Muswell Press.

The first in the Peckham Private Eye series, Sarah and Kate Beal at Muswell Press acquired World English rights including audio, excluding North America, from Sally Holloway at Felicity Bryan.

Reynolds joined with Nigel Newton, Liz Calder and Alan Wherry to launch Bloomsbury in 1986, and left in 1999 to teach and write. His non-fiction has been widely reviewed and his memoir Swan River (Picador, 2001) was shortlisted for the PEN/Ackerley Prize.

The Lady in the Park features the unconventional Jim Domino and six-year-old grandson Danny investigating murder in Peckham. Muswell Press said: "With a cast of richly-drawn characters you want to spend time with, especially the unforgettable duo of Domino and Danny, and a propulsive plot, The Lady in the Park is a compulsive start to what promises to be an utterly addictive new crime series."

Reynolds said: "I’m delighted that my Jim Domino series is to be published by Muswell Press, and that my books will be alongside those of crime-fiction writers Heidi Amsinck, Neil Humphreys, Dugald Bruce-Lockhart, Peter Hain and Bernard O’Keeffe. To be championed by Muswell Press’ Sarah and Kate Beal, with their long experience of picking, backing and creating winners, is exhilarating. As well as being about murder, people-trafficking and drug-dealing, The Lady in the Park is about the good in most people; about love, grief and childhood. Children notice the things that adults miss; sometimes Jim Domino’s grandson Danny leads Jim towards the truth, almost without trying."

Muswell Press is an award-winning LGBTQI publisher, with a specialism in crime fiction.