Borough Press picks up literary thriller from doctor-turned-writer Stephenson

Borough Press has snapped up a "fast-paced literary thriller" from doctor-turned-writer Simon Stephenson.

Suzie Dooré, publishing director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, to Sometimes People Die from Caspian Dennis at Abner Stein on behalf of Mollie Glick at CAA. It will publish in September 2022. HarperCollins will also publish in the US. 

The book follows a young doctor, until recently addicted to opioids, who finds himself under suspicion when patients at his hospital start dying of less-than-natural causes.

Stephenson originally trained as a physician and worked in London and Scotland. He previously wrote Let Not the Waves of the Sea (John Murray), a memoir about the loss of his brother in the Indian Ocean tsunami, which won Best First Book at the Scottish Book Awards. His first novel, Set My Heart to Five (4th Estate), has been optioned by Working Title Films. He currently lives in Los Angeles, where he works as a screenwriter. He originated and wrote the film "The Electrical Life of Louis Wain" and wrote on Pixar’s "Luca".

Dooré said: “Simon is a great writer—funny, hugely intelligent and with a great sense of pacing. This reads like Jed Mercurio meets This is Going to Hurt, a hugely enjoyable thriller with a big brain, and a fascinating peek behind the cubicle curtain in a London hospital.”

Stephenson said: “I am utterly delighted that The Borough Press will publish Sometimes People Die. I have long admired both their incredible books and the brilliant way they publish them, and I have likewise long wanted to tell this story about the dark and mysterious goings-on at a London hospital. That Borough happen to have a fittingly London name makes it all seem like kismet.”