Century pre-empts Kelly Mullen's debut locked-room mystery
Century has pre-empted a twisty locked-room debut, This Is Not A Game, from award-winning producer and marketer Kelly Mullen.
Century fiction publishing director Emily Griffin pre-empted world rights following an exclusive submission from Judith Murray at Greene & Heaton. The Penguin Random House rights team subsequently sold North American rights to Maya Ziv, executive editor at Dutton, PRH US, with German rights sold to Rowohlt at auction and “strong interest in other markets”, Century said.
This Is Not A Game will be published as a Century lead hardback, and in e-book and audiobook, in spring 2025. Book to film and TV rights will be handled by WME agents Nicole Weinroth and Carolina Beltran on behalf of Murray.
It is a locked-room mystery about a video game designer, Addie, and her grandmother, Mimi, who are snowed in at a lavish mansion party where the host is murdered – and the unlikely sleuthing pair must draw on a unique skillset to navigate a dangerous game together and find the killer. The story is set on Mackinac Island, an idyllic location in Michigan’s Great Lakes.
Mullen is an award-winning executive producer with credits including Academy Award-nominated “Trumbo” starring Bryan Cranston and Helen Mirren, and Apple TV+’s “Dads” produced with Ron Howard. She is also a global marketing executive whose creative work for brands has won over 50 awards including Cannes Lions and Clios. Originally from Iowa, she is now a British citizen based in London.
Griffin said: “As soon as you read the first page of This Is Not A Game you know you’re in the hands of a natural-born storyteller – this is a novel that is destined to be universally read and loved. The locked-room set-up is flawlessly constructed and Kelly explores the gaming element – which gives the novel shades of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow [Chatto & Windus] – so cleverly, with the secret passages and hidden clues in the house allowing the setting to become a game in its own right.
“The novel’s real stand-out quality, though, is its unforgettable central characters. Addie and Mimi are complex, engaging, unique and two people you root for from the get-go. The team fell instantly for This Is Not A Game and we are ambitious to make it the huge bestseller it deserves to be.”
Kelly Mullen says: ‘As I was approaching 40, I finally worked up the courage to pursue my childhood dream of becoming an author. I wrote This Is Not A Game in an effort to recreate the joy I experienced from my favourite books and movies growing up: Agatha Christie, Nancy Drew, ’Clue’, and The Last of Sheila. To know that the world will soon meet Addie and Mimi is surreal. I am honoured to be working with Emily, Maya and the brilliant teams at Century and Dutton.”
