Charles Cumming to continue his bestselling BOX 88 series for Hemlock Press 

Julia Wisdom, publisher for Hemlock Press, has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) in two major thrillers by Charles Cumming.  

The two novels will continue Cumming’s series centred on BOX 88, a covert espionage agency, and Lachlan Kite, the spy who is recruited straight from school and who we follow from teenager to the present day. The fourth book in the series, ICARUS 17, is coming in 2026. The deal was negotiated by Will Francis at Janklow & Nesbit. 

Wisdom said: “Charles Cumming’s BOX 88 series is doing something unique in espionage fiction. Through dual timelines he charts the life of a spy, Lachlan Kite, and his career within BOX 88 from schoolboy recruit to head of the agency. Kite has developed into a fascinating and charismatic protagonist. In addition, Charles Cumming is addressing seismic historical events in the 1990s, a decade which, in the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall, espionage fiction largely ignored. We are delighted to be taking this brilliant series and brilliant writer, whose works have sold over a million copies with HarperCollins, on to future books.” 

Cumming added: “I’m delighted that Harper Collins have been so enthusiastic about the BOX 88 series. Our shared goal is eventually to publish an epic sequence of at least seven novels covering Lachlan Kite’s life and career as a spy, from his recruitment into the secret world as a schoolboy, via the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of Yugoslavia, the rise of Vladimir Putin and the geopolitical fall-out from 9/11.”