Fleet pre-empts Rickey Fayne's 'sweeping family epic'

Fleet has pre-empted the debut novel from Rickey Fayne, The Devil Three Times, to be published alongside Little, Brown US in summer 2025.

Elise Dillsworth at her self-titled agency sold UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada, on behalf of Michelle Brower at Trellis Literary, to former Fleet publisher Ursula Doyle. Fleet editorial director Rhiannon Smith will now publish in the UK and Mulholland Books/Little, Brown vice president, executive editor and editorial director Josh Kendall is publishing in the US.

"Reminiscent of work by authors like Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison and Ralph Ellison, The Devil Three Times will be a lead title for both lists," Fleet said.

Fleet will publish in hardback and e-book in June 2025.

The book follows the story of a family in west Tennessee who are courted by the Devil. He first appears to a woman and her twins in 1845 and over the decades he returns to their tangled family tree, with each generation facing its own heartaches, challenges and fears. 

Fayne is a fiction writer from rural west Tennessee. He holds an MA in English from Northwestern University and an MFA in Fiction from the Michener Center for Writers. He said: “I’m thrilled to have found an editorial home at Fleet. They’ve worked with a number of my literary heroes and so I’m truly honoured by the enthusiasm they’ve shown for The Devil Three Times.”

Dillsworth said: “This is a stunning debut by a wonderfully original and clever storyteller. Rickey Fayne has spun a deeply imaginative tale which will astonish readers—and he has created characters who are truly unforgettable, especially the Devil.”

Smith said: “We are all so excited to be publishing Rickey’s debut. His writing is truly extraordinary, and we’ve been looking to find this kind of sweeping family epic for a long time—in The Devil Three Times Rickey has delivered a true modern classic. We’re really looking forward to a global publication and for readers to discover his skilled storytelling.”