Fleet scoops Healy's debut mystery novel set in 1960s coastal Maine

Fleet has scooped Etiquette for Lovers and Killers, Anna Fitzgerald Healy’s debut mystery novel.

Editorial director Rhiannon Smith acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Daisy Chandley at PFD. North American rights were pre-empted by Gaby Mongelli at Putnam from Rebecca Wearmouth at PFD. Publication date is to be confirmed. 

The book follows Billy, a "small-town bookworm" living in 1960s coastal Maine, who gets drawn into a murder case. The synopsis says: "Despite sorely lacking Nancy Drew’s charm or Miss Marple’s harmless-little-old-lady act, Billy finds herself with no choice but to set about solving the mystery which gets more weird and romantic at every turn. But as the body count rises and danger starts to feel ever closer to home, why does Billy feel as though she’s much more than a peripheral character in the drama?"

Healy commented: "Reading a mystery is a bit like falling in love. There’s the uncertainty. The willing suspension of disbelief. And a feeling of being pulled into something much bigger than yourself. I wanted to be seduced—in a clever, mysterious, hyper-literary way. I couldn’t find any books that did that, so I decided to write it for myself. To risk gushing, I have a bit of a crush on Fleet. Rhiannon’s passion for her work translates onto the page, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to join her family of writers."

Smith added: "Anna’s debut is such sparkling good fun, I love Billy as a spirited, bookish, unashamed heroine and I adore the period setting of this clever and funny novel. I’m so excited to be working on this with Anna, and Gaby in the States, and can’t wait to introduce the world to Billy and the little town of Eastport."

Chandley said: "Anna is such an astonishingly smart and playful writer, so it’s no surprise that her debut is a witty, twisty, sexy, and murderous delight that – much like Billy herself – manages to be both brilliantly strange and utterly charming."