Gollancz signs two new novels by horror writer Jonathan Sims

Gollancz has signed world rights to two new novels by horror writer Jonathan Sims. 

Editor Claire Ormsby-Potter acquired from Zoe Plant at The Bent Agency. The first book, titled Burnout, is pitched as “a dark tale of the horrors lurking in the heart of London, in plain sight and ignored by seething masses around them”. 

The synopsis says: “It’s the hottest summer on record and London is dying. Prices are high, pay is low, and stressed commuters are packed on to London Underground trains again like the pandemic never happened. To add to the misery, the temperatures underground just keep climbing and climbing, the heat trapped in the clay with nowhere to go. 

“Five travellers on an unlucky tube carriage find themselves bound together one morning as witnesses to a single horrific event – an event they can’t quite seem to remember. They make an unlikely team: weary tube driver, a disillusioned civil servant, an ambitious city trader, an overwhelmed hotel worker and an unhoused young man just trying to get by – but now they must come together to confront what they have seen and stop it in its tracks. Because there’s something lurking in the stifling darkness and labyrinthine tunnels that run below London… something old, something vicious, and something very, very hungry.” 

Ormsby-Potter said: “Jonathan has the most phenomenal skill of finding the human stories that make his horror really hit home. He has an uncanny ability to tap into the deepest innate fears and use them to shine a mirror on society. Every new nightmare he weaves into his work is somehow something I have always been afraid of and never realised before. I can’t wait to spend more time finding out my new deepest fear.” 

Sims added: “I couldn’t be more excited for this. It’s maybe my most personal book to date: a meditation and a eulogy for the London I used to love so dearly… but with monsters!” 

Sims is the creator, writer, character namesake and voice of the horror podcast “The Magnus Archive”, and its sequel “The Magnus Protocol”. His two previous novels, Thirteen Storeys and Family Business are now available from Gollancz.