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Hammer signs two-book deal with Wildfire
Chris Hammer has signed a two-book deal with Wildfire, with the novels following on from the upcoming third book in the Ivan Lucic series Cover the Bones, which is due to publish in hardback in January 2024.
Wildfire fiction publisher Jack Butler acquired UK and Commonwealth rights including Europe to the two novels from Felicity Blunt at Curtis Brown on behalf of Grace Heifetz at Left Bank Literary. ANZ rights were sold to Allen & Unwin.
Cover the Bones takes place shortly after the events of Dead Man’s Creek, Hammer’s previous novel, which was a Times and Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month. It focuses on a murder investigation in a wealthy rural Australian town and a mystery spanning generations. Hammer’s next book will be published in hardback in January 2025.
Butler said: “Chris Hammer is a one-of-a-kind author, who truly gets better with every book. We are absolutely delighted to have signed two further books to follow on from his next novel, Cover the Bones. The response to his most recent outing Dead Man’s Creek has been overwhelming and we can’t wait to introduce readers to his next incredible thriller.”
Hammer said: “I couldn’t be happier. Jack and Wildfire have done such a brilliant job building a readership for my books in the UK and further afield. I’m thrilled to be signing up for another two books – I know they’re in safe hands – and I look forward to many more years of successful collaboration.”
Chris Hammer is a former journalist with more than 30 years’ expertise reporting on Australian federal politics and international affairs. His first novel, Scrublands, was published in 2018 and won the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger and was named Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year. His latest novel, Dead Man’s Creek, was named The Times and Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month on launch.
Cover the Bones will be published in e-book in October 2023, hardback, trade paperback and audio in January 2024. The first book in the new deal will appear in January 2025 in hardback.
