Harvill Secker takes three more titles from Denise Mina

Harvill Secker deputy publishing director Katie Ellis-Brown has acquired The Good Liar by Denise Mina as part of a three-book deal.  

Ellis-Brown secured UK and Commonwealth rights from Jon Wood at RCW Literary Agency. The Good Liar will be published in hardback, e-book and audiobook on 5th June 2025. 

Harvill Secker said: “When blood-spatter expert Claudia O’Shiel finds herself on stage to talk about the most famous criminal case in recent history, she has a choice to make: explain how her evidence put away the man responsible for the brutal double murder or tell them the truth—that the real killer is still out there, and if she tries to expose this conspiracy, it won’t just be her life on the line.”

Mina said: “If Ted Bundy wasn’t dead, he’d be free, because scientific knowledge is developing all the time. I studied forensic examination at Glasgow University, won the Gilbert Forbes Medal in the subject, and many of the disciplines we were taught are completely discredited now.  

“Bite-mark matching, the central plank of Ted Bundy’s conviction, is regarded as junk science today. I began to wonder how the discredited and denounced experts feel and what they do to correct mistakes made on the basis of their erroneous evidence.”

She added: “The Good Liar is about Professor Claudia O’Sheil discovering that her discipline is rubbish, and that she’s colluded in a major miscarriage of justice. Should she admit it? Who should she tell? Would anyone listen? And what will Claudia lose if she does tell the truth?”

Ellis-Brown said: “Denise is the author every editor dreams of working with, so I feel truly elated to be partnering with Denise on her next three books. The whole team here at Harvill Secker and Vintage are die-hard Denise fans, and we can’t wait to introduce readers to The Good Liar and protagonist Professor Claudia O’Shiel, a blood-spatter expert who’s about to find out she’s way out of her depth… Denise has outdone herself with this one.”