Hodder & Stoughton scoops Kelly’s tenth novel

Hodder & Stoughton has acquired the tenth novel by Erin Kelly, The House of Mirrors, scheduled for publication in April 2024.

The novel is described as a loose sequel to The Poison Tree, Kelly’s first book, but can be read as a complete standalone.

Jo Dickinson, executive publisher, bought UK and Commonwealth rights including audio in a two-book deal from Sarah Ballard at United Agents.

The blurb for The House of Mirrors reads: “One of them has killed before. One of them will kill again. In the sweltering summer of 1997, strait-laced, straight-A student Karen met Biba – a bohemian and impossibly glamorous aspiring actress. A few months later, two people were dead and another had been sent to prison.

“Having stood by Rex as he served his sentence, Karen is now married to him with a daughter, Alice, who runs a vintage clothing company in London. They’re a normal family, as long as they don’t talk about the past, never mention the name Biba, and ignore Alice’s flashes of dark, dangerous fury. Karen has kept what really happened that summer of ’97 hidden deep inside her. Alice is keeping secrets of her own. But when anonymous notes begin to arrive at Alice’s shop, it seems the past is about to catch up with them all…”

Hodder says it is planning an ambitious pre-publication marketing campaign for The House of Mirrors to include bespoke proofs and bookseller outreach.

Dickinson said: “Time after time, Erin Kelly creates intricately plotted thrillers, full of menace and invention, with brilliantly realised settings and mesmerising characters. I am so excited by her ideas and it is a joy to work with her. We can’t wait to build on the huge success of The Skeleton Key when we launch The House of Mirrors next spring.”

Kelly said: “I still hear from readers of The Poison Tree who want to know what happened next. Revisiting the novel’s characters in The House of Mirrors has been a unique joy. I’m privileged to have enjoyed over a decade of tireless, passionate, creative publishing by Hodder, and I know that Jo Dickinson and her team will do this book proud.”

Erin Kelly is the author of The Poison Tree, The Sick Rose, The Burning Air, The Ties That Bind, He Said/She Said, Stone Mothers/We Know You Know, Watch Her Fall, The Skeleton Key and Broadchurch: The Novel, inspired by the TV series.