Hodder & Stoughton acquires 'remarkable' Treadwell novel

Hodder & Stoughton has acquired The Infernal Riddle of Thomas Peach by Jas Treadwell, a "remarkable adventure edged with magic". 

Managing director Carolyn Mays bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Will Francis at Janklow & Nesbit. Hodder will publish in hardcover, e-book and audio on 12th August 2021.

Set in 1785, the novel will follow Thomas Peach, a gentleman of modest means who moves to a small village in the West Country, bringing with him a chest of clothes, some books and his wife, who quickly becomes a source of fascination and suspicion to the villagers, as she is never seen. Mr Peach is a member of a society of learned men in Bristol, one of whom is guardian of a young woman believed to be possessed by a demon. Suspicion only grows when the woman in question – whose mouth and lips are stained inexplicably black – escapes from her patron and causes panic in the countryside. Soon she is living under Mr Peach’s protection. But he himself is in danger as something has followed him from his former life in London. Thomas Peach has innumerable secrets, and one of them may prove deadly.

Mays said: "I picked this novel up, sank into the world it impeccably created, and could not put it down until I’d turned the final page on 18th-century Thomas Peach and the 19th-century omniscient narrator of his adventures. The Infernal Riddle of Thomas Peach is absorbing and compelling, terribly witty, a little bit scary, and comprehensively steeped in its period. And its author is a rare talent."

Treadwell's author quote reads: "An encyclopaedia of mysteries: a veritable index of the unknown. Open up this tale of plain Thos Peach, and his plainer housemaid – and you shall find that nothing is, as it appears – that the ordinary pursuits of our hero, are shadowed by a tale of grief and wonder, quite extraordinary. A bride murder’d – a merciless revenge pursued – dismal frauds, and desperate counterfeits. And the housemaid – but no, reader! If you are so rash as to wish to peer into the shadows, which assemble around her – if you dare lift the veil from that face, marked by powers we fear to guess at, still less to name. Then there is no remedy for you but to read our book yourself."

The author "Jas Treadwell" is described as "A phantom – a cipher – A mere name, assumed like a mask! and signifying, nothing at all."

The Infernal Riddle of Thomas Peach is understood to have been written by an author who has previously published under another name but whose identity is being kept anonymous for this book.