Hodder & Stoughton clinches new novel from ‘master storyteller’ Stephen King

Hodder & Stoughton has signed a new novel from “master storyteller” Stephen King entitled Never Flinch. 

Jo Dickinson, acting managing director, acquired British Commonwealth rights from Liz Darhansoff at Darhansoff & Verrill. Scribner will publish simultaneously in the US on 27th May 2025. 

The “beloved” Holly Gibney returns in Never Flinch, which intertwines multiple storylines – one about a killer on a revenge mission and another about a vigilante targeting a feminist celebrity speaker. 

The blurbs reads: “When the Buckeye City Police Department receives a disturbing letter from a person threatening to ‘kill 13 innocents and one guilty’ in ‘an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man’, Detective Izzy Jaynes has no idea what to think. Are 14 citizens about to be slaughtered in an unhinged act of retribution? As the investigation unfolds, Izzy realises that the letter writer is deadly serious, and she turns to her friend Holly Gibney for help. 

“Meanwhile, controversial and outspoken women’s rights activist Kate McKay is embarking on a multi-state lecture tour, drawing packed venues of both fans and detractors. Someone who vehemently opposes Kate’s message of female empowerment is targeting her and disrupting her events. At first, no one is hurt, but the stalker is growing bolder, and Holly is hired to be Kate’s bodyguard – a challenging task with a headstrong employer and a determined adversary driven by wrath and his belief in his own righteousness.”