Hodder unveils King’s ‘chilling new masterwork’ Holly 

Hodder & Stoughton has announced it will publish Stephen King’s “chilling new masterwork”, Holly, in September.

The deal for British Commonwealth rights was made by Nick Sayers at Hodder & Stoughton and Liz Darhansoff at Darhansoff & Verrill. Hodder will publish in hardback, e-book and audiobook, and in trade paperback for Australia and New Zealand, on 5th September. Scribner will publish simultaneously in the US.

The publisher said Holly marked “the triumphant return of King heroine Holly Gibney—one of his most compelling and ingenious characters—as she uncovers the gruesome truth behind multiple disappearances in a Midwestern town".

It continued: “Readers have witnessed Holly’s gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr Mercedes to Bill Hodges’s partner in Finders Keepers to a fully-fledged, smart and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider (Hodder). In King’s new novel, Holly is on her own and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries.

“When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down.

"Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harbouring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient and they are ruthless. Holly must summon all her formidable talents to out-think and outmanoeuvre the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork.”

King said: “I could never let Holly Gibney go. She was supposed to be a walk-on character in Mr Mercedes and she just kind of stole the book and stole my heart. Holly is all her.” Philippa Pride, King’s UK editor, said: “2022 was a record-breaking year for Stephen King. Fairy Tale went straight to number one in The Sunday Times bestseller list and it soared through Christmas and beyond.

“We continued our exciting reissue programme and Stephen was awarded the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence. 2023 is set to be another sensational year: we have more exciting backlist reissues; June will see Fairy Tale continue to work its magic across the land when we release the paperback backed by a major marketing campaign and in September, Holly will have readers on the edge of their seats. Whether crime, horror or fantasy, he is the ultimate storyteller and a master at revealing the terrors that hide in plain sight.”