You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
HQ wins 'fresh take' on Pride and Prejudice by Kelly Gardiner and Sharmini Kumar
HQ has won the rights to an "enthralling" Jane Austen-inspired mystery from Kelly Gardiner and Sharmini Kumar, entitled Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Detective.
Commissioning editor Cat Camacho acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada and Australia and New Zealand, from Elizabeth O’Donnell at HarperCollins Australia. Roberta Ivers, publisher at HarperCollins Australia, acquired world rights from Danielle Binks and Jacinta di Mase at Jacinta de Mase Management. The novel will be published in April 2025 simultaneously with North America and Australia.
"‘From the moment I first pitched the concept to Roberta Ivers during an informal catch-up between sessions at Sydney Writers’ Festival in 2022, I knew she was the right publisher for the inimitable Caroline Bingley," said di Mase.
Set two years after the events of Pride and Prejudice, Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Detective follows Georgiana Darcy and Caroline Bingley in the search for Darcy’s missing maid. Their search becomes "a most imprudent adventure, revealing murder, the grimy underbelly of Regency London and Miss Bingley’s incomparable powers of investigation".
Gardiner said the novel was "such fun to write, and we’re thrilled that it’s now being brought into the light, as our tribute to Jane Austen and her magnificent creation, Miss Caroline Bingley."
Kumar added: "Austen wrote brilliantly about her world, but we wanted to see what would happen if her characters met people Austen might not have known, and were thrown into situations with which Austen was not familiar... like murder."
Camacho commented: "I devoured Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Detective in one sitting. At the first page the authors pick you up from wherever you are and transport you utterly into the Regency world. It’s a brand-new, completely fresh take on the classic we all love, giving fan favourite characters their own stories and voices for the first time. I can’t wait to see it unleashed on the world."
