Kiernan's DCS Frankie Sheehan series to continue with riverrun

Quercus imprint riverrun has struck a new deal to continue publishing crime writer Olivia Kiernan's Dublin-based DCS Frankie Sheehan series.

Following a six-figure pre-empt made by the imprint for Kiernan's first two books in 2017, commissioning editor Richard Arcus acquired UK and Commonwealth rights for two more books from Sue Armstrong at C+W Agency. The first title under contract, If Looks Could Kill, will publish in hardcover in April 2020.

As the third in the series, If Looks Could Kill centres round the disappearance and murder of a mother, and her seemingly cold and emotionless daughter on whom the media’s suspicion falls. When DCS Frankie Sheehan takes over the case, she knows a person’s ‘look’ is not evidence enough for a conviction, and soon unearths a conspiracy of historical undercover police surveillance, telling her the killer is inside the Force, rather than the family.

Arcus said Kiernan just went "from strength to strength", describing her series as a blend between the prose of Tana French with the commercial plotting of 'Luther'.

Of the new book he said it "pits the modern-day phenomenon of a suspect who doesn’t seem to act how a suspect should (think Amanda Knox, Michael Peterson, Ian Bailey) alongside the historic real-life abuses of deep-undercover police operatives – some of whom started relationships, even families, with those they were spying on".

Kiernan commented: "I’m absolutely thrilled to be working on another two Frankie Sheehan books and even more delighted that I get to do so with Richard Arcus and the incredible publishing team at riverrun."