Lynda La Plante signs seven-figure recontract with Zaffre for new crime series

Zaffre has announced a seven-figure recontract with Sunday Times bestseller Lynda La Plante. 

World all-language rights were acquired by Sarah Benton, managing director at the flagship commercial fiction imprint of Bonnier Books UK, and publisher Ben Willis, from Nigel Stoneman of La Plante Global. 

The seven-figure deal includes four frontlist titles, two backlist reissues and an audio original. Two of the frontlist titles are the start of a new series which we will see next summer.

Crucified, a new Detective Jack Warr thriller, is the first book in this new deal. It will be published by Zaffre in spring 2025.

La Plante said: "Jack Warr is a character I love to write, and in Crucified his morally grey approach to the law may now be catching up with him. I’m delighted to have signed a new contract with Bonnier, they are a terrific publisher, and every department is brimming with talented people.  I look forward to many more years of working with them."

Benton said: "Lynda La Plante is a true icon of crime and it remains our greatest honour to be her publisher. This year, and this new deal, shows she is still absolutely at the top of her game: innovating the genre, pushing boundaries and continuing to blaze a trail for the rest of us. She inspires us every day, and we can’t wait for more readers to keep discovering her books."

In 2024 La Plante was awarded both the CWA Diamond Dagger and the Thalia Proctor Lifetime Achievement Award at Capital Crime. July saw the publication of Whole Life Sentence, the final Tennison thriller, and in September, La Plante’s memoir, Getting Away with Murder, was published.