Mantle snares Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s Georgian-set thriller

Mantle is to publish Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s new novel, The Art of a Lie, as a lead title in July 2025.

Publisher Maria Rejt acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) from Antony Topping at Greene & Heaton. North American rights were acquired by Kaitlin Olson, executive editor at Atria (Simon & Schuster) for publication in August 2025. It will be published by Mantle on 10th July 2025 in hardback, audiobook and e-book.

The Art of a Lie is pitched as "a beguiling cat-and-mouse thriller played out across the streets of 18th-century London". Following the murder of her husband in what looks like a violent street robbery, Hannah Cole is struggling to keep her head above water. Her luxury confectionery shop on Piccadilly, The Punchbowl and Pineapple, is barely turning a profit, and her suppliers are conspiring to put her out of business because they do not like women in trade.

Henry Fielding, the famous author and new magistrate, is threatening to confiscate the money in her husband’s bank account, because he believes it might have been illicitly acquired. And even those who claim to be Hannah’s friends have darker intent. Only William Devereux seems different. A friend of her late husband, Devereux helps Hannah unravel some of the mysteries surrounding his death. He also tells her about an Italian delicacy called iced cream, an innovation she is convinced will transform the fortunes of her shop – if only she can learn how to make it. But their friendship opens up Hannah to speculation and gossip, and draws Henry Fielding’s attention her way, locking her into a battle of wits more devastating than her husband’s murder.

Shepherd-Robinson’s debut novel, Blood & Sugar (Mantle), earned numerous prize nominations, winning the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown and the Specsavers/Crimefest Best Debut Novel prize; it was also a Waterstones Thriller of the Month. Her second novel, Daughters of Night (Mantle), was shortlisted for the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year Award, the Goldsboro Glass Bell Award and the HWA Gold Crown. Her third novel, The Square of Sevens (Mantle), was an instant Sunday Times  and USA Today bestseller, and was featured on BBC2’s Between the Covers.

Rejt said: “There’s no question that Laura is a superstar of historical crime fiction, and The Art of a Lie is her most  immersive novel to date.

"Set in the world of Georgian London’s entrepreneurial middle classes, the outrageous splendour of their wealthy customers, and the city’s seething underbelly, it is a novel of exquisite detail, of culinary enterprise and brutal murder.”

Shepherd-Robinson said: “Hannah and William are my favourite characters that I’ve written yet and I am so happy that Maria fell in love with them as much as I did. Her passion as an editor and that of the entire team at Pan Macmillan are evident at every stage of the publication process.”