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Macmillan Children’s Books (MCB) has landed Cluedle, an interactive mystery puzzle series for children aged nine plus, written under the pseudonym Hartigan Browne.
Gaby Morgan, associate publisher, pre-empted the deal stopping an eight-way publisher auction and bought world rights in three titles from Sam Copeland at the RCW Literary Agency.
The first book Cluedle: The Case of the Dumpleton Diamond will be published on 28th March 2024 in time for the Easter holidays in puzzle-packed paperback format, followed by a second and third book publishing in June and October 2024 respectively.
“Bursting with humorous brain teasers, the series of interactive mysteries invites budding young sleuths to work alongside ‘world famous’ detective Hartigan Browne to follow a mystery story, crack crimes and play detective by solving a series of 50 fiendishly fun puzzles,” the publisher said.
Morgan said: “I am fiercely excited to have stolen this series from under the noses of eight other publishers. Cluedle is a puzzle-solving mystery series, which will tap into the mystery puzzle trend magnified by Murdle [Souvenir Press]. It is enormous fun and the educational angle of the puzzles will test verbal and spatial reasoning, comprehension, map skills, logic problems, number operations, code cracking and offer something for every young reader.”
Belinda Ioni Rasmussen, m.d. of MCB, added: “I couldn’t be more pleased about this acquisition. These brilliant Cluedle books will mean that all the family can now join in with the puzzling craze. It offers escapism for everyone, but for children it brings a different element to the reading for pleasure experience and it extends literacy skills. It is both fun and good for young readers on every level.”
Copeland also commented: “I am so excited by this! The right idea at the right time, and executed so brilliantly – and the extraordinary publisher response with a battle of pre-empts reflected this excitement.”
The Cluedle series will be a superlead title on Macmillan Children’s Books non-fiction list and will launch with an “extensive” digital marketing campaign promising “fiendishly fun content and assets to engage families across the world, eye-catching and interactive point-of-sale material and a national PR campaign”.