Pan Mac picks up Hilary's Black Thorn in two-book deal

Pan Macmillan has picked up Black Thorn by Theakston Crime Novel of the Year award winner Sarah Hilary in a two-book deal.

Fiction publishing director Vicki Mellor acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Jane Gregory at David Higham Associates. Pan Macmillan will publish Black Thorn in hardback in summer 2023 with a mass-market paperback in spring 2024. US and translation rights are with Jane Gregory at David Higham Associates.

The synopsis reads: “Black Thorn centres around the Gale family. Having moved into their dream home in the ultra-modern Blackthorn Ashes estate, built high on the cliffs of the Cornish coastline, the Gales think they have escaped to paradise. But what should have been a new start turns to a nightmare as they and their new neighbours are forced to evacuate their homes one terrible morning shortly after moving in. Relocated to a local caravan park, the Gales’ lives are in tatters. As Agnes, their daughter, begins to look into what happened, she discovers her family and their neighbours have secrets they will do anything to keep…”

Hilary’s debut novel, Someone Else’s Skin (Headline), won the 2015 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and was a World Book Night selection. No Other Darkness (Headline), the second in the series was shortlisted for a Barry Award in the US. The DI Marnie Rome series continued with further books while her first standalone novel Fragile (Pan) was published in 2021.

She commented: “I’ve always been fascinated by what binds families together, and what can tear them apart. Working with Vicki and the Pan Macmillan team has provided the perfect opportunity to explore this territory. Vicki’s enthusiasm and encouragement has been key to my writing from the very start of my career. Black Thorn is a book that has lived in my head (and my heart) for a long time. I’m thrilled to finally bring it to readers.”

Mellor added: “I am so excited to have acquired Sarah’s next two standalone novels and build on the success that we saw with Fragile. Sarah’s talent lies in her incredible characterization and psychological acuity and in Black Thorn she has written a brilliant literary crime novel and created a family that will engage readers from the opening page. Blackthorn Ashes is a paradise, but paradise can turn to hell in an instant. Sarah’s drive and ambition is boundless and it shows on every page. I can’t wait to publish Black Thorn next year.”