Pan Mac signs four more from Cleeves as pair mark 30-year anniversary

Pan Macmillan has bought four new novels by Ann Cleeves, including two more Vera Stanhope novels, as the bestselling crime author marks her 30th year with the publisher.

Vicki Mellor, publishing director signed UK and Commonwealth rights from agent Sara Menguc. The new books will be books 11 and 12 in the Vera Stanhope series, a character immortalized on screen by Brenda Blethyn in “Vera”, and two new Matthew Venn novels, the first of which was recently adapted for ITV’s “The Long Call”.

This year, Pan Mac is also releasing the 10th in her Vera Stanhope series and is starting a reissue programme of her crime series, featuring George and Molly Palmer-Jones and Inspector Ramsay, alongside her two standalones The Sleeping and The Dead and Burial of Ghosts.

All the reissued novels will be published under the banner “Ann Cleeves Classic Crime”, with new covers and forewords from the author, with the intention of taking these works to retailers and readers and finding a new audience for them.

Pan Mac will also mark the 30th anniversary year with a series of events around the country including bookseller dinners and theatre events. The publisher said: “We are immensely proud of Ann and our work with her over the last thirty years and we look forward to the many years that we have ahead of us with huge anticipation.”

Pan Macmillan will publish the first book in the new contract, the 11th book in the Vera Stanhope series, in September 2024 and follow on a yearly basis thereafter.

Cleeves said: “What a great way to mark a publishing relationship of 30 years. Pan Macmillan feels like family now, and we share a determination to spread the passion for reading. I can’t wait to celebrate with readers, library staff and booksellers all over the country.”

Mellor, who is Cleeves’ editor, said: “Our working relationship with Ann has been one of change, re-focus and growth – exponential growth over the last decade in particular – as we have seen Ann’s iconic and brilliant lead characters, Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez and Matthew Venn, move onto our TV screens – but at the heart of it is a mutual respect for each other’s talents and strengths, a determination to take our sales to the next level with every publication and a desire to support Ann in all of her charitable endeavours, which echo many of our own."

Menguc added: “Ann mentioned recently that we had been together almost since the beginning of her writing journey. What an incredible and inspiring experience it has been. I don’t think either of us could ever have imagined that it would include multiple book and TV series, with sales in many languages around the world. Or that we would get to work with an incredible team of publishers and co-agents who would become like a family, in the true sense of the word. However, it is Ann, with her incredible skill and imagination, her empathy and humanity, who continues to deliver novels which are not only brilliantly crafted, with compelling characters, and story lines, but which reveal so much about the world we live in today. Thank you Ann, for everything.”