Quercus, Dutton at sixes and sevens (figures) for Perrin’s cosy crime series

Quercus Fiction has bought a high-concept cosy crime series about a woman whose murder has been told by a fortune teller.     

Editor Florence Hare pre-empted How To Solve Your Own Murder and one further title by first-time adult fiction author Kristen Perrin in a six-figure UK & Commonwealth rights excluding Canada deal from Zoë Plant at The Bent Agency.  Meanwhile, North American rights in the books were sold in a seven-figure pre-empt to Cassidy Sachs at Dutton by Plant’s colleague Jenny Bent. Further deals have been inked in Germany, Italy and Serbia.

The first title, slated for a 2024 release, starts in 1965 when Frances Adams is told by a fortune teller at a country fair that one day she’ll be murdered. Frances then spends the next 60 years trying to prevent the crime that will be her eventual demise. No one takes her seriously…until the day she is murdered as predicted.

Frances great-niece Annie arrives from London to the family stately home, Castle Knoll, and is thrust into her great-aunt’s final act of revenge against her sceptical friends and family: Frances’ will stipulates that the person who solves her murder will inherit her millions. Can Annie unravel the mystery and find justice for Frances, or will digging up the past lead her into the path of the killer?

Hare said: “How To Solve Your Own Murder has a brilliant hook, a unique voice and I know readers will completely fall in love with Frances, Annie and the setting of Castle Knoll.”

Perrin is originally from Seattle, Washington, where she spent several years working as a bookseller before moving to the UK to do a master’s and a PhD. She lives with her family in Surrey.

Perrin says: “The enthusiasm that Florence and the rest of her team have for characters that have come to feel like friends to me means the world, and I know that Annie and Frances are in perfect hands.”