Saraband snaps up Ian Maitland thriller

Indie publisher Saraband has signed mental health author Iain Maitland for a thriller about unsolved murders of LGBTQ+ victims.

Saraband publisher Sara Hunt bought world English language rights from Clare Hulton of her self-titled literary agency for an undisclosed sum. The Scribbler will be published under Saraband’s crime, mystery and noir fiction imprint Contraband on 12th May, 2020.

In The Scribbler, newly qualified DC Carrie and her much more experienced colleague DI Gayther are the unlikely pairing tasked with investigating a series of cold cases—specifically, unsolved murders of LGBTQ+ victims. “Back in the Eighties, these had not been considered a priority for police resources,” Saraband said. “But times have changed—and so has the whole matter of how policing is done. Gayther may trust his old-style hunches, but DC Carrie favours technology-driven, algorithm-based methods.”

Hunt said: “Iain Maitland has a dark, original and chilling imagination and an uncanny ability to write disturbed characters whilst wrong-footing the reader along the way. He finds brilliant stories in the neglected corners of crime and punishment and keeps us uncomfortably glued to the pages as the tension escalates.”

Maitland is the author of the thriller Sweet William (2017) and Mr Todd’s Reckoning (2019), both published by Saraband, as well as two non-fiction books on mental health: Dear Michael, Love Dad (2016, Hodder & Stoughton) and Out of the Madhouse (2018, Jessica Kingsley Publishers). An ambassador for Stem4, the teenage mental health charity, he also speaks on mental health issues in the workplace and lives in East Anglia.