Serpent's Tail bags debut thriller by Thomas exploring Russian wealth

Serpent’s Tail has landed Queen K by Sarah Thomas, a debut literary thriller exploring the dark world behind Russian wealth.

Luke Brown, editorial director, acquired world rights excluding North America from Katie Greenstreet at Paper Literary. It will publish as a lead debut in February 2023 in hardback and e-book.

The story was inspired by Thomas’ work as a private tutor to the super wealthy, which she began doing after leaving university. The events of Queen K are narrated by an unreliable tutor who, while teaching an oligarch’s daughter, becomes privy to suspicious deaths and to the downfall of his wife.

"On a balmy evening in late March, Kata hosts a party on the superyacht that she owns with her husband," the synopsis reads. "Tables cover the massive deck, adorned with orchids, champagne bottles, name cards of famous people, while uniformed staff flank a red carpet on the landing dock. This night marks the attainment of something she’s wanted for a long time: acceptance into the glittering world of high society. But there are those who wish to come between Kata and her goal. They are complex and angry, full of resentment. And they are closer to home than she could ever have imagined. 

"Narrated with delicious unreliability by a troubled young Englishwoman employed to tutor this family’s precocious daughter, Queen K pulls back the curtain on the power plays within one extraordinary family, as world politics begin to encroach on their corrupt and fiercely defended haven."

Brown said: "Queen K is a glittering literary thriller about a subject we are particularly aware of at the moment: the dark side of Russian money and what happens to the oligarchs who get on the wrong side of Putin. It’s a debut that reminded me of Fitzgerald, Highsmith and le Carré."

"In my 20s I worked all over the world as a private tutor for the super-rich," Thomas said. "I drew on this experience to write Queen K and realised as I did that the best form to crystallise their world was that of a tragedy. I am very excited to be published on the Serpent’s Tail imprint alongside writers I admire such as Mary Gaitskill, Chris Kraus, Pola Oloixarac and Elfriede Jelinek."