Silvertail to publish Lunnon-Wood's long-lost first novel

Silvertail has bought the first book written by the late author Mike Lunnon-Wood after the manuscript was discovered in a safe following his death.

Publisher Humfrey Hunter said of the thriller: “Somewhere Out There, Mike’s first, was written in the 1980s and only came to light when Mike’s old solicitor cleared out a safe, found the typed pages and sent them to his son, Piers. He then sent them to me and we decided to make this the next one of Mike’s list that we published.”

Hunter bought world rights directly from the author’s son and will publish worldwide in English in print and e-book with the paperback available from 11th July, retailing at £9.99. 

He said: "I’ve put out six of his previous published thrillers already – Let Not The Deep, Congo Blue, Long Reach, King’s Shilling, Angel Seven and Dark Rose – and sales across all editions are over 30,000." The books have not charted on Nielsen BookScan and Hunter revealed the vast majority of sales were through e-books.

Lunnon-Wood was born in Africa and educated in Australia and New Zealand. He worked in the Middle East for 10 years before moving to West Sussex. He died in 2008, aged 52.

Hunter described Somewhere Out There as "a Wilbur Smith-type thriller set in Africa, where Mike grew up and lived for a long time".

He added: "‘I am absolutely delighted to be publishing a brand new Mike Lunnon-Wood thriller. We have had great success with six of his books so far and he has a loyal band of readers who will be getting into Somewhere Out There as soon as they can. It is especially exciting that no one has ever seen this one before and I can’t wait for people to see it.’

Described by Silvertail as “a Wilbur Smith-type thriller set in Africa”, Somewhere Out There follows former policeman, soldier and detective Max Seager as he investigates the abduction of two teenage girls.