Sphere snaps up two more thrillers from PRH's Waddington

Sphere has signed up a further two thrillers from Robert Gold, the pseudonym of Rob Waddington, group sales director at Penguin Random House, following on from his debut thriller Twelve Secrets, published by Sphere in March 2022.

Senior commissioning editor Rosanna Forte and publishing director Ed Wood acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Juliet Mushens at Mushens Entertainment.

Robert’s debut novel, Twelve Secrets, which sees investigative journalist Ben Harper unpick a web of lies in his hometown Haddley is a current Richard and Judy Book Club pick. According to the publisher it has sold more than 130,000 copies across all formats so far, with the paperback released in December.

The second book in the series, Eleven Liars, publishes at the end of March. Rights to the series have now been sold in nine territories.

Both new, as-yet-untitled thrillers will bring readers back into the world of Haddley and are currently slated for spring 2024 and 2025 respectively.

Forte said: “It has been such a joy to see so many readers all around the world fall in love with Ben. Rob is a truly original writer and a pleasure to work with: his thrillers are extraordinarily gripping and he’s one of the most ingenious plotters in the business. It’s an enormous privilege to be publishing more of his books with such a superb team.”

Gold said: “I’m delighted to be continuing to work with Rosanna and all the team at Little Brown. Their commitment and dedication to an author’s career is rare. I can’t wait to continue the Ben Harper series with them.”

Mushens added: “Rob is a born storyteller and I’m delighted that even more of his propulsive thrillers are going to be published – Little, Brown did a great job launching him and I can’t wait to see them build on that success.”