You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Simon & Schuster has signed crime novel The Turnglass by journalist and author Gareth Rubin in a two-book deal.
Deputy publishing director for fiction Katherine Armstrong acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Jon Wood at RCW. S&S will publish in September 2023.
The Turnglass is a tête-bêche novel, a book featuring two intertwined stories printed back-to-back. Open the book and the first novella begins, ending in the middle of the volume. Flip the book over, head to tail, and people can read the second story in the opposite direction. Set half in 1880s Essex and the other half in 1930s California, The Turnglass contains two stories that explore dark mysteries set worlds and times apart, but which are linked in "ingenious" ways, said the publisher.
"I have a particular love of clever and puzzling crime novels that make you think as well as entertain," Armstrong said. "When I first read The Turnglass, I was completely absorbed by the plot as well as the execution of it. The reader can choose how to read—either alternating chapters from each half or reading one novella the whole way through. The stories are complete in themselves but also have links between them that readers can find that will enhance their reading experience. Gareth has written a fun, accessible and intelligent crime novel that keeps readers guessing."
Rubin writes about social affairs for the Observer. His thrillers include Liberation Square (Michael Joseph), set in Soviet-occupied London, and The Winter Agent (Penguin), based on a true story about British agents in Paris on the eve of D-Day.
He said: "For a thriller to work you need a good team behind it and I know I’ve got the right people behind this one. The idea for The Turnglass came to me after I had spent an afternoon stuck in a maze at some ancient country house that had once gone up in flames. It gave me the idea of a book formed as a labyrinth—something that you physically move through as well as following the story. Because we get that sort of thing in the theatre all the time—immersive shows or plays that change depending on where you sit—and I thought it would be interesting to work it into a book. The tête-bêche model gave me the perfect vehicle to explore this."
Wood added: "The Turnglass is breathtakingly clever but also—and this is the really hard bit—human, affecting and gripping from start to finish. Gareth is a huge talent and is writing startlingly original novels. I can’t think of a better publisher for him than Katherine and S&S."