S&S UK Children's snaps up Chelsea Pitcher thriller

Simon & Schuster UK Children’s will publish American author Chelsea Pitcher's next thriller.

Lucy Rogers, senior commissioning editor at the publisher, has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Lies Like Poison, the new thriller from Pitcher, author of bestselling YA thriller This Lie Will Kill You (S&S UK Children's, 2018). The deal was done with Stephanie Voros at S&S US, after S&S US/McElderry acquired world rights to the title from Mandy Hubbard at Emerald City Literary Agency. It will publish in the UK in paperback on 3rd September 2020.

S&S UK said: "Lies Like Poison is a high-stakes whodunit that centres around a group of friends who will do anything to protect each other. Even murder... When Belladonna is charged with the murder she and her friends plotted to commit—but ultimately backed out of—she must team up with her conspirators in order to clear her name. But who can she trust?"

Rogers said of the signing: "We’re delighted to have acquired another thriller from Chelsea Pitcher that promises to be every bit as twisty, turny and unputdownable as This Lie Will Kill You. Readers will be hooked."

This Lie Will Kill You sold 41,546 books for £254,402, according to Nielsen BookScan.