Forsyth to release hacking thriller this autumn

Transworld has acquired a new thriller from The Day of The Jackal author Frederick Forsyth, to publish in autumn 2018. 

The Fox, which will be Forsyth's 18th novel, is based on the stories of British hackers Gary McKinnon and Lauri Love and centres around an 18-year-old schoolboy with Asperger’s Syndrome who is able to penetrate intricate firewalls to access the secrets at the highest level of foreign governments and other major organisations.

Forsyth said he "had planned to retire", but after coming up with the idea for the book, thought it would be "a pity to waste it".

Most recently he published his memoir The Outsider in 2015 and his last novel The Kill List in 2013 (both with Transworld).

Publisher Bill Scott-Kerr, who negotiated UK and Commonwealth rights for the title through Jonathan Lloyd at Curtis Brown, said: "When Freddie said he wasn’t planning to write any more novels, we were devastated, so I’m utterly thrilled that we will get another blast of his inimitable storytelling later this year. He wrote the rule book for thriller writers many years ago and still has the all those same instincts and knowledge to deliver something truly special. I cannot wait to read it."

Worldwide sales of Forsyth’s books are in excess of 75 million copies, according to Transworld.