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Verve Books has acquired two books in Robyn Gigl’s new thriller series following "unforgettable" transgender defence attorney Erin McCabe.
Editor Jenna Gordon negotiated a two-book deal for UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, to the first instalments in the series from Dorie Simmonds at the Dorie Simmonds Agency. The publisher will launch the series with the digital publication of By Way of Sorrow in October 2022, with the paperback original to follow in March 2023.
The series tackles the complexities of gender, race, power and public perception. The first novel sees McCabe and her law partner, former FBI agent Duane Swisher, defend Sharise Barnes, a young transgender sex worker accused of murdering a wealthy politician’s son.
Book two, Survivor’s Guilt, will follow in autumn 2023, where the protagonists are drawn into a dark world of offshore bank accounts, computer hacking, murder and the devastating impact of sexual abuse.
Gigl is an attorney, speaker and activist who has been honored by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey and the New Jersey Pride Network for her work on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community. She is a partner at Gluck Walrath, LLP in Freehold, New Jersey, where she works in commercial and employment litigation. She is also a member of the board of directors of Garden State Equality, NJ’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organisation.
She said: "I am thrilled that Verve will be publishing By Way of Sorrow and Survivor’s Guilt, and I hope that UK readers will find my books compelling, fun reads. But just as important to me is the hope that my books can give some insight into what it’s like to be a transgender person.
"For whatever reasons, transgender issues are suddenly hot button political issues on both sides of the Atlantic. For someone like me, who has always known who I was – a woman – I find it terribly disconcerting that who I am matters to anyone else, but obviously it does.
"When writing By Way of Sorrow, I followed the old bromide for first-time authors: write what you know. I am a lawyer; I’ve done lots of criminal defense work over my career; and I am a transgender woman. Based on that, I felt like I could come up with a unique protagonist – Erin McCabe – and a legal thriller that would entertain and hopefully, perhaps subversively, educate people about transgender issues and what it means to be transgender."
Gordon added: "The Verve team is ecstatic to be providing a home in the UK for Robyn Gigl’s legal thrillers. Her voice is refreshing and uniquely powerful in a genre in which transgender people often appear as victims or not at all; as well as being action-packed and twisty, this series is authentic, intelligent and hopeful, with an unforgettable protagonist in Erin McCabe".