Viking nets 'evocative' historical mystery from Costello

Viking has netted The Secrets of Rochester Place, a "spellbinding" historical mystery from Iris Costello. 

Commissioning editor Vikki Moynes acquired world English rights from Olivia Maidment at The Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency. The novel will be published in December 2022. 

Costello was previously published under the name Nuala Ellwood and the book promises to take a new direction from the author’s backlist. It is described as an "evocative, intricately layered" mystery following the intertwining stories of a young Basque girl as she flees civil war to 1930s London and an emergency dispatch worker in present-day London who unravels a long kept family secret, centring around a "quirky" Georgian house in Tooting. 

"The Secrets of Rochester Place is a beautiful, evocative novel and an unbelievable exciting new direction for bestselling author Nuala Ellwood," said Maidment. "I’m so pleased that this new stream of Nuala’s writing has found its perfect home with her long-term publisher, Viking, with Vikki at the helm."

Moynes commented: "‘In The Secrets of Rochester Place, Iris has penned an utterly absorbing, atmospheric family drama with a riveting mystery at its core. From the very first page, I cared fiercely for these characters and was fascinated by the rich historical detail Iris artfully weaves through. We’re so excited to be publishing Iris and can’t wait for her readers to be swept away by this story of survival, belonging and of ordinary people defying the odds." 

"Having the opportunity to write historical fiction for Viking Penguin with The Secrets of Rochester Place has been an absolute joy for me," Costello added. "I can’t wait for readers to discover the magic and wonder of this mysterious house and its enchanting inhabitants."