William Morrow splashes six figures on blizzard thriller ahead of LBF

William Morrow has bought North American rights to Taylor Adams’ thriller No Exit in a mid-six figure deal struck ahead of London Book Fair.

Lorella Belli at Lorella Belli Literary Agency Ltd negotiated the deal with Jennifer Brehl, senior vice president (SVP), executive editor & director of editorial development at William Morrow. Audio rights had previously sold at auction to Brilliance Publishing.

The thriller centres on college student Darby Thorne, who, while on the way home to visit her mother, gets stranded in a blizzard at a highway rest stop for a night with four strangers. During the night, Thorne discovers a little girl locked in the trunk of one of the cars but she doesn’t know whose car. Without phone reception and trapped by the snow, she must figure out who is the kidnapper, and in the process save the little girl and herself.

The title has already sold into 19 languages – Arabic, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Estonian, Greek, Hungarian, Hebrew, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish -with Belli expecting more offers expected ahead of London Book Fair, which begins on 10th April.

UK and Commonwealth rights are with the book's original publisher, UK independent Joffe Books Ltd.

According to Belli, it has already sold 100,000 copies and film rights to the title have already sold to 20h Century Fox with scriptwriter Scott Frank, whose credits include “Logan”, “Wolverine” and “Minority Report”, attached to produce.

Brehl said: “Taylor has an amazing talent for keeping the reader on edge, moving effortlessly from suspense to terror to relief to surprise. I haven’t had this much fun with a book in a very long time – even though my teeth were gritted in nervous anticipation from first page to last.”

Jasper Joffe, on behalf of Joffe Books Ltd, said: "From the first email that Taylor sent to Joffe Books, I knew he was brilliant. It was punchy, fast-paced, and beautifully written, just like the three books he's published with us. We're delighted that No Exit will now be reaching an even bigger audience."

American Adams added: "I'm beyond thrilled to be published by HarperCollins and working with people who have produced some of my favourite books. It's been an exhilarating journey getting here, and I'm immensely excited to see this novel brought to market in the US."

William Morrow will publish in hardback in early 2019 with a major promotional campaign.