Pan Macmillan has bought two new, standalone novels by the British crime and thriller writer Peter James who is developing a strand of international, high concept novels alongside his many British stories set in and around Brighton and featuring his much-loved detective Roy Grace. But so far there is no Arabic deal.
The first of these high concept novels was Absolute Proof, published in 2018 and which many compare to Dan Brown. It was selected for the UK’s popular Richard and Judy Book Club and when it was released in paperback in July this year sold more than 50,000 copies in its first five weeks.
Wayne Brookes, association publisher for fiction at Pan Macmillan acquired UK and Commonwealth rights in the new novels from Isobel Dixon at Blake Friedmann. Brookes said: “It’s been almost a decade since I started working with the extremely talented Peter James on his bestselling Roy Grace series. However, I was a fan of Peter’s earlier non-Grace novels long before I became his publisher. With Absolute Proof riding high in the charts right now we know Peter’s fans are hungry for new thrillers as well as Roy Grace novels, and I am more than happy to give the reading public exactly what they want.”
James added: “I love writing my Roy Grace novels and I’m constantly asked by my fans if I could write more than one a year! But there are some themes that deeply interest me which I can’t explore as fully as I’d like within a long-running series. I love the refreshing challenge of tackling different subjects while entertaining my readers and I’m delighted that Pan Macmillan are signing up two more standalones now – I can’t wait to share them!”
James is a prolific author who has written some 35 novels to date and whose work has appeared in 37 languages. His novels are published in Turkey, Serbia, Greece, France, Germany, Norway, Spain and Sweden and many other territories – but to date, no Arab territory.
Absolute Proof concerns a journalist who is contacted by a mysterious individual who says he has evidence that will lead him to proof that God exists. Many readers compare it to Dan Brown who is published in Arabic by Bassam Chebaro’s Arab Scientific Publishers.
Interestingly, James thanks a number of Arab scholars in the Acknowledgements to Absolute Proof, among them Professor Abid Nasir at Emirates University in Al Ain, UAE and Qari Mumammad Asim, Chief Imam at the Makkah Masjid in Leeds in the UK.
