A thriller set in a blizzard that was bought by Cairo’s Noon Publishing at last year’s Sharjah International Book Fair is turning into one of the hot properties for this month’s London Book Fair which opens on 10 April.
US writer Taylor Adams’ No Exit has just been bought for six figures by HarperCollins imprint William Morrow and the title has now sold in 19 languages, including Turkish, Thai, Spanish and Russian. It was published in the UK by independent house Joffe Books in June this year.
Noon’s marketing director Fatma Hossam confirms it has bought Arabic rights and is currently translating the title which it plans to publish later this year. In the US Morrow will publish in the US in early 2019 and is promising a major promotional campaign. Additionally, Adams’ agent Lorella Belli at the Lorella Belli Agency has meetings with Fox lined up for the book fair to discuss a film deal.
Bad weather is almost a character in Adams’ novel. The thriller sees college student Darby Thorne forced to pull off the road when a blizzard makes travel impossible. She is en route to see her mother, but the snow storm means she has to stay in a highway rest stop with four strangers. During the night, she 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.
Jennifer Brehl, senior vice president, executive editor and director of editorial development at William Morrow, said: “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.”
The title was originally published by UK independent Joffe Books in June this year.
