Laura Palmer, Fiction Editorial Director at Head of Zeus, has just acquired World Rights in THE CARNIVIA TRILOGY by Jonathan Holt in a substantial six-figure pre-empt with Caradoc King from AP Watt.
The trilogy is comprised of THE ABOMINATION, THE ABDUCTION, and THE ATROCITY, three dazzling, multi-layered thrillers set in modern-day Venice.
US rights were quickly pre-empted in a significant deal by Claire Wachtel at HarperCollins US, and Canadian rights were pre-empted separately the very next day by Lorissa Sengara at HarperCollins Canada. The first foreign rights deals for the trilogy have also been concluded with Luitingh Sijthoff in the Netherlands, Blanvalet in Germany and Robert Laffont in France, all at auction. Editoria Record pre-empted rights for the trilogy in Brazil and rights have been sold to AST in Russia, Yapi Kredi in Turkey, RBA Libros in Spain and Newton Compton in Italy On the home front AudioGO secured audio rights in all three books within hours of receiving the submission. Head of Zeus’ Rights Director Lisa Brännström is now engaged in heated bidding with several other major markets.
Head of Zeus will publish the first in the series in hardback, export trade paperback and Ebook in May 2013 as a super lead title.
Editorial Director Laura Palmer said: ‘I was hooked from the very first page, where a murdered woman is washed up from the Grand Canal in the middle of one of Venice's masked carnivals. What starts as a chilling murder story becomes the unraveling of a conspiracy so disturbingly plausible it sends shivers down your spine. This is a book with a gripping plot, complex characters and a moral core – the last time I felt this way about a submission, it was the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.’