The Orion Publishing Group Spring Rights Highlights 2021 Artwork from Fault Lines by Emily Itami, published by Phoenix (p.7) Fiction | Conversation Starting Fiction To register interest in any of these titles please click here. Conversation Starting Fiction KIRSTY CAPES Kirsty Capes works in publishing. She completed her PhD in contemporary fiction under Bernardine Evaristo’s supervision. Careless Orion Fiction’s lead debut launch for 2021. At 3.04pm on a hot, sticky day in June, 15-year-old Bess finds out that she’s pregnant. There’s no one she can confide in. She really ought to tell Boy, but she hasn’t spoken to him in weeks. Bess knows more than anyone that love doesn’t come without conditions. But this isn’t a love story . A coming- of-age novel celebrating female friendship and hope, for fans of Queenie, Normal People and Everything I Know About Love. ‘The literary equivalent of gold dust’ Benjamin Zephaniah Orion | Editor: Charlotte Mursell | May 2021 | 304pp | Manuscript available Subrights Available: World EMILY ITAMI Emily Itami grew up in Tokyo before moving to London. This is her first novel. Fault Lines A funny, sharp and moving story of modern love in Japan from a writer to watch. Mizuki has a hard-working husband, a beautiful apartment, two adorable children and a crushing sense of loneliness. She loves her family but feels invisible in her marriage. One rainy night, she meets Kiyoshi, a successful restaurateur. In their affair she finds passion, excitement and freedom – but how long can it last, and at what cost? Alluring, compelling and darkly funny, Fault Lines is a bittersweet love story and a daring exploration of modern relationships. Phoenix | Editor: Francesca Main | May 2021 | 176oo | Manuscript available Subrights Available: World Subrights Sold: US|Custom House/HarperCollins|Italian: Mondadori WINNIE M LI Winnie M Li is the author of Dark Chapter, which won the Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize in 2017, was shortlisted for the Edgar Awards, and was sold in twelve territories. Complicit Anatomy of a Scandal meets Disclaimer with a dash of Daisy Jones and the Six. Sarah Lai is a film lecturer at an anonymous US college. When she is approached by a journalist who wants to interview her about a movie producer she once worked with, she knows that now is the time to tell her story. But as she looks back to her time as an aspiring young producer, she is forced to confront what she did and didn’t do, what she could and couldn’t control, and ultimately how complicit she was in what was going on. A dark reading group novel set in the film world with a thriller-like edge. Watch editor Francesca Pathak talk about the book in this video clip here. Orion | Editor: Francesca Pathak | February 2022 | 336pp | Manuscript available Subrights Available: World 1 1 Fiction | Conversation Starting Fiction LAURA JARRATT Laura Jarratt is a Carnegie Medal and Waterstones Children’s Book Prize-nominated author. Mother An emotional story of one mother’s impossible choice between her two daughters, with a side of tension. When Lizzie’s car crashes with her two daughters inside, she faces a terrible choice. And when she recovers from her injuries, she has to deal with the police investigation into it. Just what did happen on that remote country road? Who is responsible? And can the family get through this together or will the truth finally tear them apart? Trapeze | Editor: Sam Eades | February 2021 | 352pp | Manuscript available Subrights Available: Translation Subrights Sold: US: Sourcebooks CATHY RENTZENBRINK Cathy Rentzenbrink is the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Last Act of Love. This is her first novel. Everyone is Still Alive A wise, witty and deeply moving novel exploring the deeper reality of marriage, parenthood and the way life thwarts our expectations. Juliet recently moved into her late mother’s house with her husband, Liam, and 5-year-old son, Charlie. Preoccupied by guilt, grief and working motherhood, Juliet can’t find her way into the local parents’ clique. But for writer Liam, the morning coffees and after-school playdates soon reveal the heartaches, fears and rivalries behind closed doors – all of which are going straight into his novel. When the rupture of a marriage sends shockwaves throughthe group, painful home truths are brought to light and life is suddenly overturned. Phoenix | Editor: Francesca Main | July 2021 | 352pp | Manuscript available Subrights Available: US Translation rights with Jo Unwin Literary Agency ISY SUTTIE Isy Suttie is an award-winning comedian, actress and writer. This is her first novel. Jane is Trying Hilarious and heart-warming women’s fiction. Jane is bright, funny and very anxious. She’s in her late thirties back living with her parents after a traumatic break-up with a boyfriend, prompted by their struggles to conceive and his infidelity. Jane is working part-time in an eccentric local bookshop, having left a successful career behind in London. Jane doesn’t know what to do next – but she is really, really trying! W&N | Editor: Lettice Franklin | July 2021 | 288pp | Manuscript available Subrights Available: World 2 2 Fiction | Crime and Thrillers Crime and Thrillers Orion is home to some outstanding crime and thrillers writers and we have more than our fair share of the finest editors in the business. In the run up to our Festival, we gathered together the editors of three of our highlights in this area to have a chat about what they look for in a thriller and what excites them in a new manuscript. To hear Emad Akhtar and Francesca Pathak from Orion Fiction, and Marleigh Price from our Trapeze imprint click here. BEN AARONOVITCH Ben Aaronovitch’s highly-acclaimed series featuring PC Peter Grant has sold well over 2 million copies and has been translated into twelve languages. Every title has been a Sunday Times bestseller (False Values was #1!). TV rights are optioned by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s production company Stolen Pictures. What Abigail Did That Summer The new standalone novella in the #1 best-selling Rivers of London Series It is the summer of 2013 and Abigail Kamara, cousin of police constable and apprentice wizard Peter Grant, is chasing her own mystery. Teenagers around Hampstead Heath have been going missing – but before the police do anything, the teens return home, unharmed and vague about where they've been. Aided only by her knowledge that magic is real, and a posse of talking foxes that think they're spies, Abigail must venture into the wilds of Hampstead to discover who is luring the teenagers and more importantly - why? Gollancz | Editor: Emad Akhtar | March 2021 | 208pp | Manuscript available Subrights Available: Translation (excluding French and German) US, French, German Rights: Zeno Agency M.J ARLIDGE M. J. Arlidge is a million copy internationally bestselling author whose books have been translated into 31 languages. Truth or Dare M.J. Arlidge’s biggest and best D.I. Helen Grace thriller to date. A crimewave sweeps through society and no one is safe. The rising tide of crime threatens to drown the city and, along with it, D.I. Helen Grace. Each crime – a vicious arson attack, a violent carjacking, a fatal assault - is a piece of a puzzle, with many more pieces still to come. As they all fall into place, Helen Grace grapples with the case that may be the end of her . Orion | Editor: Emad Ahktar | June 2021 | 320pp | Manuscript available Subrights Available: World Subrights sold: Danish: Jentas | Dutch: Meulenhoff 3 3 Fiction | Crime and Thrillers ISABEL ASHDOWN With several critically-acclaimed novels already to her name, Isabel Ashdown first burst onto the thriller scene in 2017 with her bestseller Little Sister, which sold in 8 territories. She has since seen two of her thrillers shortlisted in the prestigious Dead Good Reader Awards, and her dark family dramas continue to hook readers across the globe. The Starlings A compulsive thriller exploring social advantage and privilege, for readers who enjoyed Big Little Lies and Little Fires Everywhere. Security, a sparkling sea view and the best kind of neighbours - The Starlings gated community has it all. The residents are like family to each other, in a place where doors are left open and children run free. But that all changes when an idyllic street party takes a dark turn, and popular resident Bill Adams is found dead at the foot of his neighbour's stairs. Who knows what really happened to him? And what answers are harboured within the old building, a former asylum? Trapeze | Editor: Sam Eades | July 2022 | 304pp | Manuscript due July 2021 Subrights Available: World ELLE CROFT Elle is an Australian travel blogger whose debut novel The Guilty Wife was a Top Ten Kindle bestseller, selling 90,000 copies in the US and over 150,000 copies in total. Buried The brilliant new novel by Elle Croft, bestselling author of The Guilty Wife. The Artist. The Killer. The Victim. When an earthquake brings all three together, will anyone get out alive? And if you were trapped with a serial killer, would you protect their secrets to save your own life? He tried to kill you. Now he's the only one who can save you. Orion | Editor: Francesca Pathak | August 2021 | 304pp | Manuscript due March 2021 Subrights Available: US Translation rights with United Agents JOHN SCOTT DRYDEN John Scott Dryden is creator of the historical fantasy podcast Tumanbay and has written and directed many award-winning audio drama series for the BBC. Passenger List A missing plane. A cabin full of suspects. One woman's quest for the truth.