Author: Cole Sullivan

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Online launch of Roxanne Bouchard’s breathtakingly beautiful and dark thriller The Coral Bride – TUESDAY 17 NOVEMBER – 7PM

Orenda Booksis delighted to celebrate publication of the ‘Queen of Quebec Suspense’ Roxanne Bouchard’s breathtakingly beautiful and dark thriller, The Coral Bride, translated by David Warriner, with an online launch.

Number One Bestselling Book in Quebec 2020!

Roxanne will be in conversation with Orenda Books editor and author, West Camel.

This event is free to attend, however we do encourage you to support the author in any way you can and Roxanne’s book is available to order online now. Signed copies are available EXCLUSIVELY from our partner bookshop, Berts Books: HERE

You will receive a confirmation email once you register, and on the day of the event itself will be sent details for attendance. Please ensure you have downloaded Zoom. We will be taking questions on the day of the event via the chat function.

Roxanne Bouchardis an award-winning French-Canadian playwright and author. Ten years or so ago, she decided it was time she found her sea legs. So she learned to sail, first on the St Lawrence River, before taking to the open waters off the Gaspé Peninsula. The local fishermen soon invited her aboard to reel in their lobster nets, and Roxanne saw for herself that the sunrise over Bonaventure never lies. Her fifth novel (her first to be translated into English) We Were the Salt of the Sea – first in the Detective Moralès series – was published in 2018 to resounding critical acclaim. Roxanne Bouchard lives in Quebec.

West Camel is born and bred in south London – and not the Somerset village with which he shares a name – West Camel worked as an editor in higher education and business before turning his attention to the arts and publishing. He has worked as a book and arts journalist, and was editor at Dalkey Archive Press, where he edited the Best European Fiction 2015anthology, before moving to new press Orenda Books just after its launch. He currently combines his work as editor at Orenda Books with writing and editing a wide range of material for various arts organisations, including ghost-writing a New-Adult novel and editing The Riveter magazine for the European Literature Network. He has also written several short scripts, which have been produced in London’s fringe theatres, and was longlisted for the Old Vic’s 12 playwrights project. Attend is his first novel.

The Coral Bride

In this beautiful, lyrical sequel to the critically acclaimed We Were the Salt of the Sea, Detective Moralès finds that a seemingly straightforward search for a missing fisherwoman off Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula is anything but … ‘A haunting murder mystery about how human nature is every bit as dangerous and inscrutable as the sea … draws out its suspense to the very last moment’ Foreword Reviews

In conjunction with the Canadian Embassy, London and Quebec Reads.

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Online launch of Gunnar Staalesen’s seminal, award-winning Varg Veum thriller Fallen Angels – TUESDAY 24 NOVEMBER – 7PM

Orenda Books is thrilled to announce that one of the Fathers of Nordic Noir, Gunnar Staalesen, will be ‘going live’ to celebrate publication of his seminal, award-winning Varg Veum thriller Fallen Angels, published in English for the first time.

Staalesen will be joined by his translator Don Bartlett, with proceedings led by Dr Jacky Collins (Dr Noir).

This event is free to attend, however we do encourage you to support the author in any way you can and Fallen Angels is available to order online now. Signed copies are available EXCLUSIVELY from our partner bookshop, Forum Books: HERE

You will receive a confirmation email once you register, and on the day of the event itself will be sent details for attendance. Please ensure you have downloaded Zoom. We will be taking questions on the day of the event via the chat function.

One of the fathers of Nordic Noir, Gunnar Staalesen was born in Bergen, Norway, in 1947. He made his debut at the age of twenty-two with Seasons of Innocence and in 1977 he published the first book in the Varg Veum series. He is the author of over twenty titles, which have been published in twenty-four coun­tries and sold over four million copies. Twelve film adaptations of his Varg Veum crime novels have appeared since 2007, star­ring the popular Norwegian actor Trond Espen Seim. Staalesen has won three Golden Pistols (including the Prize of Honour). Where Roses Never Die won the 2017 Petrona Award for Nordic Crime Fiction, and Big Sister was shortlisted for the award in 2019. He lives with his wife in Bergen.

Don Bartlett completed an MA in Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia in 2000 and has since worked with a wide variety of Danish and Norwegian authors, including Jo Nesbo and Karl Ove Knausgaard. He has previously translated The Consorts of Death, Cold Hearts, We Shall Inherit the Wind, Where Roses Never Die, Wolves in the Dark, Big Sister and Wolves at the Door in the Varg Veum series.

Dr Jacky Collins, formerly Senior Lecturer at Northumbria University in Literature, Film & TV and Spanish Language & Culture, currently based at Stirling University, is also known as Dr Noir. In 2014 Jacky established the International Crime Fiction Festival that is Newcastle Noir. More recently, she has been venturing into local radio, co-hosting a fortnightly crime fiction programme on SpiceFM, hosting on-line literary events with the Honey & Stag events team, and is part of the Corylus Books team, a new indie publisher of crime fiction in translation: from Romania, Iceland and beyond

Fallen Angels

When Bergen PI Varg Veum finds himself at the funeral of a former classmate on a sleet-grey December afternoon, he’s unexpectedly reunited with his old friend Jakob – guitarist of the once-famous 1960s rock band The Harpers – and his estranged wife, Rebecca, Veum’s first love. Their rekindled friendship is thrown into jeopardy by the discovery of a horrific murder, and Veum is forced to dig deep into his own adolescence and his darkest memories, to find a motive … and a killer. Tense, vivid and deeply unsettling, Fallen Angels is the spellbinding, award-winning thriller that secured Gunnar Staalesen’s reputation as one of the world’s foremost crime writers. ‘‘One of the finest Nordic novelists – in the tradition of Henning Mankell’ Barry Forshaw, Independent

In conjunction with the Norwegian Embassy in London, Norla and Norwegian Arts.

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Avoiding Plane Crashes, in Slow Motion, by Eve Smith

18thNovember marks the start of World Antimicrobial Awareness Week. Health workers, scientists and global institutions like the World Health Organisation will be doing their best to increase awareness of global antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and urging policy makers to take swift and firm action to avoid the ongoing emergence and spread of drug-resistant infections.

I have similar calls for action in my novel, The Waiting Rooms, in the decades leading up to the antibiotic crisis. Calls that, despite the very real evidence of an impending disaster, fall on deaf ears. As one of my characters, Mary, says: ‘It’s like watching a plane crash, in slow motion.’

Of course, the misery that coronavirus has inflicted on so many people over the past year has highlighted the cataclysmic impacts of health emergencies, that even our advanced technologies and sophisticated minds cannot overcome. And those impacts will continue, long after the virus has gone. Which gives me hope that governments worldwide may be a little more receptive to calls for action on other health emergencies, like AMR, as opposed to focusing on the next short-term vote-winner or burying their respective heads in the sand.

Because we do need action. Now.

As I have said in previous blogs, the coronavirus pandemic is unfortunately accelerating the rise of antimicrobial resistance. The huge volumes of antibiotics and other drugs being prescribed to treat primary and secondary infections in COVID-19 patients are giving bacteria and viruses the opportunity to develop resistance, spread further and leach into our waste water systems, rivers and oceans.

What’s more, the disruption to health services caused by the pandemic, and delays in the diagnosis and treatment of other infectious diseases are allowing those diseases to spread too, including that age-old foe that triggers a pandemic in my novel: Tuberculosis.

Before COVID-19, over 4,000 people were dying from TB every day. According to new estimates published in the European Respiratory Journal, that number could rise significantly if there is substantial health care disruption and social distancing measures aren’t adequate. Models predict between 100,000 and 200,000 additional TB deaths over the next five years in India, China and South Africa alone, undoing the good work that has been painstakingly achieved to stem the growth of this increasingly drug-resistant disease.

TB has always been an opportunist, taking advantage of compromised immune systems, and natural disasters since the Ancient Egyptians. As Mary says, in The Waiting Rooms: ‘Let’s face it, anything that can flourish for three million years must be pretty adept at survival.’

Current thinking is that having pulmonary TB does not make you more likely to contract COVID-19, but if you do fall ill, the severity of the infection is likely to be worse because of existing damage in the lungs. And if your treatment for TB is disrupted, especially if it’s a drug-resistant strain, then the predicted outcomes are not good.

I appreciate this isn’t very cheery. But then, if you have read The Waiting Rooms, you wouldn’t expect it to be. After all, the realm I inhabit is dystopian thrillers. But at least this one hasn’t happened. Yet.

By illustrating the very real horrors of a world where antibiotics no longer work, the hard choices inflicted on society when infections run rampant, and showing just how easily that could happen, I am hoping that, in its own small way, The Waiting Rooms will contribute to awareness about antimicrobial resistance, and may even nudge a few of those actions further along. Because this story needs to remain fictional. We’ve got more than enough dystopia to cope with in our lives.

Eve Smith is author of The Waiting Rooms.

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Louise Beech’s Favourite Spooky Reads

OoooOooooh, it’s that time of year. Witches. Warlocks. Wizards. Wizened old hags. Ghost. Ghouls. Maybe goblins? To be fair, this sounds like first thing in a morning at my house, but yes, Halloween is upon us. I never thought I’d write a ghost story. But I did. Last year. And this year I Am Dust hit the shelves. But what are my favourite spooky reads? Do I enjoy being scared? Well, yes I do. But only if I’m not alone in the house. If my husband is away, I won’t even think about a scary book, let alone open one. So, here are my top five spooky, scary reads…

Matt Wesolowski – Hydra

I made the abject mistake of reading this while staying alone in an apartment for the night. I kept trying to put down this dark and chilling book, but I couldn’t; I was dragged kicking and screaming into a world of deadly forbidden ‘games’, online trolls, and these mysterious black-eyed kids, whose presence seems to extend far beyond the delusions of a murderess. If these children come knocking on your door, you mustn’t let them in. So when someone knocked on the apartment door at midnight, and there was no-one there, I didn’t sleep for the rest of the night.

The Shining – Stephen King

I also made the mistake of reading this one alone, back when I was fifteen. My family were away and I was hooked. But then I had to sleep with the light on for weeks. It was the weird woman in the hotel room. It was the menacing sense of claustrophobia at the Overlook Hotel where Jack and his family are isolated one long winter, and where a man previously butchered his entire family. It was the description of a slow descent into madness. This one is a classic.

Rosemary’s Baby – Ira Levin

I got this one for Christmas when I was a thirteen. What a dark child I must have been. It was part of an anthology of three well-known horror stories. Anyway, I devoured it under the covers with a torch when I was supposed to be sleeping. In the book Rosemary and her husband Guy move into a historic, Gothic building in New York. The neighbours are odd to say the least. It turns out they are devil worshippers. And they want someone to give birth to a living, breathing Satan. You can well imagine the rest. Somehow, I still wanted kids when I grew up….

The Chalk Man – CJ Tudor

This was Tudor’s debut – and what a debut it was. There’s a real feeling of nostalgia in this one. It’s old school, proper chills and thrills horror. Main character Ed receives a stick of chalk  and a drawing of a figure, in the post one day, and is dragged back in time, to a body, to the Chalk Man. I had learned my lesson well with this one and read it with my husband very close to me. I might still have needed the lights on though.

The Entity by Frank De Felitta

This is the super-scary tale of a young single mum, Carlotta, who is violated in her bed each night by a spectral rapist. It sounds pretty sordid but it’s cleverly written, smart, tense, and it’s more about when no one believes you – the true horror of that. In many ways, it’s a great and terrifying metaphor for when real-life assault victims aren’t believed. This is particularly disturbing because it’s inspired by real-life events. It’s an occult classic and will satisfy anyone who enjoys the paranormal.

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Orenda Books signs Awais Khan’s devastatingly emotive, searingly relevant No Honour in a two-book Frankfurt pre-empt

Karen Sullivan, Publisher of Orenda Books, is delighted to announce the acquisition of World English Language rights, ex-USA/Can, including TV and audio, for Awais Khan’s atmospheric, searing No Honour, and a further, untitled novel, from Annette Crossland at A is for Authors, in a Frankfurt pre-empt.

Karen says, ‘This beautifully written, utterly compulsive book has the extraordinarily richness and depth of a fine family drama, combined with the narrative pace of a thriller. It’s topical, immensely emotive and filled with themes that are both provocative and sobering. No Honour is an extraordinary achievement, from one of Pakistan’s most exciting authors, and I cannot wait to get this wonderful book out there.

‘The story moves from dangerous, over-populated Lahore to an exquisitely drawn rural Pakistan, where religious fervour, poverty and age-old traditions dictate a way of life that sees a series of young women killed for alliances deemed unacceptable. Abida is a fearless young woman, valiantly fighting against honour killing, prostitution, trafficking and the patriarchy, determined to marry for love and supported by her devoted father, Jamil, who is fighting his own battle with ingrained cultural expectations and ongoing moral dilemmas. Abida’s life spirals out of control, and she faces an unremitting series of tragic and terrifying events, with the backdrop of village life in Pakistan playing a central role.

‘Themes of love, empathy, forgiveness and strength against unbidden and unseen foes lie at the heart of this book, with vivid characters who leap off the page, their messages, their heartrending, shocking plights leaving the reader entirely immersed. I felt bereft when this book ended, but also incredibly moved, and probably a little wiser. This is a book about endurance, about love in its different forms, about what makes us human, and what threatens to destroy us. It’s simply stunning.’

Awais says, ‘To be working with Orenda Books is a dream come true. Honour killings have plagued Pakistan for a very long time, but the issue is actually global. It is appalling even to imagine being persecuted for something as natural as following your heart, but that’s the world we live in. I am glad that Orenda Books will help me in shining a light on this gruesome practice that has destroyed countless lives, countless generations. I have long admired the passion and dedication of Karen Sullivan as well as the trademark flair and professionalism with which she brings out her books in the world. Her enthusiasm for books is boundless and I can’t think of anyone better to publish this book. I am very happy to be in such capable hands and to be a part of “Team Orenda”.’

Annette say, ‘I am incredibly delighted that Orenda will be publishing our fabulous author, Awais Khan. I have long been a fan of Karen Sullivan, after meeting with her at the London Book Fair in 2014 after the formation of Orenda Books, and greatly admire her verve, aptitude and passion for publishing wonderful books. The subject of honour killings is not just the scourge of Pakistan, but is now an international issue that needs to highlighted and addressed – an abhorrent and ghastly practice that should be wiped off the face of the earth.  I know that Awais will in the best of hands as part of Team Orenda.’

No Honour [working title] will be published in Summer 2021 by Orenda Books, with a second, untitled book published at a later date. For more information, please contact Karen@orendabooks.co.uk.

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Orenda scoops journalist’s ‘heart-rending’ debut

Orenda Books is to publish Katie Allen’s debut novel Everything Happens for a Reason, secured in a two-book deal.

Karen Sullivan, publisher, acquired world English language rights for the novel and a second untitled book in a deal negotiated with Caroline Hardman at Hardman & Swainson.

Described as “heart-rending” and “exquisitely moving”, the novel in inspired by the author’s own experiences. It follows a mother after her son is stillborn and her obsession with finding the reason behind the phrase “everything happens for a reason”.

Sullivan said: “I read this book almost a year ago, long before it was sent out on submission, and nearly choked with excitement. Everything Happens for a Reason is that very special book, one that a publisher has to publish, a book that made me weep and laugh uncontrollably, but also fall in love – with the characters, the absurdities, the warmth and humour, the poignancy, and the original format. The writing is exquisite. I sent it to every member of the team and we were unanimous in our enthusiasm and determination to publish this beautiful book. It’s one of the most heart-rending portraits of grief I have ever read but also rich in delightfully zany humour.

“This is a joy of a book – simultaneously uplifting and searingly painful, able to make the reader laugh out loud and, within the turn of a phrase, strike straight at the heart. I cannot wait to publish this exceptional debut.”

The synopsis explains: “Mum-to-be Rachel did everything right, but it all went wrong. Her son, Luke, was stillborn and she finds herself on maternity leave with no baby. When someone tells her that ‘Everything happens for a reason’, she becomes obsessed with finding that reason, driven by grief and convinced that she is somehow to blame. She remembers that on the day she discovered her pregnancy, she’d stopped a man from jumping in front of a train, and becomes certain that saving his life cost her the life of her son. Desperate to find him, she enlists an unlikely ally in Lola, an Underground worker, and Lola’s seven-year-old daughter, Josephine, and eventually tracks him down, with very unexpected results.”

Allen, who is a journalist at the Guardian, said: “I am so excited to have found a home with Karen and the rest of the team at Orenda – a home for me as a writer and a home for my characters. I knew it was risky to write about something so deeply personal, and painful, and then send it out into the world. But Karen understood my character, her grief and her story straight away and now I am thrilled to be working with Orenda to share that story with readers.

“When someone texted me that ‘Everything happens for a reason’ after our son was stillborn, the words infuriated and fascinated me in equal measure. Can we really explain everything that happens? Are we unable to accept that some things just happen? The phrase has stayed with me and out of it my character Rachel was born and her dogged attempts to make sense of a massive loss. Like Rachel, until our son died, I really believed stillbirth was something that happened decades and centuries ago but rarely now. Of course, a big part of me while pregnant just didn’t allow me to believe it could happen. But tragically, it still happens every day and when we shy away from that, it only deepens the sense of isolation that many grieving parents feel. This story is unique to my character, but the grief she feels is not.”

Everything Happens for a Reason will be released in June 2021, with the second novel to follow later.

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Orenda Books signs former CNN reporter Sarah Sultoon’s startlingly relevant, dark and shocking debut thriller The Source in a two-book deal

Karen Sullivan, Publisher of Orenda Books, is delighted to announce the acquisition of World English Language rights for Sarah Sultoon’s stunning debut thriller The Source, in a deal negotiated with Jon Wood of RCW Literary Agency.

Thirteen-year-old schoolgirl Carly lives with her alcoholic mother in a squalid home, in a disenfranchised, poverty-stricken town in the East of England, taking on the care of her baby sister and dependent upon the infrequent largesse of her older brother, who lives in the local army barracks. When he offers a solution to their money problems, Carly and her teenaged friend grab it, despite her unease. What ensues is both heartbreaking and traumatic. In the modern day, an intrepid news team sets a trap to snare a group of sex traffickers, but their investigations are thrown off track when the police announce the reopening of a historic sex abuse case, involving a number of high-powered individuals. As the two timelines merge, the plot spirals towards an utterly chilling series of events that change everything.

Karen says, ‘This is an extraordinarily accomplished debut, with some of the most convincing dialogue I’ve ever read and a cast of incredibly memorable characters. While the subject matter is timely, sobering and immensely thought-provoking, forcing us to confront and understand the plight of so many young women who have faced abuse by the people they should be able to trust the most, it’s also a nail-biting, dark thriller – fast-paced and exquisitely tense. With multiple themes of corruption and abuse (of people and of power), this could be a “worthy” read, yet it’s anything but. At its heart are powerful messages of hope, resilience and self-belief, conquering the odds, and this all combines to create a book that is the very definition of unputdownable, set in the world of news media that its award-winning, ex-CNN journalist and international news executive, Sarah Sultoon, knows intimately. Not surprisingly, this brilliant book is currently in development for TV with Lime Street Pictures.

‘The Source fits our small list perfectly, and represents the kind of bold, challenging and memorable publishing we hope to achieve. I cannot wait to publish this book, and, of course, to see how its multitudinous, fabulously rich characters and themes will translate to the screen. We are thrilled to welcome Sarah to Team Orenda.’

Sarah Sultoon says, ‘In 15 years as a journalist I worked in a world where speaking truth to power, giving voice to the voiceless and holding authority to account was both a crucial and respected public service. Yet now we live in a world where journalists themselves are legitimate targets, where the facts themselves are presented as alternative, and where information is being weaponised by state-sponsored enemies of truth. The Source is, in part, my response to the horrific abuses originally covered up in Rochdale and Rotherham, and an attempt to hold power to account through the medium of fiction at a time when it has never been more important. I am enormously thrilled and heartened to have found a partner in Orenda, a publishing house as devoted to emotional truth as the news business is to pursuit of the facts.’

Jon Wood says, ‘The Source is just a hugely intense, visceral and gripping story. Sarah’s novel felt so powerful and immediately relevant from the first time I picked it up and I was not remotely surprised that TV rights were snapped up.  I’m now delighted that Orenda – who are so consistently brilliant at finding new original talents – have done the same. This is the beginning of something truly special.’

The Source will be published in Spring 2021 by Orenda Books. For more information, please contact Karen@orendabooks.co.uk.