Amazon signs 'fast-paced' thriller trio from David Beckler

Amazon Publishing has landed three titles in a new thriller series from David Beckler, secured in The Liverpool Literary Agency's first multi-book deal.

Set in an authoritarian UK, the first instalment, A Long Shadow, will publish in October 2022, with two more novels planned for early 2023. Beckler's series of crime and political thrillers sees Antonia Conti, a half-Sudanese, half-Italian former child refugee, working as an investigative journalist to bring down corporate corruption through an unlikely pairing with Detective Sergeant Russell Chapman.

Amazon Publishing’s Thomas & Mercer signed the three new books through The Liverpool Literary Agency in the latter's first multi-book deal. World language rights were acquired from Clare Coombes by publishing editor Victoria Haslam. 

Commenting on the deal, Beckler said: "I finished the first draft of A Long Shadow in 2014, setting it in the 2020s in an oppressive and authoritarian UK riddled with corruption. Over the next six years I polished the manuscript, while writing and publishing other novels. But the characters in this novel wouldn’t leave me alone, and I wanted to expand their stories.

“Clare, my agent, loved them straight away, and thanks to her enthusiastic promotion, I now have the opportunity to share them with a much wider audience than I dared hope. I’m really excited at the prospect of working with Victoria at Thomas & Mercer and can’t wait to get books two and three written.” 

Coombes said: "Achieving a multi-book deal for this fast-paced and intelligent thriller from a northern-based writer has been amazing. Victoria and the team have really helped guide us through this process as a new agency, and they have incredible plans for David's series."

This article first appeared in The Bookseller

You can now pre-order A Long Shadow , Book 1 of the Antonia Conti Thriller Series