Ed Hardy Memoir Deal for the Literary Group

Agent Frank Weimann at the Literary Group International just sold the world rights to Rob Kirkpatrick of Thomas Dunne Books for an Ed Hardy memoir, to be co-written with Joel Selvin (co-author of Sammy Hagar’s autobiography, Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock). Hardy is now the head of his own international clothing brand that makes more than $700 million in annual sales, but he first rose to fame in 1960s California as the tattoo artist of choice for a variety of celebrities and Hells Angels members.

Jassy Mackenzie Book Review and Interview

Author Jassy Mackenzie has recently gotten some good publicity. Her book Stolen Lives (Soho Crime) was reviewed in Crimespree Magazine, which called the novel “action packed and a bit violent, and extremely well plotted…In a monthly meal of mysteries, this is a main course and shouldn’t be missed.” Stolen Lives is the exciting follow-up to Mackenzie’s acclaimed debut, Random Violence, again following PI Jade de Jong through Johannesburg as a straightforward bodyguard job turns out to be a lot more complicated than she first thought.

Mackenzie was also recently featured in an article on WOW! Women on Writing, in which she and several other female authors (including Cara Black, who wrote Murder in Passy, also from Soho Crime) talk about their rules of mystery writing. Among other things, Mackenzie discusses the importance of developing a story’s setting by including social issues unique to that particular place instead of just “the ugly underbelly and all the pretty little areas where the tourists like to go.” Her own characters are shaped by the dangerous environment of Johannesburg—for instance, everyone owns a gun out of necessity. Mackenzie also suggests that a good mystery starts with a hook right off the bat: “While there doesn’t have to be a body sprawled on the floor, there must be something to get your pulse racing.”

Soho Author Peter Lovesey Praised in WSJ

Tom Nolan of the Wall Street Journal gave an intriguing review for Peter Lovesey’s new book Stagestruck (SOHO press). This is the 11^th book in the series about Chief Superintendent Peter Diamond-- a curmudgeonly but likeable police detective.  While the rest of the world has moved on and adapted to modernity, Diamond is a character that clings to the ways of the past (i.e. choosing to have no patience or understanding of forensics’ role in an investigation).

Nolan elaborates on Lovesey’s evolving literary career over the years from his first book published in 1970 as a winner of a fiction writing contest to his latest book, noting the transition from period fiction to contemporary police investigation. Diamond seems to be a man of the past coping with the intricacies of an ever changing contemporary world. Can he keep up? 

Read the full review by Tom Nolan in the Wall Street Journal

To buy Stagestruck from SOHO or read an excerpt from the book, please visit their website.

Cookbook Deal for The Literary Group

Congratulations to The Literary Group’s Katherine Latshaw for brokering a deal with BJ Berti at St. Martin’s for a new cookbook.  The cookbook, yet to be titled, will feature reinterpretations of traditional Jewish fare from five-time James Beard Award nominee Todd Gray and Ellen Kassoff-Gray, the owners of Equinox Restaurant in Washington, DC (President Obama is a fan!). This book will offer some interesting recipes for people looking to experiment with fresh and seasonal ingredients in their own kitchens.

The Literary Group Scores a New Series

Congratulations to Katherine Latshaw at The Literary Group on securing a three-book deal with Rebecca Frazer at Jabberwocky for NYT bestselling author Sheryl Berk’s Truth, Love and Cupcakes, a middle grade book written with Berk’s eight-year-old daughter Carrie. Previously, Berk has collaborated with assorted celebrities on their memoirs, from Britney Spears to Jersey Shore's Jenni Farley to The City's Whitney Port. She also worked with Bethany Hamilton to write Soul Surfer, which made it to #1 on the NYT Children's Bestseller list and was adapted as a major motion picture that was released this year.

Whitey Bulger Arrested: What this Means for the Publishing World

After last week’s arrest of elusive mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, authors and publishers are responding to the renewed demand for more information on the FBI Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitive.

The interest in books on the subject has already gone up significantly in the past few days. In 2004, Steerforth Press published Street Soldier: My Life as an Enforcer for Whitey Bulger and the Boston Irish Mob, the memoir of Edward J. MacKenzie. Steerforth publisher Chip Fleisher noted in Publishers Weekly that Street Soldier has been "steadily reprinted every nine to fifteen months in modest quantities," most recently in March, but now a new reprint has been ordered to meet the higher demand.

Upcoming Mystery from Soho: Requiem for a Gypsy

In Requiem for a Gypsy, Michael Genelin’s fourth detective novel starring Bratislava Police Commander Jana Matinova, she investigates a series of murders and disappearances starting with the assassination of a prominent businessman’s wife. A review in Monday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has great things to say about the book: “[Genelin] depicts vividly the effects of old-style corruption on the burgeoning democratic society in present-day Slovakia, and can weave together a fast-moving whodunit populated with flamboyant characters who flit through the European capitals…Every character, major or minor in the plot, just about jumps off the page. Mr. Genelin seems incapable of writing a dull page.” Requiem for a Gypsy will be released by Soho Crime this July.