Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Stolen from Publishers Marketplace

Wow, this is some deal:

Ariana Franklin's THE MISTRESS OF THE ART OF DEATH and THE SERPENT IN THE GARDEN, billed as "Kathy Reichs in the 12th Century," to Rachel Kahan at Putnam, in a major deal, for seven figures, by Helen Heller at Helen Heller Agency (US).

It's a wonderful thing to see an excellent historical novelist finally get the attention she deserves (not to mention the dough...) even if she had to use a pseudonym to do it. And she's returning to the 12th century, too, after a brief sojourn during the pre-WWII era. Hurrah.

4 comments:

  1. What else has she written?

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  2. My favorite of hers (as Diana Norman) is Shores of Darkness. I see one Amazon UK reviewer didn't care for it, but I thought it was brilliant, very clever. She's written plenty of others, mostly UK only and mostly medieval, but with a couple exceptions they're not that hard to find.

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  3. Very interesting. Didn't she sell enough as Diana Norman? I've read and loved most of her books!

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  4. I don't think she was ever very well known in the US. She had two books published within the last couple of years that were set during the Revolutionary War period (and England at the same time) but despite good reviews, they never got much attention. The Ariana Franklin novels, from the descriptions, seem to be historical thrillers, which is a switch from her previous novels.

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