New Author's 2-Book Bantam Deal
by John F. Baker -- Publishers Weekly, 4/16/2001
Bill Landay served for six years as a prosecutor of street crimes for the DA's office in a tough area of Boston, and has put his experience to good use in a first novel, Mission Flats, which his agent, Alice Martell, has just sold to Bantam's Kate Miciak as part of a two-book deal that ran into the upper six figures. After turning down a preempt, Martell auctioned the book, and Miciak beat out underbidders Hyperion and Pocket. The book is causing considerable buzz among scouts; Martell has already received a six-figure bid from the U.K. and a preemptive offer from Italy—the latter without anyone having even seen the manuscript. It is, said Martell, a richly written, lyrical thriller in the style patented by Scott Turow, about a police chief in a tiny Maine town who goes hunting for a murder suspect in inner-city Boston. Miciak secured U.S. and Canadian rights only, and will publish next spring.
