Bantam has signed Dean Koontz for three new Frankenstein novels, which will be the first of the series—launched with two volumes in 2005—that will be published in hardcover. The first new volume, Lost Souls, will be published in May 2010 and begins a new story cycle that will continue with the two subsequent books, to be released in May 2011 and May 2012.

The books in Koontz’s original Frankenstein trilogy have been bestsellers, and the third volume, Dead and Alive, debuted at number one on the New York Times paperback bestseller list when it pubbed in July. Lost Souls will pick up where Dead and Alive left off, with the setting moving to the American West and a new villain arriving on the scene. Koontz’s longtime editor, Tracy Devine, will edit the new books.

Bantam publisher Nita Taublib said the house plans to take the new books in the series “to an even wider audience.”