Dystel Closes Double
Jane Dystel closed two deals following the Frankfurt Book Fair, selling a four-book series to Amazon’s Thomas & Mercer imprint, and a new thriller, by a veteran writer, to Mulholland Books. In the first deal, Thomas & Mercer’s Andrew Bartlett bought world rights to Tracie Hohenstein’s Rachel Scott series. Hohenstein self-published the first title in the series as an e-book, Burn Out, which was also her debut, and it follows the title character, who, after her daughter disappears, starts an organization that works with police to find missing children. Set in Florida, the action is set in motion after Scott is contacted by the mother of a missing firewoman, seeking help finding her daughter. A pub date for the paperback edition of Burn Out has not yet been set, while the second book in the series, Asylum Harbor, is forthcoming.

In the second deal, John Schoenfelder, senior editor at Mulholland, took world rights to David Morrell’s new thriller, Murder as a Fine Art. Morrell’s 1972 novel (and his debut), First Blood, was used as the cornerstone for the Rambo film franchise, starring Sylvester Stallone, and he went on to publish more than 20 other books. Morrell self-published his last effort, 2010’s The Naked Edge, as a Kindle e-book. In the new novel, a historical thriller set in London during the early 1800s, a killer starts copycatting the Ratcliffe Highway murders (which took place in East London in 1811) with a twist—he follows the rules laid out by essayist Thomas De Quincey in his “Murder as a Fine Art.” The book is set for fall 2013.

Minotaur Nabs Thriller Debut in Frankfurt
Stéphanie Abou at Foundry Literary + Media closed a two-book deal, at auction, for author Amin Ahmad. Abou negotiated the deal at the Frankfurt Book Fair with Minotaur’s Hilary Rubin Teeman, who took North American rights to Ahmad’s debut, The Caretaker, along with a follow-up novel. The thriller, which is set on Martha’s Vineyard, follows Ranjit Singh, a former captain in the Indian Army, who now looks after the estate of a wealthy African-American senator on the New England island. As Abou put it, Singh “becomes ensnared in the senator’s shadowy world and is forced to face the shameful past that drove his family from India to America.” Minotaur has The Caretaker scheduled for winter 2013, with the forthcoming sequel planned for winter 2014.

NAL Sinks Teeth into More Vampires
Closing her second recent deal with NAL for vampire books, Lucienne Diver at the Knight Agency sold world rights, in a six-figure deal, to three new books in Chloe Neill’s bestselling series, Chicagoland Vampires. Diver brokered the deal with NAL’s Jessica Wade. The series, which follows a character named Merit, is set in a world where vampires have revealed themselves to the public; in Chicago the three main vampire collectives must deal with a community that either idolizes them or vilifies them.