It all started where most literary deals are made: lunch. Over a nosh with Neil Olson, legendary Donadio & Olson agent to such luminaries as Mario Puzo and Robert Stone, the new editorial director of Hanover Square Press, Peter Joseph, asked Olson what he was working on. Olson took a deep breath and told Joseph about his own novel he was writing, the first in more than a decade. Long story short: on January 9, 2018, Hanover Press will debut The Black Painting, a mystery concerning the theft of a priceless painting—one of Goya’s deeply disturbing and dark “Black Paintings.” Show Daily spoke with Neil Olson about how he came to be on the other side of the fence.

You surprised Peter Joseph with this book. What was his reaction?

We were talking about our tastes in mysteries and thrillers. We also talked about a book that we loved in which the supernatural is not required to solve the story, but had that kind of mist overlaying it. I thought he’d be perfect for this book I just wrote. I was going to bring it up at another time, but when he asked me point-blank at the end of lunch what I was working on, I thought, okay, this is karma. I sent it, and a week later he said he wanted to buy it.

Did you expect things to move so quickly after that?

No, I didn’t expect anything at all. This is a business where you have to work very hard and make a lot of submissions to make one sale. To show it casually to one editor and make a sale is extraordinary.

Your last novel was the well-received The Icon. What drew you back to writing fiction?

I haven’t published a novel in 12 years, but I have never stopped writing. Because I have an unending day job, championing other people’s work, I don’t have a lot of extra time for my own writing. I hadn’t given up on the idea, but it’s something that is in my bones.

What inspired you about Goya’s Black Paintings series?

Most of my work seems to involve art history and paintings, because they lend themselves to the mysterious. I came up with this idea of a painting that was so terrifying that it would cause death or madness upon viewing. Then I thought, who would be the artist who could produce such a painting, and I remembered Goya’s paintings, which I had seen in the Prado in Madrid. They had a profound effect on me.

How is it to be an author again?

Peter Joseph is a joy to work with, and it is really exciting to be on the ground floor of a new imprint. I am pleased and honored to be in that position.

Today, 12:30–1:30 p.m. Neil Olson signs ARCs at the Harlequin booth (2921).