Random's Joy de Menil had long been impressed by the work of Spanish bestselling author Carmen Posadas, but it wasn't until this year's Frankfurt fair that she managed to track down her agent, Mercedes Casanovas of Barcelona. Casanovas is represented here by Tom Colchie, and it was with him that de Menil negotiated a two-book deal, for Posadas's megaselling and award-winning Little Infamies (800,000 sold in Spain, 300,000 in France, and it was translated into 10 languages), plus another book called Five Blue Flies. De Menil is really high on the author--"Little Infamies is the most entertaining book I've read in years, by far"--and describes it as both a whodunit and a sparkling social satire about the murder of a famed chef and all the people who wanted to see him dead: "A sort of Agatha Christie meets Fay Weldon." Other publishers were interested, but it was de Menil's two-book offer that clinched it; U.K. rights have also been sold, to Doubleday-Transworld.