Minotaur ‘Kidnaps’ Machine Gun Kelly
St. Martin’s Press’s Kathy Huck (acquiring for Minotaur Books) inked a deal for a nonfiction work set during one of the worst crime waves in American history, about an infamous kidnapping scheme gone awry. Huck took U.S., Canadian, Philippines, and open market rights to journalist Joe Urschel’s Kidnapped, which recounts Machine Gun Kelly’s 1933 abduction of a Texas millionaire and the ensuing, history-altering manhunt it set off. Agent Wayne Kabak represented Urschel, who used to work for USA Today and is a director emeritus at Washington, D.C.’s Newseum. The kidnapping orchestrated by Kelly happened shortly after the passage of the Lindbergh Law—which made kidnapping a federal offense—and the heavily covered investigation, spearheaded by a young J. Edgar Hoover, was used by the rising politico to empower his agency, the FBI. The book is scheduled for spring/summer 2013.

De la Cruz Re-Ups at Hyperion
Melissa de la Cruz, who writes the popular Blue Bloods YA series for Hyperion, has signed to do three more books in another series she recently launched with the house: the Witches of East End. Elisabeth Dyssegaard took world rights to books three, four, and five in the adult series about three witches (a mother, and her two daughters) who live in a wealthy, fictional enclave on the East End of Long Island. The first book in the series was published by Hyperion in June 2011. Richard Abate at 3 Arts Entertainment brokered the deal for de la Cruz.

Leaming Digs Deeper into Jackie O.
Barbara Leaming, bestselling biographer, is returning to a subject she’s explored before: Jackie Kennedy. Thomas Dunne at Thomas Dunne Books pre-empted world rights to a biography of the former first lady by Leaming in a sale handled by agent Helen Brann of the Helen Brann Agency. Leaming has already explored the Kennedy legacy and, specifically, Jackie O.—in 2001’s Mrs. Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years (Free Press)—but Joseph said this book will be a “probing, comprehensive” biography.

Two Dollar Radio Lands McClanahan
Eric Obenauf, at the Columbus, Ohio, indie Two Dollar Radio, bought world rights to Scott McClanahan’s memoir, Crapalachia. McClanahan, who did not use an agent in the deal, has had his work appear in magazines like Bomb and Vice; he has a novel, Hill William, coming out from Tyrant Books this year. Obenauf said the memoir—it chronicles the author’s late teen years in West Virginia living with his grandmother and uncle, who had cerebral palsy—“interweaves oral folklore and area history, providing a powerful snapshot of overlooked Americana.” Crapalachia is scheduled for March 2013.

Krieger Gets ‘Comfy’ for Wiley
Agent Jane Dystel, at Dystel & Goderich, sold Ellie Krieger’s latest cookbook, which is currently untitled, to Justin Schwartz at John Wiley. Schwartz took world rights to the book, which follows titles like 2005’s Small Changes Big Results (which was published by Clarkson Potter and was the author’s first book) and 2008’s bestselling The Food You Crave (Taunton Press). Krieger is a nutritionist who focuses on cooking and eating healthy and hosted the Food Network show Healthy Appetite; she is now a fixture on the morning talk shows and also writes a weekly column for USA Today. The new cookbook is slated for fall 2013.

Scholastic Gets Rosenthal’s New Pic Book
Andrea Davis Pinkney at Scholastic bought world rights to the new picture book ! by the author/illustrator team of Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld, who were also behind the bestselling Duck! Rabbit! Amy Rennert at the Amy Rennert Agency sold the title, about the titular punctuation, at auction; she said the book is about “an emphatic but misplaced exclamation mark trying to find his way in the world.” Pinkney also acquired a second, untitled picture book in the deal.