Fascinating Books On the Way...

From Publishers Lunch Weekly:

FICTION
DEBUT...

Owen Laukkanen's THE PROFESSIONALS, pitched as comparable to the work of John Sandford and Thomas Perry, a state policeman is teamed with an FBI agent to track down four recent college graduates who, facing the worst job market in recent history, decide to create their own jobs as professional kidnappers, to Neil Nyren at Putnam, in a two-book deal, by Stacia Decker at the Donald Maass Literary Agency (World).

Patrick Flanery's THE CENSOR, set in contemporary South Africa, about the relationship between a renowned, elderly female author and the man she has selected to be her official biographer - and the powerful unspoken link between them in the author's daughter, an active member of the anti-apartheid movement, who disappeared without a trace many years ago, to Sarah McGrath at Riverhead, by George Lucas at Inkwell Management, on behalf of Victoria Hobbs at A M Heath (US).

MYSTERY/CRIME...

William Kent Krueger's two more books in the NYT bestselling Cork O'Connor crime series and the stand-alone ORDINARY GRACE, a coming-of-age story about a tragedy that strikes a Methodist minister in 1961 and what it does to his faith, his family, and the fabric of the small town in which he lives, told forty years later by the minister's son, to Sarah Branham at Atria, by Danielle Egan-Miller at Browne & Miller Literary Associates (World).
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SCI-FI/FANTASY...

Julianna Baggott's PURE trilogy, a YA/adult crossover dystopian novel about a society of haves, who escaped an apocalypse in a futuristic dome-covered city, and have-nots, who survived the nearly destroyed outside world, to Jaime Levine at Grand Central, in a three-book deal, by Nat Sobel at Sobel Weber Associates (NA).

THRILLER...

Silver Dagger and Hammett winner Dan Fesperman's THE DOUBLE GAME, in which Cold War spy novels and other classic works of espionage become the clues to uncover a possible double agent, to Sonny Mehta at Knopf.
UK rights to Nick Cheetham at Corvus, by Jane Chelius at Jane Chelius Literary Agency.

GENERAL/OTHER...

Spanish novelist Víctor del Arbol's THE SAMARAI'S GRIEF, about multiple betrayals, personal and political, pitched as evocative of Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind, and set alternately in the pro-Nazi Spain of 1941 -- when an aristocrat becomes involved in a plot to kill her Fascist husband, only to be betrayed by her lover -- and during the attempted Fascist coup of 1981, when a young lawyer is accused of plotting the prison escape of the man she successfully prosecuted for attempted murder five years earlier; with the Japanese sword of the title providing -- and ultimately severing -- the link between the two women's lives, to Aaron Schlechter at Holt, in a pre-empt, for publication in February 2011, by Thomas Colchie of The Colchie Agency, representing the Spanish publisher Alreves on behalf of principal agent Antonia Kerrigan in Barcelona (world English).


Rachel Hore's A PLACE OF SECRETS, when an auction house appraiser of old books and manuscripts, a woman struggling to come to terms with the death of her young husband, is asked to value a collection belonging to a reclusive 18th century astronomer, she jumps at the chance to escape London to be closer to her sister and niece and begin deciphering the mysteries of the astronomer's world, only to find all sorts of disturbing links with her own family's history, to Aaron Schlechter at Holt, for publication in February 2012, by Lisa Bankoff at ICM, on behalf of Sheila Crowley at Curtis Brown UK (NA).

CHILDREN'S YOUNG ADULT...

Debut author Marissa Meyer's four-book YA futuristic, fairy-tale inspired series, starting with CINDER, Cinderella is re-envisioned through teen heroine Cinder, part girl and part machine, who must piece together her mysterious past before she can fulfill her destiny and save the kingdom -- and the rest of planet Earth -- from an otherworldly enemy; as Cinder's quest continues through the series, she finds allies loosely based Little Red Riding Hood (SCARLET), Rapunzel (CRESS), and Snow White (WINTER) -- as they join forces to conquer evil and find their happily-ever-afters, to Jean Feiwel of Feiwel and Friends, at auction, by Jill Grinberg at Jill Grinberg Literary Management (NA).

BIOGRAPHY...

Coauthor of the Pulitzer Prize-winning AMERICAN PROMETHEUS Kai Bird's THE GOOD SPY, centering on the career and tragic death of CIA legend Robert Ames, whose passing marked a dramatic shift in foreign policy that still haunts America's relationship with the Muslim world, to Rick Horgan at Crown, in a pre-empt, for publication in 2013, by Gail Ross of the Ross Yoon Agency.

With the royal engagement news comes the pre-planned announcement of author of The Day Diana Died Christopher Andersen's WILLIAM AND KATE: The Love Story, about how Prince William and Kate Middleton "defied all odds to forge a storybook romance amidst the scandals, power struggles, tragedies, and general dysfunction that are the hallmarks of Britain's Royal Family," promising "intimate details of their celebrated courtship" and more, to Jennifer Bergstrom at Gallery, with Mitchell Ivers editing, for publication in February 2011, by Ellen Levine at Trident Media Group (NA).

Pulitzer Prize winner Eileen McNamara's untitled biography of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, telling the story of the often-overlooked Kennedy who founded the Special Olympics and left behind one of the family's most enduring civil rights legacies, to Priscilla Painton at Simon & Schuster, by Colleen Mohyde at the Doe Coover Agency (World).

MEMOIR...

Former CBS anchor Dan Rather's SUMMING UP, with the 79-year-old saying "the time had come for me to sum up my career in a candid memoir, and now I feel the time is right. Plus, with the changing climate -- and attitude -- about news and journalists, I feel I can give readers an honest perspective on the present, and, more important, on the future of news," to Rick Wolff at Grand Central, for publication in 2012, by Paul Fedorko at N.S. Bienstock.

NARRATIVE...

NYT bestselling and Emmy Award-winning DESPERADOS Elaine Shannon's LEFT OF BOOM, a narrative of the DEA's mission-critical operations in Afghanistan and what they portend for the future of war fighting, to Rick Horgan at Crown, in a pre-empt, for publication in early 2012, by Gail Ross of the Ross Yoon Agency (world).

SPORTS...

Major league catcher and winner of two World Series rings Bengie Molina's PAPI, an account of fathers, sons, and baseball that tells the story Molina's family and specifically his late father, Benjamin Molina Santana, who rose from poverty in Puerto Rico and worked in a factory for thirty years while coaching his three sons (Bengie, Jose, and Yadier) into the major leagues, where they became the first three brothers in history to all win World Series championships, written with Little Girls in Pretty Boxes author Joan Ryan, to Jofie Ferrari-Adler at Simon & Schuster, at auction, by Betsy Lerner at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner (World).

Wrap...