Supernatural - Zeno Agency Ltd.

Artwork Reveal – Jim Shields’s BABY STRANGE

Posted on Tuesday, March 11th, 2014

We’re delighted to finally be revealing the new artwork for the limited edition of Jim Shields‘s BABY STRANGE. Spooky and gothic, we think it’s rather perfect. Jim Shields is a multiple award winning and multi BAFTA nominated director/writer. BABY STRANGE is his first novel. He lives in Glasgow.

Due to be published by PS Publishing to coincide with EasterCon 2014 (aka Satellite4) in Glasgow, BABY STRANGE is a real attention-grabbing and genre-mashing novel, mixing elements of a contemporary supernatural thriller, hard-as-nails gangland crime, an unlikely romance, and gonzo grotesques. Here’s some more info on the novel:

Con Man: ‘Reverend’ Joe McGill claims he’s a healer, but he’s chosen the wrong man to con.

Psychotic Gangster: Arthur Bewlay has cancer eating away at his face. He’s in no mood to be messed around – either by fake miracle workers or his dead brother Tommy… and he’ll stop at nothing in his desperate desire to live.

Eccentric Recluse: Maryam Clemenceau is just what both McGill and Bewlay need – a real miracle worker with a bona fide gift. But it comes at a considerable cost.

Architect: the sinister link between a Maryam’s Gothic apartment block, and Bewlay’s boarded up, abandoned Victorian pub – buildings that are contaminated with fear and the echoes of old and ominous power.

BABY STRANGE opens with Joe beaten and bound in the back of a car, on his way to an appointment with a cement pit under a Glasgow flyover… and this is not to be the lowest point of his day…

We believe BABY STRANGE is going to make waves, thanks to its dark brilliance. It is due to be published in April 2014, by PS Publishing.

US Publication Day – BROKEN HOMES by Ben Aaronovitch

Posted on Tuesday, February 4th, 2014

The wait is finally over! Peter Grant fans States-side can now pick up the fourth novel in Ben Aaronovitch‘s hugely successful and beloved Rivers of London/Peter Grant series! BROKEN HOMES is published in the US today by DAW Books. The novel was released in the UK by Gollancz in July 2013.

Just in case you missed it, here is the synopsis for the novel…

A unique blend of police procedural, loving detail about the greatest character of all, London, and a dash of the supernatural.

A mutilated body in Crawley. Another killer on the loose. The prime suspect is one Robert Weil; an associate of the twisted magician known as the Faceless Man? Or just a common or garden serial killer?

Before PC Peter Grant can get his head round the case a town planner going under a tube train and a stolen grimoire are adding to his case-load.

So far so London.

But then Peter gets word of something very odd happening in Elephant and Castle, on an housing estate designed by a nutter, built by charlatans and inhabited by the truly desperate.

Is there a connection?

And if there is, why oh why did it have to be South of the River?

Full of warmth, sly humour and a rich cornucopia of things you never knew about London, Aaronovitch’s series has swiftly added Grant’s magical London to Rebus’ Edinburgh and Morse’s Oxford as a destination of choice for those who love their crime with something a little extra.

Here’s some of what others have said in praise of BROKEN HOMES…

‘PC Peter Grant and his co-worker Lesley, two of the few policemen in London who can practice magic, are still working under Nightingale, who must be the oldest police officer in England . . . not that he looks it. A low-income housing tower gone awry, an old enemy with a bone to pick . . . and a shocker of an ending – BROKEN HOMES is a delight.’ — Charlaine Harris

‘Aaronovitch has involved his squad with the theatres of Covent Garden, the clubs of Soho and the Underground; now, he takes us south of the River. Here, it’s all about architecture. Those who are sceptical about the massive Modernist housing estates of the Fifties and Sixties as liveable environments will be made to think again – what if some of those architects had entirely other agendas? As always, Aaronovitch is intellectually witty and often delightful in his sparky dialogue. He knows that his characters have to be put in serious jeopardy: this book includes a particularly devastating twist whose emotional logic is overwhelming. Aaronovitch is never less than entertaining, and here he proves he can break our hearts as well.’ — The Independent (Roz Kaveney)

‘BROKEN HOMES,continues in the same rich vein of his brilliant supernatural crime series. Writing about his native London, Aaronovitch has crafted a novel that renders the city in a very different light.’ — BSFA

‘… opens with Aaronovitch’s trademark rapidity and subversive joy with the acronyms and minutiae of modern policing… an enormously fun, fast-paced, witty novel…’ — Tor.com

BROKEN HOMES is also due to be published by J’ai Lu in France and DTV in Germany. Here are the three covers, side-by-side…

Ian Tregillis’s SOMETHING MORE THAN NIGHT is not to be missed!

Posted on Tuesday, December 10th, 2013

Reviews have started to pour in for Ian Tregillis‘s latest novel, the noir, supernatural mystery SOMETHING MORE THAN NIGHT, and they have continued the precedent set by his critically-acclaimed Milkweed trilogy – that is, they are glowing. The novel has been published by Tor Books in the United States. Additionally, it has been selected by Kirkus as a Best Book of 2013 in the SFF category and a not-to-be-missed December release by io9.

Amy Goldschlager, in her Best Book of 2013 post about SOMETHING MORE THAN NIGHT, talked with Ian a bit about the book, and described it as ‘… a brain-bending combo of angelic cosmogony, high-level physics and meta-noir… dazzling and dark, and more than a little quirky.’

From the io9 post, Charlie Jane Anders had the following to say: ‘Tregillis wowed people with his Milkweed Triptych, beginning with BITTER SEEDS. Now he’s back with a Dashiell Hammett-style murder mystery set in Thomas Aquinas’ version of Heaven. Just re-read that last sentence a couple times. And now that we’re all savagely jealous that Tregillis beat us to this amazing concept.’

Here are just a selection of some of the other reviews that have come through…

‘[A] doozy… Superlatives seem superfluous. Instead…wow. Just—wow.’ — Kirkus

‘Tregillis’ amazing new fantasy thriller is a tour de force: a real nail-biting page-turner. Set in a post- apocalyptic future, his cerebral, inventive narrative is a mix of classic gumshoe and quantum physics/theology. With an “OMG!” ending and characters who are anything but cookie-cutter, Tregillis solidifies his place as a brilliant voice in the genre.’ — RT Book Reviews

‘… this book is something completely and absolutely different… One thing all of Tregillis’ books have in common is the stunning prose that flood his books with atmosphere and bring the scene and situation to glorious life… Tregillis combines his incredible prose, and stunningly complex world filled with unforgettable characters to create something new, nuanced, and different. This book is impossible to put down, and is an incredibly fast mover… SOMETHING MORE THAN NIGHT shows Tregillis at his finest…’ (5/5) — Bookworm Blues

‘When it comes to the world he has created in this book, I can only boggle in amazement… Tregillis has managed to completely floor me… I also adore Ian Tregillis’ writing style, which I’ve always figured was well suited for darker, more evocative stories, and as such I thought it was perfect for a book like this. Plus, I was just wowed by Bayliss’ voice and mannerisms, which are straight out of a crime noir novel of the 30s or 40s. I think that was the most impressive of all, and it’s obvious that great lengths were taken to make his character sound true to that particular era and genre.’ — Bibliosanctum

Ian’s Milkweed trilogy – BITTER SEEDS, THE COLDEST WAR, and NECESSARY EVIL – has been published by Orbit Books in the UK. Orbit are also due to publish the author’s next series, Clakkers, in 2014.

Speaking of NECESSARY EVIL, and in yet more great news for Ian’s fiction: the final installment of the Milkweed trilogy has been selected by BuzzFeed as one of their 14 Greatest Science Fiction Novels of the Year! This is a well-deserved accolade! The novel was also one of Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist’s top Top 10 of 2013.

Zeno represents Ian Tregillis in translation and the UK/Commonwealth on behalf of Kay McCauley.

Charlaine Harris & Chris Golden’s CEMETERY GIRL Coming Soon in the UK!

Posted on Wednesday, November 13th, 2013

Charlaine Harris, author of the wildly popular Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood series of novels, has teamed up with horror and comics author Christopher Golden to bring us a new series of original graphic novels: Cemetery Girl. Don Kramer is handling art duties.

The first book of the planned trilogy, THE PRETENDERS, is due to be published in the UK by Jo Fletcher Books in January 2014. Here’s the synopsis…

Calexa Rose Dunhill was just fourteen when she woke in a cemetery. Bruised, bloody and left for dead, with no memory of her previous life, she took a new name from the headstones that surrounded her.

Now, three years on, Calexa still lives in Dunhill Cemetery, struggling with the desire to know her true identity – and the all-consuming fear of what she might discover when she does.

Then, when she witnesses a gang of teenagers staging a stunt that goes horribly, fatally wrong, Calexa Rose Dunhill discovers she has a unique ability. One she cannot control…

The series combines fantasy and paranormal mystery to tell the story of a teenage girl with amnesia who has grown up living alone amid the gravestones. As the trilogy progresses, the truth of who the girl is, and how she came to be there will gradually be revealed. Cemetery Girl is Harris’s first venture into the world of graphic novels.

Here is what Charlaine had to say on the project, when it was first announced: ‘I’d had the bones of the plot for Cemetery Girl in my head for a year when Chris suggested I re-imagine it as a graphic novel. Suddenly, the project made a lot more sense. Since Chris has more experience in the graphic novel field that I do, we agreed to team up for my first-ever collaboration. This is an exciting venture for both of us.’

Zeno Agency represents Charlaine Harris in the UK/Commonwealth, on behalf of the JABberwocky Literary Agency in New York.