Corvus bags two more gripping thrillers from Sam Blake

Corvus Publishing Director Sarah Hodgson has acquired UK & Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) in Sam Blake’s Three Little Birds from Simon Trewin at Simon Trewin Ltd. Bought as part of a two-book deal, both novels will be published in TPB and eBook in January 2024 and January 2025, with paperbacks following in November of the same year.

Several of Sam Blake’s previous novels have reached the top spot in the Irish fiction chart, and she has been nominated for Crime Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards three times. She is the founder of The Inkwell Group publishing consultancy, the writing resources website writing.ie, and Dublin crime fiction festival Murder One. She also sits on the boards of both the Society of Authors and the CWA, and recently relaunched National Crime Reading Month for the CWA.

The first title in the contract, Three Little Birds, will publish in early 2024. This thrilling forensic mystery in the tradition of Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs introduces readers to facial reconstruction expert Dr Carla Steele when the discovery of a young woman’s skull prompts a killer to attempt to right the wrongs of the past. This will be followed a year later in 2025 by a second title, as Corvus continue to publish a new Sam Blake title every year

Sarah Hodgson, Corvus Publishing Director, says,

‘Sam Blake is a delight to publish, and I’m excited to continue our relationship with her. I love the way she creates strong, complex female characters we can really root for, and Dr Carla Steele is no exception. We have been working hard to expand Sam Blake’s readership in all our markets, and with these two thrilling new titles, we have big plans to build her audience even further. The best is yet to come for Sam Blake!’

Sam Blake says,

‘I’m delighted to be publishing more adult thrillers with Corvus, their passion for publishing shows in every book and I’m thrilled to be working with Sarah and the team to bring Dr Carla Steele to readers. She’s a fresh and exciting character – who has personal reasons for wanting to recover the lost – and I loved bringing her world to the page and exploring this fascinating area of forensics. I hope Three Little Birds will keep readers on the edge of their seats.’

Simon Trewin says:

‘2023 is such an exciting year for Sam Blake and we are thrilled to be partnering once more on the adult fiction front with Sarah and her brilliant team at Corvus’