Headline's Georgian Murder Mystery (July 01, 2008)
Jane Morpeth at Headline has acquired from Annette Green with ‘a very substantial pre-emptive offer’ UK and Commonwealth rights in Instruments of Darkness, the debut novel by TV director Imogen Robertson.A historical murder mystery, the action of the novel takes place over one week in June 1780 and takes us from the coffee shops and squalor of London to the open fields of Sussex; from the dissecting room to the society salon; from religious riots and mob violence to the early slaughter of the American War of Independence.Its characters are oppressed – some by class, some by gender, some by wealth, some by secrets – until the pressures of the past explode into mayhem and murder and the body count rises.
Green describes it as ‘a remarkable debut from a writer in complete command of her story and style.Powerful, compelling, mysterious, grotesque and brutal, it’s an utterly enthralling read, smoking with authenticity and pulsing with menace.’
Morpeth says: ‘It is an extremely impressive first novel and, for me, has a perfectly pitched combination of drama and warmth, fantastic cast of characters, an impeccably drawn background, both physically and historically, and great narrative drive. I have a very small list of authors that I work with and rarely commission, but I couldn't resist Imogen's novel’
