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Quercus is getting ready to launch the debut of astronaut Chris Hadfield, The Apollo Murders, branded "an exceptional Cold War thriller from the dark heart of the Space Race", this October.
Managing director Jon Butler acquired world rights in Hadfield’s novel, having commissioned the project via Hadfield’s agent Rick Broadhead at Rick Broadhead & Associates. North American rights subsequently went to Random House Canada and Mulholland Books at Little, Brown US. All English-language editions of The Apollo Murders will publish worldwide with a "major" marketing and publicity campaign on 12th October 2021.
Butler said: "Publishing Chris Hadfield’s first two books, New York Times and Sunday Times bestsellers An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth and You Are Here, remains a career highlight for me. Even among the very few people who have travelled into space and back, Chris is exceptional for his eloquence and charisma, the breadth of his experience—from top test pilot to Commander of the International Space Station—and above all his ability to communicate what it feels like to be up there. Knowing of his passion for thrillers, I always secretly hoped that one day Chris would turn his hand to fiction—and the result is an absolute blast."
Hadfield said: "The Apollo Murders is everything I love—high-tech adventure, international intrigue, wicked danger far from home, people pushed to their limit, constant surprise—all happening in outer space at a pivotal moment in history. I’ve written the book firmly based in the little-known reality of the Cold War and the Space Race, and then let the story run away with the possibilities. I’m really looking forward to people learning what spaceflight is actually like, getting to know the characters (real and imagined), and seeing what just might have been."