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Pan Macmillan has acquired the novelisations to Danish TV series "The Killing", shown on BBC4 in the UK this spring and which triumphed at last night’s Baftas.
Senior commissioning editor for fiction Trisha Jackson negotiated the deal via the Lars Ringhof Agency in Copenhagen on behalf of the scriptwriter Soren Sveistrup and DR, the Danish broadcasting corporation. She bought world rights following a "hotly contested auction" for the novelisations of the first two series.
Pan Macmillan plans to publish the novelisation of series one in autumn 2012, with negotiations understood to be underway with a "very well-reviewed and highly respected crime author" to write the novels from Sveistrup's scripts.
Jackson said: "I knew from watching episode one that this was a book we had to have. The plotting and content are brilliant—revealing, layer by layer, countless red herrings, twists and turns and numerous possible suspects. Sarah Lund is the female detective crime fiction has been waiting for. We see The Killing being a major publishing event across the world."
Pan Macmillan fiction publisher Jeremy Trevathan added: "Scandinavian crime fiction has been a real phenomenon in publishing across the world in recent years and Pan Macmillan has a tradition of publishing some of the very biggest international authors in crime and thriller fiction. The Killing is a perfect match for our style of publishing and I look forward to huge success for all concerned."
The series won at the Baftas last night, scooping the award for best international series to air last year in the UK, beating "Mad Men", "Glee" and "Boardwalk Empire".