Hutchinson Heinemann signs self-published Peter Grainger in five-way auction
Hutchinson Heinemann has signed a deal with self-published author Peter Grainger following a five-way auction.
Helen Conford, publisher at Hutchinson Heinemann, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Emma Parry at Janklow & Nesbit Associates to Grainger’s DC Smith/Kings Lake Investigation series.
As well as acquiring a new novel, Some Sort of Justice, to be published next June, Hutchinson Heinemann also signed the rights to all 16 existing titles in the series, bringing the characters of DC Smith, Chris Waters and the rest of the Kings Lake police station into print for the first time.
Rights have also been acquired in the US by Union Square & Co, and internationally by Diogenes (Germany), Tammi (Finland), Flammarion (France), De Fontein (The Netherlands) and Dogan (Turkey).
Hutchinson Heinemann is planning "a campaign that will excite existing fans of Peter Grainger’s books and will attract a brand-new long-term readership, with special proofs and series information packs for crime bloggers, reviewers and tastemakers, concerted bookshop engagement both locally in Norfolk and far beyond, and a steady-build campaign to introduce new readers to the world of Kings Lake", the publisher said.
"The campaign will establish the DC Smith / Kings Lake Investigation series as a perennial must-read for book clubs and crime fiction devotees, creating impact at crime festivals and becoming unmissable in online reading communities." Grainger’s work has previously been self-published.
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Conford said: "Peter Grainger’s works are great British crime novels. In DC Smith, the wise detective whose old-fashioned methods help him spot the clues that others miss, Grainger has created a character whose musings are full of warmth and wit.
"Setting him in the world of Kings Lake police station, full of other detectives with their own rich life stories, offers a working environment I love to be a part of. We’re delighted to welcome Peter Grainger alongside authors such as Donna Leon, Ruth Rendell and Josephine Tey: authors whose characters and plots stand the test of time."
Grainger said: "I never imagined, when I sat down to write the first Kings Lake story, that it would end up here. I’m delighted to be working with Hutchinson Heinemann, who will be publishing Some Sort of Justice in hardback – number 17 now that the DC Smith and Kings Lake novels have sensibly become one series – and bringing the earlier books out in new paperback editions. My thanks, as always, for readers’ continued support. It means a great deal, and I’m quietly astonished by it even now."
An Accidental Death, the first ever DC Smith / Kings Lake Investigation novel, will be published on 30th April 2026 as a Penguin paperback. Some Sort of Justice, the latest instalment, will be published on 4th June 2026 in hardback, e-book and audio, with fan favourite Gildart Jackson continuing as audiobook reader. The other novels in the series will be published by Penguin between June and November 2026.
