Sphere Fiction signs debut crime novel by William Hanson
Sphere Fiction, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, has acquired A Fatal Forking, the debut crime novel by etiquette coach and non-fiction author William Hanson.
Jack Butler acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Harriet Poland at CAA. The novel will publish in hardback, trade paperback, e-book and audiobook in May 2027 as a lead Sphere Fiction title.
The synopsis says: “A Fatal Forking follows etiquette coach Maximus Glyde, who is appointed by the Grand Duke of an obscure European royal family to polish the manners of his son’s hapless bride to be – but when the Grand Duchess is found dead in her hotel suite, stabbed in the neck with a strawberry fork belonging to the etiquette coach, all suspicion swiftly turns to him.”
Hanson is the author of four non-fiction books, including Just Good Manners (Ebury Press).
Butler said: “It is an utter delight to be publishing William’s debut novel. Combining piercing wit, an encyclopaedic expertise of all things etiquette and a devilishly fun murder mystery, A Fatal Forking is PG Wodehouse with a modern-day twist.”
Hanson said: “Etiquette and murder mysteries have more in common than one might think: both are entirely preoccupied with who did what, when, and whether they used the right implement. I have wanted to write fiction for as long as I can remember, and to finally have a novel is a dream I am almost too thrilled to put into words.”
