Devil’s Breath author, Jill Johnson, has a new book coming out in the UK on July 11th 2024 with Black & White Publishing (Bonnier UK): Hell’s Bells, in which the protagonist Professor Eustacia Rose embarks on another thrilling case. Translation rights have been sold to AST (Russian) and all other translation rights are currently available.
The Alnwick Garden in Northumberland hosted a launch party for Hell’s Bells on June 29th, a few days before the official publication date. Attendees got to listen to the author talk about the book and what inspired her, get their books signed, and then undertake a private, out of hours tour of the Poison Garden.
In Hell’s Bells, Professor Rose’s life is beginning to return to normal: she is back teaching at UCL and her relationship with Matilde is blossoming. But when a man is found dead with a needle in his neck, that fragile peace begins to crumble. At an exhibition, Eustacia finds a painting of herself with a syringe next to her neck and discovers that there are other people who seem to know more about the killing than they are letting on.
The threat around Eustacia only increases as a PhD student begins to stalk and harass her to gain access to her poisonous plant collection. After Eustacia continually refuses, he contacts a lab that is illegally selling synthetic plant toxins, but turns up dead shortly after. As the body count rises, Eustacia has no choice but to investigate the deaths in earnest.
The author also signed copies of the paperback edition of the first book in the series, Devil’s Breath, which was also published by Black & White Publishing (Bonnier) and became a BBC Between the Covers Book Club pick earlier this year.
Devil’s Breath will also be out in the US with Sourcebooks, under a different title, The Woman in the Garden, on July 16th. The novel is currently being developed for TV by Cornered Tiger and has been or will be translated into German (Atrium), French (Michel Lafon), Polish (Znak Koncept), Czech (Grada/Metafora), and Russian (AST). All other translation rights are currently available.
In the photo above (right), Jill Johnson with Carla Briner, from the Pontas team, at the launch event at the Alnwick Poison Garden.
For more information about Jill Johnson’s works, please contact Carla Briner (carla@pontas-agency.com)