Don Winslow Picks up Trevanian's Mantle - And Gains Two New Publishers in the Process

I first heard about this piece of news a little while ago but yesterday, the news was more or less official: Don Winslow has been tapped to write SATORI, a prequel to Trevanian's excellent 1979 thriller SHIBUMI, for Grand Central Publishing. According to Mitch Hoffman, who acquired the novel, SATORI will be published in early 2011. I'm hoping to hear more from Hoffman (and from Winslow), and when I do, I'll add their respective information to this post, but the news is interesting on multiple fronts: first, Trevanian's backlist was reissued around the time of his death in 2005 by Crown/Three Rivers, but they aren't the ones who'll publish this prequel. Second, Winslow's own publishing status in the US is in a bit of limbo, as THE GENTLEMEN'S HOUR - the even-better sequel to the amazing THE DAWN PATROL - was published in the UK, but there's no US publication date in sight. Finally, Trevanian is just the latest author to continue posthumous publication (cf. Nabokov, Bolano and most recently, Isaac Asimov.)

More soon, and suffice to say, a lot of people are quite excited about this.

UPDATE, 11/3: I've altered the post's headline to reflect today's news that Winslow not only is writing as Trevanian for Grand Central, but his own work will have a new publisher, namely Simon & Schuster. Richard Pine of Inkwell Management made the deal to S&S publisher David Rosenthal, with Sarah Hochman - recently promoted to senior editor- slated to edit both books.

According to Publishers Marketplace, THE GENTLEMEN'S HOUR won't be published until July 2011, which is a hell of a long way away - but that's because the house has elected to publish Winslow's standalone novel SAVAGES, described as "a gritty, humorous, and drug-fueled ransom thriller set amidst the Baja Cartel in Laguna Beach, CA," next summer. Hochman explained things further when I reached out to her via e-mail: "We’re knocked out by SAVAGES, and feel it can be a bestseller as a stand-alone, so we wanted to get [Winslow] rolling with an unencumbered book before getting back to the surfing series."

Comments

[maryarrrr]

SHIBUMI!!!! Fond memories. Out at dinner with friends tonight, we discussed how some of the problem with publishing today and low enthusiasm for reading was due to the lack of explicit sex scenes in today's popular fiction. CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR, ENDLESS LOVE, and SHIBUMI all came up as the sort of stories that got people interested in reading. I think ENDLESS LOVE had a twenty-something page sex scene. That just doesn't seem to happen in serious fiction any more.

[AngoloNero]

Being a Go player, this is great news :)
Thanks!

[JD Rhoades]

Oh, yes. Yes. Yesyesyesyes. This is GREAT news.

[Bryon Quertermous]

How does THE GENTLEMAN'S HOUR not have a US pub date. This business is getting sketchier and sktechier.

[Dean Bryant]

Spelunking AND killing someone with a rolled-up magazine. How can you go wrong?

[David J. Montgomery]

Mitch Hoffman told me about this at Bouchercon and he said that Winslow is continuing the Nicholas Hel character, but that the style will be his own. He's not trying to ape Trevanian. (Or something like that.... It was a conversation over cocktails.)

I can already picture the blurb: "It's like Trevanian, only without the misogyny!"

[twitter.com/Mitch1Hoffman]

David--if we use that blurb, we'll be sure to give you proper credit.

[Scott Phillips]

And of course Trevanian wasn't even Trevanian himself while he still lived--he sold off the rights to the name (in the '70s or '80s, I believe) in order to pay for his daughter's medical care.

[John McFetridge]

Looking forward to it already.

Now, if only there would be a sequel to THE MAIN.

[Swierczynski]

This sounds great. Though I'd also love to see another Sanction novel -- be it a prequel/sequel to THE EIGER SANCTION or THE LOO SANCTION.

[David J. Montgomery]

Another Hemlock novel makes so much more sense.... But Mitch didn't ask me.

[achieve orgasms]

Out at dinner with friends tonight, we discussed how some of the problem with publishing today and low enthusiasm for reading was due to the lack of explicit sex scenes in today's popular fiction.

[vertigo symptoms causes]

Yeah I read of that a while back ,im quite impressed my the way .

[Jordan Flipsyde]

Step back and brighter!

[Matt Hiebert]

It better be good. Doesn't have to be as good as Trevanina, but it better be good. I just purchased the ARC and will be reviewing it.