Torquay author expands horizons with Sphere

Award-winning author Sarah Pearse has moved from Penguin’s Transworld to Hachette’s Sphere for a new two-book deal.

It includes the third in the Elin Warner trilogy and will be followed by Sarah’s first standalone novel.

She said: “This is a hugely positive development for me as a writer. The vision, warmth and enthusiasm of the Sphere team was apparent from the start, and I’m really excited about what the future holds.”

Sarah struck gold with her multi-award-winning first novel, The Sanatorium based in the Swiss Alps and featuring troubled detective, Elin Warner. An instant No 1 Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, The Sanatorium was also named Waterstones Thriller of the Month, selected for Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club and has now been sold over 30 countries.

Her follow up novel The Retreat, also a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller,  brought the action – and body count - closer to home. Set at a new wellness retreat built on Reaper’s Rock an island just off the South coast of Devon that bears a more than passing resemblance to Thatcher’s Rock, the book was another smash hit bestseller.

Sarah, who was born and brought up in Torbay, says “I’m so fortunate to live so close to the beautiful coastline, and I take loads of inspiration from it every day.

“I used my own experiences of running the South West Coast Path, kayaking and swimming locally in the plot of The Retreat – but it’s also where I go when I’m stuck with a plot development. There’s something about being close to, in or on the water which helps me to relax and to see things differently.”

Sarah is busy with the storyline for the third book in the series, due for publication in 2024, which sees Elin back overseas. Set in Portugal, the as yet untitled novel repeats the theme of isolation, after an artist mysteriously disappears in a remote national park.

In the meantime, thriller fans can look forward to the publication of the paperback edition of The Retreat in June.