Long Wait is Over for US Fans of Peter May’s Acclaimed Lewis Trilogy

NEW YORK - Aug. 19, 2014 - PRLog -- Publisher, Quercus USA, has announced that Peter May's award-winning Lewis Trilogy is finally being published in full in America.

The first book in the trilogy, "The Blackhouse”, won the Barry Award for Crime Novel of the Year last year in Albany NY, voted for by American readers. "The Blackhouse" is now out in paperback, and in September the eagerly anticipated sequel, "The Lewis Man", will also be published in hard cover.  The third book in the trilogy, "The Chessmen" will follow early 2015.

The Lewis Trilogy has already captured the imaginations of readers around rest of the the world, selling more than a million copies in the UK alone.  It is on best-seller lists in the UK, France, Italy and across Europe, and has won no less than seven literary awards.

These dark and compelling novels, set in the islands off the North West coast of Scotland, have been praised for their atmosphere, and New York Times reviewer, Marilyn Stasio, was so impressed by “The Blackhouse" that she described Peter May as "a writer I’d follow to the ends of the earth”.

Up until now, however, the books have only had a limited availability in the USA.  "The Blackhouse” was published in hard cover, and became a favourite with US librarians, the influential Library Journal describing it as "a mesmerizing new trilogy opener. May brings the story to a breathtaking conclusion with an astonishing twist at the end.”

A change of US publishers led to delays for American readers and author Peter May says, "I have been inundated through e-mail and social media with requests from US readers for publication dates in North America."  Frustrated by reading online about the success of the books in the UK and Europe and being unable to buy the books in US bookstores, many Americans and Canadians have resorted to ordering their books to be sent from the UK.

Now May is marking the US publication of the second book in the trilogy by coming to North America to meet and talk to US and Canadian fans at bookstores coast to coast during the month of September.

Full US Tour dates can be found here

The Story Behind The Blackhouse
May is no stranger to delays in publication. The multi award-winning first book in the trilogy, "The Blackhouse", was initially turned down by every publisher in London, and might still be languishing in a drawer if it hadn't been for his French publisher.

May was a successful novelist, known for his China Thrillers and Enzo Files series of books, but when “The Blackhouse" - which he describes as “the best book I’d ever written” - failed to find a UK publisher, he had no option but to put it aside and write other books.

He tells the full extraordinary story of the background to the publication of The Blackhouse, here…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjbgVf5Hwno



By an unusual turn of events, May's French publisher found out about "The Blackhouse" and asked to read it.  She loved the book and broke all the publishing conventions to support May, buying world rights in the English language version, having it translated and publishing the book first in French. “The Blackhouse” was immediately declared “a masterpiece" by one of the French national newspapers, and went on to be showered with praise and literary awards.

Bidding wars for the manuscript broke out at the Frankfurt book fair and “The Blackhouse” was bought by all the major European publishers, and finally by the relatively young UK publishing house Quercus, which had not existed at the time when the book had first been presented to publishers.  It went on to become a phenomenal success with critics and readers alike and was soon on bestseller lists across Europe.

The Lewis Trilogy has had an incredible journey so far, and now that finally the whole trilogy will be available to readers in the USA, the journey continues.

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About Peter May

Peter May was born and raised in Scotland. He was an award-winning journalist at the age of twenty-one and a published novelist at twenty-six. When his first book was adapted as a major drama series for the BBC, he quit journalism and during the high-octane fifteen years that followed, became one of Scotland's most successful television dramatists. He created three prime-time drama series, presided over two of the highest-rated serials in his homeland as script editor and producer, and worked on more than 1,000 episodes of ratings-topping drama before deciding to leave television to return to his first love, writing novels.

His passion for detailed research for his books has taken him behind the closed doors of the Chinese Police force, to the kitchen of a three-star Michelin chef, and down the Paris catacombs; he has worked as an online private detective, was inducted as a Chevalier of the Grand Order of Gaillac wines and earned honorary membership of the Chinese Crime Writers’ Association.

He has won several literature awards in France and received the USA’s Barry Award for The Blackhouse, the first in his internationally bestselling Lewis Trilogy.

He now lives in South-West France.

Peter May's Website

Peter May's Media Room