HarperCollins buys Jon Fink

Jon Fink's new novel A STORM IN THE BLOOD has been bought by Calvert Morgan, the editorial director of HarperPerennial North America. Cal published Jon's first novel FURTHER ADVENTURES at St. Martin's Press, so it is really nice to bring them back together for Jon's 5th novel - expecially as HarperPerennial will also be bringing a revised edition of FURTHER AVENTURES back into print at the same time as A STORM IN THE BLOOD in Spring 2009.

A STORM IN THE BLOOD is a striking account of the Houndsditch murders and the Siege of Sidney Street - dramatic events in the history of London's East End. The notorious Houndsditch Murders - the killing of three unarmed London policemen in 1910 by a group of Latvian anarchists became one of the most infamous and sensational crimes of the era. The three men and the mysterious 'woman in a shawl' whose jewellery store heist the police had intercepted led to an unprecedented manhunt and ultimately the so-called Siege of Sidney Street by hundreds of armed soldiers called in by the then home-secretary Winston Churchill. But two of the 'criminals' were not in the property where the siege took place. The tall, urbane villain, Peter the Painter and his mistress Rivka - a young Jewish refugee and singer from the Yiddish theatre - had simply vanished. They vanished into the East End and into London-lore.

A Storm in the Blood is the story of the heist, of the time and of Peter & Rivka - it is a strong and sweeping narrative filled with strange echoes of the world to come, to cities plagued by the fear of terrorism and poisoned by suspicion of foreigners, immigrants and refugees. It is a potent and exciting book.