Wildfire has snapped up Broken Ghosts, a "deeply atmospheric and haunting novel" from J D Oswald—the pseudonym for crime writer James Oswald. 

Publishing director Alex Clarke and fiction publisher Jack Butler acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Juliet Mushens at Mushens Entertainment. Broken Ghosts will be published in hardback, e-book and audio on 12th September 2024.

Oswald’s first two books, Natural Causes (Penguin) and The Book of Souls (Penguin), were both shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger Award. And 2024 will also see the return of Oswald’s Inspector McLean with the 13th instalment in the series, For Our Sins (Wildfire), publishing in February, with the standalone novel Broken Ghosts to be published in hardback in September.

"Broken Ghosts follows Phoebe, a 12-year-old newcomer to the Welsh countryside as she stumbles on a long-held mystery buried deep in the heart of the woods surrounding the community," the synopsis says. "As she explores the strange forest, the line between life and death suddenly blurs. Here, spirits roam and secrets fester. Nobody else seems to believe her, but she knows what she has seen is the truth. The question is, has she come too close to it to escape?"

Clarke and Butler said: "James blew the team away with this haunting and beautifully written ghost story. Broken Ghosts is a tour-de-force of storytelling, combining James’ trademark depth of characterisation and otherworldly mood, set against the wonderfully gothic backdrop of a Welsh woodland where nothing is ever quite as it seems. It is truly a one-of-a-kind novel, and we can’t wait to share it with readers everywhere this autumn."

Oswald added: "I first started writing Broken Ghosts many years ago, inspired by the time I spent and people I met while living in a tiny village high in the Cambrian Mountains in Wales. It’s a story that’s close to my heart, and I am absolutely delighted that Wildfire are going to publish it. Working with Alex, Jack and the rest of the team has been a wonderful experience so far, and I’m very much looking forward to this next chapter."