Val McDermid to rework Northanger Abbey

The Bookseller reports that crime writer Val McDermid is going to write a contemporary re-working of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey as part of HarperFiction's series of new takes on Austen's six complete works.

Editorial director Louisa Joyner and crime and thriller publisher Julia Wisdom have acquired world all language rights from Jane Gregory in Northanger Abbey by McDermid. Publication is planned for spring 2014. The previous pairings announced in the series are Joanna Trollope re-writing Sense & Sensibility, which will be published in autumn 2013, and Pride & Prejudice re-worked by Curtis Sittenfeld.

Joyner said: "There is so much scope for reinvention in this often misunderstood novel and the idea of Val McDermid breathing life into it by bringing her literary expertise as the pre-eminent crime writer to re-ignite the novel's fear factor is incredibly exciting.

"Our stated aim is to create a series where each novel is a publishing event in its own right, and Val McDermid firmly establishes these partnerships as a literary force to be reckoned with."