If you’re a fan of James Rollins’ #1 New York Times bestselling Sigma Force series, good news. . . I’ve just learned that the author has agreed to a new four-book deal to remain with his longtime publisher, William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins.
The new book deal ensures at least five more Sigma books from Rollins (who is repped by Russell Galen of the Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency). He will publish Crucible, the final book on his current deal, early next year. The plan is for Rollins, who will not release a full novel in 2018, to go back to putting out one book per year through 2023.
Locking up Rollins long-term is a strong move by William Morrow, which has established its dominance in recent years as the go-to imprint for top-tier thriller writers. Along with Rollins, they’re currently the publishing home to other literary heavyweights such as Ted Bell, Patricia Cornwell, Deborah Crombie, Joe Hill, Greg Iles, J.A. Jance, Faye Kellerman, Christina Baker Kline, Dennis Lehane, Sean Parnell, Matthew Quirk, and many others.
Rollins, 57, the pen name of James Paul Czajkowski, was born in Chicago and later went on to become a veterinarian years before his writing career took off. After publishing a number of stories under another name, Rollins released his first thriller, Subterranean, in 1999. Though he’s gone on to write a number of successful standalone thrillers, his most popular books, by far, follow the adventures of the fictional Sigma Force, a top-secret government agency that falls under the umbrella of DARPA, which was first introduced in Sandstorm (2004). Since then, Rollins has faithfully released one Sigma book per year (except for 2010) along with a handful of short stories and several spin-off novels.
Crucible (which was originally titled Hammer of Witches) was initially slated to come out in December of this year but was later pushed back a month to its new pub date of January 8, 2019. It’s currently available for pre-order wherever books are sold.
Praised as “one of today’s finest book reviewers” by New York Times bestselling author Gayle Lynds, Ryan Steck (“The Godfather of the thriller genre” — Ben Coes) has “quickly established himself as the authority on mysteries and thrillers” (Author A.J. Tata). He currently lives in Southwest Michigan with his wife and their six children.