Interactive murder mystery brand Hunt A Killer signs global publishing deal with Scholastic

The interactive sci-fi, horror murder mystery entertainment company, Hunt A Killer has forged a new global partnership with Scholastic for launch of a series of novels, ebooks, and audio books, featuring all the characteristic clues of the Hunt A Killer games.

The first title to hit shelves through the global publishing deal will be Perfect Score, written by Angelica Monai, which will land in January 2022. The young adult novel promises to be a ‘mind-bending mystery’ featuring a cast of new characters and pages of intriguing clues.

Founded in 2016, Hunt A Killer began life as a single event that brought together elements from the escpae room, interactive theatre, and live entertainment sectors by engaging participants in a 200-acre living crime scene.

Since then, the entertainment brand has established itself as a premier murder mystery company known for its complex and unpredictable stories. Today, the company ships 150,000 episodic and complete mystery game boxes to its subscribers each month. It also sells purpose-built games through various retail channels.

The brand has, to date, sold some two million games.

Its new partnership with Scholastic – the global children’s publishing, education, and media company – will take the brand in novels, ebooks, and audio books on a global scale.

“We’re excited to partner with Scholastic and to see our brand represented on bookshelves across the nation,” said Hunt A Killer CEO and co-founder, Ryan Hogan. 

“Our mission as a company is to consistently raise the bar with engaging, interactive stories, and we want to continue to do that through new mediums. Working with Scholastic is a great opportunity to grow the audience for our brand of immersive, entertaining, and suspenseful storytelling.”

Following in the style of Hunt A Killer’s bestselling games, Perfect Score readers will be encouraged to use clues throughout the book – including notes, emails, news articles, school records, and more – to help aspiring P.I. Jolene Kelley find the culprit behind her guidance counselor’s death.

Debra Dorfman, vice president and publisher, global licensing, brands and media, at Scholastic, said: “Our team at Scholastic are big fans of the Hunt A Killer games, so we are thrilled to expand its impressive storytelling to a natural new format.

“The Hunt A Killer books are perfect for fans of the murder mystery games, as well as young adult readers who love a fast-paced whodunnit and innovative new ways to tell a story. We can’t wait for readers to get their hands on Perfect Score.”

Penguin Random House partners with Rebellion to bring its science fiction portfolio to the audiobook space

The iconic comic book law-enforcer, Judge Dredd is making his way to the audiobook sector.

Penguin Random House UK has detailed a new partnership between its audio division and the comic book , fiction and video games publisher, Rebellion to produce more science fiction audio for fans.

Under the partnership, Penguin Random House will produce and distribute audio version’s of Rebellion’s latest fiction titles, alongside classic graphic novels from its popular 2000 AD imprint.

According to The Bookseller, Penguin Random House has cited new research from Harris Interactive that has shown science fiction to be one of the leading genres across modern audiobooks, with a share of 30 per cent of audiobook listeners opting for science fiction titles over the past year.

Richard Lennon, audio publisher at PRH, said: “This is a really exciting new partnership which helps us reach even more listeners in this hugely popular and ever-growing section of the audiobook market. We’re looking forward to helping tell some of Rebellion’s incredible stories and to creating some truly groundbreaking recordings, particularly as we explore turning some of British comic book history’s true greats – Judge Dredd, Slaine and Rogue Trooper, to name but a few – into audiobooks for the first time.”

Ben Smith, Rebellion’s head of Film, TV & Publishing, added: “Rebellion is the UK’s leading comic book publisher and home to Hugo and Nebula Award-winning fiction from our Solaris and Abaddon imprints, and as such we’re delighted to partner with Penguin’s forward-looking audio team.

“Their appetite to bring both our fiction and our landmark graphic novels to the audiobook market is tremendously exciting. We can’t wait for the public to listen to the incredible stories in the works.”

Penguin will produce and distribute audio versions of around 30 titles a year from the Rebellion frontlist, which covers genres including science fiction, fantasy and horror, and will include works from authors such as Chuck Wendig, Katherine Addison, Derek Künsken and Adrian Tchaikovsky.

The audiobooks, published from March 2020, will draw on Penguin Random House’s “roster of top narrator talent”. PRH’s audio bestsellers include titles such as The Handmaid’s Tale narrated by Elisabeth Moss, The Secret Commonwealth narrated by Michael Sheen, and Becoming narrated by Michelle Obama.

The partnership will also see PRH record and produce adaptations of five new graphic novels in the 2000 AD series, which will feature multi-voice narration, sound design and original music to bring the stories to life.

Available from Thursday (19th March), the first title to be published under the new partnership will be Chuck Wendig’s apocalyptic epic, Wanderers, read by Dominic Hoffman and Xe Sands.