Polygon’s senior editor Alison Rae has acquired World/audio rights for the first two novels in a crime thriller series by Pat Black: To Pay the Ferryman and Jack-in-the-Box. The deal was brokered by Justin Nash of the Kate Nash Literary Agency. To Pay the Ferryman will be published in February 2025, Jack-in-the-Box in 2026.

            ‘I fell for Glasgow detective D.I. Lomond from the first page,’ said Alison. ‘There is no predictable, traumatic backstory here; he is, simply, a good cop and a devoted family man. Lomond is also blessed with a great turn of phrase: the dialogue zings off the page. And there are red herrings galore. I enjoyed being wrongfooted.’

            Justin said: ‘Lomond is an outstanding character that stays with the reader, and I am very pleased he is in the capable hands of Alison Rae and Polygon.’

            Pat said: ‘I can’t wait to share Inspector Lomond’s first full-length adventure, and he couldn’t have found a better home than at Polygon with Alison and the team. Lomond’s the right man, for the right time, in the right place, and looking for the worst people. Thanks also to my agent, Justin Nash, for all his hard work.’

A case from the start of his career – the unsolved death of a young woman, Daisy Lawlor on an aristocrat’s estate – is about to confront D.I. Lomond. He has always believed that those involved in her death escaped justice through using their connections.

            Now, there’s a body in the River Clyde – a beautiful young woman who is involved in the worlds of art and adult streaming – and a Swedish feminist activist has just arrived in the city to protest against the failure of the police to find the killer. Yet she too has a connection to Lomond’s past.

            Lomond begins to pull the pieces together in what becomes an investigation into murder, blackmail and the seedy industry around streaming porn. Is the cold case the answer, or just part of the key, and could the killer be about to get uncomfortably close to Lomond? 

            Pat Black is a journalist and the author of several thrillers published by Head of Zeus, including The Family and The Winter House.He has been published in magazines including Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Pat was born and raised in Glasgow but now lives in Yorkshire with his wife and children.