Lucky number Twelve

ASK any successful writer how they got their first book deal and you will hear a different story.

Some will reminisce about the ambitious first draft that miraculously made it off the editor’s slush pile; others will cite a chance encounter with a publisher, or an acceptance letter that unexpectedly flopped on top of a stack of rejections. Such watershed moments are part of every author’s career but few, if any, are as remarkable as that of Northern Irish crime writer, Stuart Neville.

“I was working late in my office one night,” says Neville, who runs a successful multimedia company in Markethill, Co Armagh. “I got this email from Nat Sobel. The name was familiar, and, in the email, he mentioned that he was a literary agent and listed some of his clients.