Avon Books is to publish Sick to Death, a debut thriller by 2022 London Writers Award alumni Chris Bridges after Senior Commissioning Editor Rachel Hart acquired World English Language Rights from Hannah Schofield at LBA.

Sick to Death is a sharply-observed cat-and-mouse thriller starring a chronically ill heroine who won’t let being underestimated keep her from her goals – including murdering her boyfriend’s wife. It will be published as a lead title at the end of February 2025.

Hart said: "As soon as I read the first page of Sick to Death, I was absolutely hooked. Chris has totally turned the narrative we usually see regarding chronic illness on its head, crafting a complex, dark and unpredictable protagonist who defies expectations and comes out on top in her own way. I can't wait for readers to meet Emma next year."

Bridges said: "I'm delighted to be working with the team at Avon. I couldn't have hoped to find a more empathetic and dynamic team to entrust my sickly, trope-smashing protagonist to. I'm a long standing fan of commercial fiction and this is the perfect publishing house for me to work with."

Schofield said: "Chris’s brilliant cast of characters you’ll love to hate have lived rent-free in my brain since I first heard his amazing pitch. Paired with the commercial acumen from Rachel and Raphaella and the Avon team, this is a debut author to watch!"

Chris Bridges is an alumni of the 2022 London Writers Award. He previously wrote a weekly column for an LGBTQ+ lifestyle website and was a theatre reviewer for various sites. As a former NHS nurse with a hidden disability, he likes to feature the untold stories of sick, dying, and disabled people in his work and smash the trope of the passive disabled character with a background role. Chris lives in South London. He is fanatical about crime fiction. When not writing, he can be found reading compulsively or walking his uptight poodle, Frida Kahlo.