THE MURDSTONE TRILOGY: A NOVEL

MAL PEET
How hard can it be to
write a fantasy trilogy?
From Carnegie Medalist
Mal Peet comes an
outrageously funny
black comedy about an
impoverished literary
writer who makes a
pact with the devil.
Award-winning YA author Philip Murdstone
is in trouble. His star has waned. The world
is leaving him behind. His agent, the ruthless
Minerva Cinch, convinces him that his only
hope is to write a sword-and-sorcery
blockbuster. Unfortunately, Philipallergic
to the faintest trace of Tolkienis utterly
unsuited to the task. In a dark hour, a
dwarfish stranger comes to his rescue. But
the deal he makes with Pocket Wellfair turns
out to have Faustian consequences. The
Murdstone Trilogy is a richly dark comedy.

Advance Praise
Peets prose . . . boasts a Pratchettian vigor
and invention. . . . An assured, even
virtuoso, performance fully deserving that
most prestigious of accoladesa rave
review in the Guardian.
The Guardian (U.K.)

On sale September 22, 2015

HC: 978-0-7636-8184-5
Also available as an e-book
$18.99 / $24.99 (CAN)
320 pages
Adult interest

Media Contact:
Erika Denn, Senior Publicist
617.588.4516 erika.denn@candlewick.com

Praise for Mal Peet

It takes a disciplined author to hide secrets within secrets, to create puzzles,
codes, and metaphors that will prise them open, and then to hand everything
over to readers without signaling each bit of legerdemain with a moment of
aha! And it takes ambition to apply such intricate storytelling to a sweeping
plot. The British author Mal Peet shows both restraint and daring.
The New York Times Book Review
Mal Peet . . . writes with an exquisite but unobtrusive touch.
The Wall Street Journal
Mal Peet is like a master couturierhe stitches words together into exquisitely
cut sentences.
The Telegraph (U.K.)
H Peets language is beautiful and assured, with flashes of sardonic humor . . .
as well as a sense of poignancy and heartbreak.
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Peets subtle, literary play with narrative voice, style, and chronology make this
satisfyingly sophisticated. . . . Outstanding.
The Horn Book
Peets prose is both lyrical and unflinching.
Booklist

MAL PEET (19472015) is the acclaimed author of the Carnegie

Medalwinning novel Tamar as well as the Boston GlobeHorn
Book Honor Book Life: An Exploded Diagram and three Paul
Faustino novels: Keeper, The Penalty, and Exposure, a winner of
the Guardian Childrens Fiction Prize. He is also the co-author of
Cloud Tea Monkeys, Mysterious Traveler, and Night Sky Dragons,
all of which he wrote with his wife, Elspeth Graham.