Dead Ink signs’ deliciously disgusting’ novel
Saint Death by Kate Collins is 'an exploration of desire, distaste, and how we become the people that we are'
Dead Ink books has signed Saint Death, a literary hotel horror novel by Kate Collins. Commissioning editor Harriet Hirshman bought UK and Commonwealth right, excluding Canada, from Sara Langham at David Higham Associates.
Set over a three week period, Saint Death follows Hester, who works as a receptionist at a once-grand hotel in the English countryside, for a manager she hates and guests whom she despises. Hiding from a previous transgression, Hester's days are monotonous and claustrophobic, so when in the middle of a boiling hot summer, a production studio hires the hotel as the primary location for a TV pilot, it feels like everything might be looking up at last. Not only will filming take place in the hotel but the five main actors will also be staying there. As the Director, Wardrobe, Props Manager and the rest of the cast and crew arrive, the hotel is suddenly alive with activity. But, as the lines between fiction and reality start to blur Hester begins to obsess over her new guests with grim consequences for all.
Collins’ debut novel, A Good House for Children, was published by Serpent's Tail in 2023. She said, ‘Saint Death came directly from the weirdest part of my heart - it’s an exploration of desire, distaste, and how we become the people that we are. Dead Ink is the perfect home and I’m thrilled to be working with Harriet and the team.’
Langham said, ‘I loved Saint Death the minute I started reading Kate’s wonderfully strange, often disgusting, brilliantly realised novel and I am so delighted it’s found such a perfect home with Harriet and Dead Ink.’
Hirshman said, ‘I am absolutely thrilled to be working with Kate on this wildly entertaining novel. Saint Death is very much a character study and Hester is a wildly unique character who I know readers are going to love and detest in equal measures. Kate is at her best when exploring the abject of the everyday and the result is a deliciously disgusting novel that is sure to become a favourite in the weird girl lit genre.’