Prepare for further bidding wars

Meet Matt Hilton, the UK’s newest six-figure crime-writing star:

A former Cumbrian police
constable has landed an £800,000 five-book deal as a debut author,
fulfilling a lifelong dream to write crime thrillers.

Matt Hilton, 42, has quit his job tackling real robbers, thieves and violence to write full time.

The

first book, Dead Men’s Dust, will be published by Hodder &

Stoughton in hardback in June next year, with later novels published at

six-monthly intervals.

The book is described as a crime thriller and centres around a hero named Joe Hunter.

Speaking

about his huge deal, Mr Hilton, married with a grown-up son, said: “I

was shocked and still think I’m in a suspended state of disbelief.

“It is absolutely thrilling and I’ve been existing on adrenalin since I heard the news. This has always been my ambition, but to achieve this kind of deal with Hodder as a first time author is beyond my wildest expectations.”

More about the deal from the Bookseller and the BBC. And to those who will naturally want to stoke the fire of envy, I say: Hilton was on something like his eighth manuscript with this one.