Earlier this year, Brighton-based British mystery writer Jill Johnson, published the third installment in the Professor Eustacia Rose series, Bella Donna, with Black & White Publishing/Bonnier UK. A few months later, the paperback edition is out and will keep UK readers company until the fourth and final installment, Blood Root, is published in 2026.
Praise for Bella Donna:
"Original and engrossing." Jane Bettany, author of the Violet Brewster crime series
"A tangled poisonous plot with a unique, thorny character at its heart, Jill Johnson has created a whodunnit as addictive as any narcotic." Andreina Cordani, author of Murder at the Christmas Emporium
"I absolutely tore through it! Eustacia is a delightful sleuth. Overall, it’s a charming, quirky and compulsive read." Jessica Bull, author of the Miss Austen Investigates mystery series
Across the pond, the previous installment in the series, Hell's Bells, was published in the US by Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks under the title The Poison Grove in late August 2025. Devil’s Breath, book #1, had previously been published under the title The Woman in the Garden. American readers will have to wait until 2026 for the US edition of Bella Donna.
In translation rights news Swedish rights to books #1 and #2 have been acquired by Amanda Bertolo at Lind & Co! The Pontas Agency is delighted to celebrate that Professor Eustacia Rose will continue to travel around the world. The list of rights sold for book #1 stands like this and all these editions in translation are now out in bookstores:
ENGLISH (UK & Commonwealth) | Black & White Publishing/Bonnier UK
ENGLISH (NA) | Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks
CZECH | Grada/Metafora
FRENCH | Éditions Michel Lafon
FRENCH (ppbk) | J’ai Lu
GERMAN | Atrium Verlag
POLISH | Znak Koncept
RUSSIAN | AST
SWEDISH | Lind & Co
With almost 40K copies sold in the UK and Devil’s Breath having been selected as a BBC Between the Covers Book Club Pick and a finalist for the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Awards for Best Novel and Best First Novel, these achievements for the Eustacia Rose Mystery novels speak for themselves. The books are currently being developed as a TV series by Adil Ray at Cornered Tiger (UK). Watch this space for more on that very soon…
For more information about Jill Johnson's work, please contact Anna Soler-Pont (anna@pontas-agency.com).