The Paper Cell: the first title in Contraband’s new “Pocket Crime Collection”

Posted on June 12, 2017

The Paper Cell, by debut author Louise Hutcheson, is the first in an occasional series of quality crime novellas with a decidedly retro feel. Attractively packaged as classic mini-hardbacks, the Pocket Crime Collection will feature high quality writing that’s typical of the Contraband imprint: imaginative, sometimes offbeat and always original.

This first title, out now, takes us back to 1950s London. A publishing assistant finds fame when he secretly steals a young woman’s brilliant novel manuscript and publishes it under his own name, Lewis Carson.

Two days after their meeting, the woman is found strangled on Peckham Rye Common. The question is: did Lewis purloin the manuscript as an act of callous opportunism, or as the spoils of a calculated murder?

Publisher Sara Hunt said: “We only set up Contraband three years ago, and it’s been such a hit with readers that we felt now was a good time to build on the imprint’s burgeoning reputation by launching something completely different to what’s gone before.

“Crime and mystery titles are eternally popular, but we think there’s a real hunger out there for new formats and original ways of bringing talented authors into the spotlight.”

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Louise Hutcheson will be launching The Paper Cell at Waterstones Byres Road in Glasgow on Friday 23 June at 7.30pm.