Author and Gloucester resident Rachel Sargeant has signed to publish two more books with publishing giant, HarperCollins.

The first of these signings, a police thriller called ‘The Good Teacher’, comes out on 14th December on their 'Killer Reads' digital-first list.

Rachel said: “I started writing as a hobby about 18 years ago and had steady success with short story competitions and publication in women’s magazines.

“Things stepped up a gear after I completed a distance-learning MA in Creative Writing with Lancaster University.

“My writing technique improved enough for me to secure the services of an agent from a top London agency. This eventually led to HarperCollins offering to publish my first psychological thriller, ‘The Perfect Neighbours’.”

‘The Perfect Neighbours’ reached the top ten of the Amazon Kindle chart and number one in the British and Irish Kindle Crime Chart. It also did well in the USA, reaching number 45 in the Amazon bestseller chart. Total sales so far are in excess of 100,000 copies.

Rachel lives in Abbeymead with her husband and children, having grown up in Lincolnshire. She studied German and Librarianship at Aberystwyth University and became a chartered librarian. The new deals with HarperCollins have enabled her to become a full-time writer.

“I’m thrilled that the wonderful team at HarperCollins wanted to take my next two books,” Rachel explained. “’The Good Teacher’ is a reworking of a novel I wrote a few years ago but my editor has helped me update it and give it a contemporary feel.

“I’m excited about the new version. A well-liked teacher is murdered and left in a ditch beside a country lane. 

"Young detective Pippa Adams learns that the teacher ran a homework club for vulnerable pupils. When she scratches the surface of the school community, she uncovers the good teacher’s darkest secrets.”

Rachel will also join HarperCollins’ main crime and thriller list in November 2019 with ‘The Roommates’, a psychological thriller set in a university freshers’ week.

You can read our previous interview with Rachel here.

To find out more about Rachel and her writing visit www.rachelsargeant.co.uk