HarperCollins has signed six-figure deals with fantasy writer Mark Lawrence and crime author Jane Casey.

HarperVoyager’s Jane Johnson signed UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) to a trilogy by Lawrence for a “substantial” six-figure sum, in a deal with Ian Drury at Sheil Land.

The Red Sister Trilogy will feature a female protaginist, trained to kill using wild, natural magic.

Johnson said: “Mark Lawrence is one of the best reasons I continue to be a publisher: he is without doubt the finest new writer to enter the fantasy field in the past decade and I am hugely proud to publish him. He has an extraordinary talent, combining wonderfully lyrical writing with a very dark sensibility and a scientist's precision, and he has turned the genre on its head.”

Following an auction, HC crime and thriller publisher Julia Wisdom signed three books by Casey, previously published by Ebury, from Ariella Feiner at United Agents.

Wisdom said: "Jane is a terrifically talented crime writer and I’ve admired her from afar for some time. She hits that perfect note: cleverly constructed, intricate and suspenseful plots, alongside characters you like, who stay with you and grow book on book. Her Maeve Kerrigan novels have already attracted wonderful reviews and many fans, and we see an opportunity to take her out to a whole new readership in the UK and in our international territories."