Publishing Deal - William Ryan's Russian Historical Crime Series

From The Bookseller:

Maria Rejt at Pan Macmillan has bought three novels in a new historical crime series set in Moscow during Stalin’s Great Terror. Rejt paid a six-figure advance at auction for British and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) in the series, written by William Ryan, doing the deal with Andrew Gordon at David Higham.

The series features Captain Alexei Korolev who in the first novel, The Holy Thief, is given the case of investigating a serial killer who is on the loose in Moscow, just as Stalin unleashes his own killing spree. The Holy Thief will be published as a lead title on the Macmillan list in early 2010.