Announcement - New Novel: Philip Sharpe in His Prime coming in 2027!

Well folks, I've got some pretty big news to share. I will have a NEW NOVEL out next year! It's called Philip Sharpe in His Prime and is a prequel to my 2017 novel, The Slip. This new book will be released by Now or Never Publishing (the same small-but-mighty press that did Lowfield last year and my story collection, The Secrets Men Keep, back in 2015) and will be out in April 2027.

Here's the back cover blurb:

Toronto, spring 2000: Philip Sharpe has everything―tenure at U of T, a bestselling pop-philosophy book, the life he always planned―until Vince Carta comes calling. Carta is southern Ontario mafioso, and he wants Philip to ghostwrite his biography: a philosophy-inflected hagiography, flattering and well-paid. Philip refuses. Or tries to. But Carta is persuasive, the compensation is considerable, and the two men share more in their worldviews than Philip would like to admit. As the summer unfolds and the façade of Philip's perfect life begins to crack, the mobster's offer begins to look less like a compromise than a reckoning. 

In this prequel to his 2017 novel, The Slip, Mark Sampson offers up another dark comedy about the ultimate absent-minded professor. Philip Sharpe in His Prime explores ambition, self-deception, and the uncomfortable distance between the philosophy we profess and the lives we actually lead. 

Because of the way the publishing business works, I've known about this acceptance for a while, but I wanted to share the news now because spring 2027 feels like it's right around the corner. The book already has a cover and is available to pre-order from the usual places, including Amazon. You can also find it on Goodreads and Bookmanager. 

Me, signing the contract for Philip Sharpe
in His Prime

Why write a prequel to The Slip? Well, its protagonist, Philip Sharpe, is one of those fictional creations that just won't leave me alone. I think about him all the time, and I wanted to explore that period of his life (this new story is set 15 years before the events of The Slip) when he first became the arrogant, oblivious, absent-minded professor who got into so much hot water in the year 2015.

Anyway, we're still about six months out from release, but I'll keep you posted with news about this book as we get closer to its publication date. 

M.