An Adult Debut with "Impeccable and Sinister Vibes"

This week we’re talking with Anna Brill—senior marketing manager at Viking Books, Penguin Books, Pamela Dorman Books, Penguin Life, and The Open Field—about THE MORTONS by Scott Westerfeld and Justine Larbalestier, on sale July 21, 2026. THE MORTONS was excerpted in Buzz Books 2026: Spring/Summer.

Here’s the original deal announcement:

The Morton crime family is your new favorite family of psychopaths; we like to say they’re “the Corleone family meets the Addams family.” Homicide is their heritage, and this story opens with Jessica Morton’s first kill for the family. This should be her moment, her honor, but that kill will cut more ways than one.

If you’ve seen that cover and heard that premise, you can guess we have had a great time getting the word out about THE MORTONS. We started early on with building buzz with their existing audiences through collaborations on Scott, Justine, and Viking Books’s socials, along with consumer-facing giveaways in communities of their readers. From there, we’ve done extensive influencer outreach, and we even had a cocktail party for Scott and Justine in New York with a Mortons-inspired cocktail and mocktail! The vibes were impeccable and sinister, like the Mortons themselves.

It’s been so fun seeing what early readers are comparing THE MORTONS to! We’ve gotten lots of Succession, The Sopranos, The Umbrella Academy, The Godfather, The Addams Family, Knives Out, John Wick, and more—and in every case, I see it!

It’s a dark-academia-meets-crime-family-thriller, or, in other words, it’s got something for nearly every reader! Come for the impeccably dressed dynasty of murderers, stay for rich world-building and character development.

THE MORTONS by Scott Westerfeld and Justine Larbalestier is forthcoming from Pamela Dorman Books on July 21, 2026. Preorder here or request on Netgalley here.

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