Then He Was Gone Is the First Novel Acquired From The Black List's Fiction Program
Deadline broke the news that Crooked Lane Books had acquired Then He Was Gone, marking the first novel deal to come out of The Black List's 2024 push into fiction. Editor Marcia Markland described discovering the manuscript as one of the best thrillers she'd read in years, comparing Booth's potential to Harlan Coben's. Booth, a former trial attorney who writes under the Isabel Booth pen name, told Deadline she'd learned to weather plenty of rejection from agents and publishers before a Black List posting connected her with Markland three months later. The novel was set for a February 24, 2026 release.
