New Oxford Novel Coming: Summer 2025

A second dark academia thriller to follow cult hit ‘Black Chalk’

My next novel was recently announced in Publishers Weekly, a second “dark academia” psychological thriller set in the same Oxford universe as my first novel, Black Chalk. Click through the gallery above to see some photos from an Oxford research trip I took in the spring of 2022 that inspired the book.

I’ll be posting updates on this website, so please subscribe for news, snippets, as well as my restaurant reviews and other adventures in food and fiction.

If you’d prefer to be updated about fiction alone, then visit this page on my author website, and sign up for the newsletter.

The Publishers Weekly announcement reads as follows: “In a preempt, John Glynn at Hanover Square Press has acquired a new novel from Christopher J. Yates, author of Black Chalk and Grist Mill Road. Jessica Papin at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret brokered the deal for world English rights. Hanover Square said the as-yet-untitled book is “an inventive reworking of Alice in Wonderland” that tells the tale of “a dangerous secret society at Oxford University” and “a first-year literature student whose life unravels in its shadows.” A summer 2025 publication is planned.”