"Red" author to publish new thriller novel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - British author Warren Ellis, whose comic series "Red" was adapted into a hit film last year, is writing two new novels, the first of which will be released next year, publisher Little, Brown and Company said on Monday.

The 43-year-old author is writing a new thriller, called "Gun Machine," described in a news release as about "a beleaguered New York City detective who stumbles upon a cache of hundreds of guns that each trace back to a wide array of seemingly unrelated unsolved murders."

A second as yet untitled novel has also been planned for the Little, Brown and Company's suspense fiction imprint Mulholland Books.

Ellis's graphic novel, "Red," was transferred to the big screen last year in a blockbuster action film starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren that earned $186 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.

His comics, which have included the "Transmetropolitan" and "Planetary" series, sell in excess of 100,000 copies a month in the United States alone, according to Little, Brown.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Jill Serjeant)