British cops are out to handcuff the deviant thief who stole an unpublished manuscript of E.L. James’ upcoming “Fifty Shades” follow-up.
It’s feared that parts of the new novel, “Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey As Told by Christian,” the fourth of the series, could be leaked or sold on the black market before its June 18 release.
It retells the original story from the point of view of the kinky billionaire title character, Christian Grey.
“Officers are making inquiries after receiving a report that a book had been stolen,” police in Kent, England, said.
“We have no comment to make due to an ongoing police investigation,” a spokesman for publisher Random House told the BBC.
A movie adaptation of the first book, “Fifty Shades of Grey,” was released earlier this year, with Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan.
James, 52, whose real name is Erika Mitchell, lives in West London, and has raked in an estimated $98 million since the release of “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the first volume of the series, in 2011.