Del Rey, an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, announced today a second novel based on the Hitman video game series from Io Interactive. HITMAN: DAMNATION will be written by author Raymond Benson and will release in North America in Summer 2012. The book will also be available in many other countries around the world, please keep an eye on the Official Hitman website for further details.

Taking place between games Hitman: Blood Money and the upcoming Hitman: Absolution™, HITMAN: DAMNATION follows legendary assassin Agent 47 as he attempts to complete his toughest assignment yet. 47 is charged with assassinating high-level American political figures, but he notices that some aspects of the mission don’t add up as he is plunged into a web of lies, deceit, and murder.

This novel is based on a Mature-rated video game.

Hitman was created by IO Interactive in 2000 and has become an award-winning, multi-million selling videogame franchise. Agent 47 the games’ iconic central character is a genetically enhanced clone, engineered into a highly skilled assassin. The franchise has boasted videogames, a major motion picture, books, comics, merchandise collectibles and amassed a voracious global fan base.

The next game in the series, Hitman Absolution is IO’s most ambitious project to date and set for release in 2012.

Raymond Benson has penned and published worldwide six original James Bond novels and three 007 film novelizations. He is also the author (writing under the pseudonym David Michaels) of the New York Times best-selling books Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell and its sequel Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell-Operation Barracuda, as well as the game tie-in novel Homefront: The Voice of Freedom (written with John Milius). He lives in Chicago with his wife.