Best-selling Christian thriller writer Ted Dekker has signed an agreement with Hachette Book Group (HBG) USA to write two novels for the general market with the company's Center Street imprint. The first book will release in April 2009, and the second will release the following year.

HBG CEO David Young said Dekker "has huge potential. He has grown a significant and loyal audience in the Christian market and is on the threshold of breaking out as major national best-seller in the general market. We intend to throw our full resources behind the effort to help him become a major commercial fiction force."

Thomas Nelson Publishers will continue to release Dekker's books in the Christian retail channel through 2012. Nelson will release Dekker's latest novel, Sinner, Sept. 2.

Dekker has written 26 novels, which have sold more than 3 million copies, including more than a million in 2007 alone. Following the film version of Thr3e, other Dekker novels scheduled for the big screen include House and Adam.