This profile of debut legal thriller writer Mark Giminez is fairly straightforward, but one seemingly throwaway line probably bears the most repeating:

His agent didn't offer the book to Doubleday at first because they have John Grisham. But, it turned out that Grisham was working on a non-fiction book.

"That was my stroke of luck," Gimenez said.

And with Grisham still working on said non-fiction book, Giminez can -- in theory -- be Doubleday's legal thriller guy for a good long while. It's a strategy his UK publisher, Time Warner, is employing, as the book will be published there with a sticker that says, "As good as Grisham." The brochure says, "With no new Grisham novel in 2006, this will be the undisputed legal thriller of the year."

As it happens, Giminez has recently changed agents, switching from Liv Blumer to Larry Kirshbaum (who's now in the process of shopping the next book.)