The echoes of the gavel slamming down on Scooter Libby's four-count conviction* hadn't even faded when Union Square Books, the nonfiction imprint at Barnes & Noble subsidiary Sterling Publishing, announced that it had signed investigative reporter Murray Waas (left) to produce The United States v. I. Lewis Libby just as fast as he can, "[combining] pivotal testimony by key witnesses from the trial with original reporting and an introductory essay." The book, expected in stores next month, is also a notable benchmark for USB editorial director Philip Turner because he published one of the first books to deal with the events that unfolded after Libby leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame to the media—Joseph Wilson's The Politics of Truth (which, you'll recall, pegged Libby as the most likely suspect nearly two years ago).

Whether or not B&N or any other bookstores will package the instant book together with Libby's The Apprentice, the classic "right-wing dirty novel" filled with scenes of bestiality and incestual gang rape, remains to be seen.

*For those keeping score: obstruction of justice, making false statements to the FBI, and two counts of perjury.