So we hear from Publishers Lunch that Law & Order star Richard Belzer has signed a two-book deal with Simon & Schuster, beginning with the scheduled 2008 publication of I Am Not a Cop, a novel that features Belzer getting involved in a genuine murder mystery. If that works out, maybe S&S can hook Belzer up with Kinky Friedman, who's been solving fictional crimes for them for years; between the two of them, they could probably solve the Kennedy assassination. (See? Somebody remembers Belzer's last book!) Here's hoping—at least there's no reason to doubt that Belzer will be crafting his own tales, unlike the late George Kennedy's ghostwritten forays into Murder on Location and Murder On High back in the '80s.

I can think of other celebrities who've written crime novels—Ron Ely's Night Shadows, anyone?—but none who wrote themselves into the lead (and, no, Dominick Dunne's "Gus Bailey" novels don't count). So who did I miss?

(UPDATE: Mia Amato at Harlequin reminds us of the books Ed Koch co-wrote with Wendy Corsi Staub, including Murder on 34th Street and Murder at City Hall.)