Short Takes

Crown's Annik LaFarge bought world rights to a book by Greta Van Susteren, the much-watched host of the new Fox News program On the Record. The untitled book, in which she meditates on the significant issues of the day, will be co-written with Elaine Lafferty of the Irish Times and was bought from agent David Black.... HarperCollins's Dan Menaker swiftly preempted a first novel by prison counselor Keith Kachtick from agent William Clark; it's called Hungry Ghost and is about the difficult relationship between a dissolute photographer on a risky assignment in Morocco and a much younger, highly principled Christian girl.... A book that sounds like the life of "a real life Clarice Starling" was preempted by Mauro DiPreta at Morrow; it's My Life Among Serial Killers by Dr. Helen Morrison, a forensic psychiatrist specializing in profiling such criminal types for the FBI and who has had to spend much time with dozens of them. DiPreta bought it from Chris Calhoun at Sterling Lord Literistic.... Broadway's Charlie Conrad bought world rights to an unusual historical tale, The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime and Punishment by UCLA medieval literature professor Eric Jager. It's the story of a duel in 14th-century France in which a knight and a squire fight a court-sanctioned duel over the knight's wife, in which the winner is "proved" innocent by killing his opponent. The seller was Glen Hartley at Writers' Representatives, and publication is planned for fall 2004.

Hot Deals will not appear next week.