Preempt for British TV Writer

Dutton president Carole Baron preempted a first thriller by a highly popular writer for BBC-TV as part of a two-book deal, taking hard/soft North American rights. The first of the two books by David Wolstencroft, author of the hit TV drama Spooks, is Good News, Bad News; it's about a pair of workers in dead-end jobs who, unbeknownst to each other, have both been recruited as spies, with their last assignment being to exterminate each other. Editor-in-chief Brian Tart, who will edit, talks of its "clever plotting, smart characters and shocking ending," and U.K. agent Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown has already sold it on preempts in Britain and Germany, with deals closing in Italy and Holland. It was bought here from Jane Gelfman at Gelfman & Schneider and will be published in summer next year.