Florida Cop as Debut Novelist

Veteran Florida police official James O. Born has offered his expertise to a number of authors, notably Elmore Leonard, and now he has written his own novel, which Putnam executive editor Neil Nyren snapped up the minute he stopped reading it. It's called Walking Money and is described as a darkly comic suspense tale about a bunch of Florida state troopers. Nyren bought U.S., Canadian and open market rights from agent Peter Rubie and aims to publish in the spring, with a Berkley paperback to follow a year later. Born now supervises special agents in Broward County and has been a U.S. marshal and a DEA officer, with extensive knowledge of the Miami drug trade.