Conaway Makes Two-Book Deal for Eisler

By Matthew Thornton -- Publishers Weekly, 7/20/2007 7:45:00 AM

Dan Conaway, the former Putnam editor who moved to Writers House in April, has brokered his first deal as an agent, moving his former Putnam author Barry Eisler to Ballantine. Mark Tavani pre-empted world rights to two international thrillers by Eisler from Conaway and Simon Lipskar.

Eisler, whose previous books (Requiem for an Assassin, The Last Assassin) all featured hero John Rain, will write a stand-alone in the new Ballantine deal. No new Rain title is planned. This yet-to-be-titled novel is about two estranged brothers, one a big-shot Silicon Valley lawyer, the other an ex-soldier doing special ops work, forced to put aside their grievances when one becomes a target in an international struggle for control of a powerful new technology. Eisler himself spent three years in a covert position with the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, and has also worked as a Silicon Valley lawyer and startup executive. No pub date yet.