Alafair Burke is the daughter of bestselling thriller author James Lee Burke, and seems set to carry on her father's franchise. She has just signed a two-book deal with Holt editor-in-chief Jennifer Barth and aims to write about a deputy district attorney, Samantha Kincaid, who seems modeled closely on her own life as a former assistant DA herself. Holt will publish the first Kincaid title next spring. Barth bought world rights, excluding British, from Alafair's father's agent, Phil Spitzer.