That's what attracted agent (and former editor) David Gernert in a pitch letter sent by debut thriller author Michael Lawson. Gernert said he normally never reads unsolicited material himself, but Lawson's pitch letter was so brief and sharp, the first sentence of the prologue to his book so extraordinary, that he immediately picked up the phone and asked the author for the rest. That was the beginning of a relationship that has now led to a major two-book deal for North American rights with Bill Thomas and Stacy Creamer at Doubleday for Lawson's The Inside Ring and a second book with the working title Miss July. Meanwhile, the agency's Tracy Howell has also sold Lawson in the U.K. and Holland and is considering other foreign offers. The Seattle-based Lawson took early retirement from a job at a shipyard that worked on navy nuclear vessels, and he now devotes himself to fiction. His first book involves an assassination attempt on a president in which the Secret Service may be involved.