It looks like the bull market for Bernie Madoff books is over. Of the eight reported to be in the offing, only five are now signed up. The Journal’s Robert Frank (Richistan) decided not to do one, and Financial Times columnist John Gapper got “interest from publishers but not at the level required,” according to his agent, David Kuhn. Agents for the books that found homes consider them surefire investments, though. Richard Abate called his author, Richard Behar, “simply the most badass investigative reporter in America.” Fredrica Friedman not only boasts that her writer, Times reporter Diana Henriques, “knows everybody including Bernie, and knows all the issues,” but also predicts World of Lies will win the Financial Times’ Business Book of the Year 2010. Esmond Harmsworth says his writer, Erin Arvedlund, saw it coming—in 2001! Phoenix Books’ Michael Viner, publisher of the quickie oral history Catastrophe, by Deborah and Gerald Strober, is a little more humble. “It’s like Holocaust movies. You can see a sweeping movie like Spielberg did, then you can see The Pianist, and they’re both effective in a very different way.”
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