Roll eyes, express lack of surprise, rinse, and repeat

Figured this was in the offering, even if I hadn’t had any prior knowledge:

Former NYC chief medical examiner Michael Baden and criminal defense attorney Linda Kenney’s REMAINS SILENT, a novel featuring “a crusading attorney” and a medical examiner, to Jordan Pavlin at Knopf, for a reported $1 million (NYP dollars), for two books.

The “NYP Dollars” crack that PM often uses comes from the fact that Sara Nelson, as the New York Post’s publishing biz go-to woman, reports on the deal in greater detail:

Editor Jordan Pavlin has paid $1 million for two novels from the husband-and-wife team Michael Baden and Linda Kenney.

Baden and Kenney have never written fiction before, but if their names are vaguely familiar, it may be because Baden is New York City’s controversial former chief medical examiner.

Baden was involved in many high-profile cases, including an investigation into the death of actor John Belushi and the autopsies of the victims of TWA Flight 800.

Kenney is a criminal defense attorney who worked on the Martha Moxley murder case, in which Michael Skakel, a Kennedy cousin, was convicted of murdering his neighbor.

The novel, which Pavlin bought on the basis of a 35-page sample, is called “Remains Silent.”

It stars Philomena Manfreda, “a crusading attorney for the disenfranchised,” and Dr. Jake Rosenthal, deputy chief medical examiner of New York City.

Aside from the fact that anything described as “a cross between Bridget Jones and John Grisham” automatically gets my hackles up, I could beg to differ on the claim that Baden has “never published fiction before” but I don’t have access to Nexis anymore and don’t want to muddy the waters with fuzzy recollection.