For better or (much) worse, a new publishing venture has been announced. As if we haven’t heard enough fabrications from lawyers (“If the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit”; “the devil made her do it”), the American Bar Association has created a new line of fiction (as opposed to its old lines of fiction) under the general heading of “Great Stories from Great Lawyers” (unlike lousy stories by lousy lawyers, such as “Mr. Gotti is an honest businessman running a plumbing supply company”).

The ABA has decided that this is a good way to educate the public about the inner workings of the justice system in a creative way. Right. Like criminal lawyers aren’t creative enough already. My client is innocent. Those 14 stab wounds in the back were a successful suicide attempt.

The first novel in this newly spawned series is “The Shadow of Justice” by Milton Hirsch, a Miami defense lawyer. Told through the eyes of the protagonist, a Miami criminal court judge, it was reviewed in N.Y. Lawyer with what one can only suppose is meant to be praise. “Hirsch’s debut novel,” it states, “stands out for its meticulous attention to the detail of police and court procedure.” Sounds exciting. Next, let’s read the Manhattan White Pages.

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Gillian Roberts has sold the rights to “Caught Dead in Philadelphia” to Townview Productions for development as a television show. See? Patience is a virtue. The Anthony Award winner for Best First Mystery, the debut of the 11-book series featuring Amanda Pepper, was published 17 years ago.

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Since we’re on the subjects of rights sales, how about Jonathan Kellerman? His next four books were sold to Hodder Headline in England for about a million bucks apiece. Some guys have all the luck. His wife, Faye, is also a bestselling mystery writer. No worries about the next mortgage payment in that household.

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One more. Richard A. Clarke, the author of “Against All Enemies,” has sold a book to Putnam about war in the Middle East and political intrigue back home. This one is described as his first novel, though there are those who believe his previous book had more than a little fiction as well.

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The results are in for the Hammett Prize, given by the International Association of Crime Writers for a work of excellence in the field of crime writing. The winner is Carol Goodman’s “The Seduction of Water” (Ballantine). This is a serious achievement, considering the high quality of the other nominees: “The Delicate Storm” by Giles Blunt, “Every Secret Thing” by Laura Lippman, “Shutter Island” by Dennis Lehane, and “Tropic of Night” by Michael Gruber.

They are all winners.

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Michael Gruber – now there’s an interesting story. Well, all right, I’ll tell the story and you can decide if it’s interesting.

Robert K. Tanenbaum, now in private practice, enjoyed a career as one of the most successful prosecuting attorneys in America. In fact, he never lost a felony trial. He served as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, as well as deputy chief of the homicide bureau, chief of felony trial bureau, and chief of the criminal courts bureau. He also served as deputy chief counsel for the congressional committee investigation into the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King.

Mr. Tanenbaum lists more than a dozen books to his credit, many of them bestselling novels, all based on his experiences as an assistant DA. There is only problem with this extraordinarily successful scenario. He didn’t actually, ah, write the books. Michael Gruber did. Although he didn’t credit him on any of the novels – not on the dust jacket, not on the title page, not even in some small type on the copyright page – Mr. Tanenbaum did lavish unqualified praise on his ghostwriter.

One of the former DA’s acknowledgments, for example, should have been a clue to the astute reader: “All praise belongs to Michael Gruber, whose genius and scholarship flows throughout and who is primarily and solely responsible for the excellence of this manuscript.”

There had been some leaks on this subterfuge for a while, and it became well known to insiders when Mr. Gruber published his first novel under his own name last year. It was talked about even more when Mr. Tanenbaum published “HOAX” (appropriately enough) without help from Mr. Gruber, and received lukewarm reviews.

This year, for the first time, Mr. Gruber’s official bio at the Bouchercon mystery convention noted his ghostwriting career. Let us hope that Mr. Tanenbaum’s official bio soon makes the same acknowledgment.

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T. Jefferson Parker has been given the title of Bard of Orange County. Bet you didn’t know such a title existed. Neither did I. Neither did Mr. Parker. He apparently had the honor bestowed on him because he recognizes the particular kind of ugliness beneath the surface of suburban sprawl, in which Orange County (and, indeed, most of Southern California) specializes, and writes about it in his award-winning mystery novels.

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There have been abundant rumors that Stephen King has decided to quit writing. To be fair, these rumors were started by Mr. King himself, who said that he had run out of ideas. As John Grisham said about the prolific author’s decision, this meant that King would write only two novels, six short stories, and a screenplay each year. Sure enough, there appears to be a completed manuscript in his desk drawer.

It is a story inspired by his return from the hospital, where he had gone to recover from a bout of pneumonia. He came home to find his office stripped bare, utterly empty, all furniture vanished. What a horror! There was, however, a rational explanation. It seems his wife, Tabitha, had decided to redecorate and neglected to mention it to him.

Mr. Penzler is the proprietor of the Mysterious Bookshop in Manhattan and the series editor of the annual “Best American Mystery Stories.” He can be reached at openzler@nysun.com.