Giuseppe GennaIn an unusual move, New York literary scout Maria Campbell made a preemptive world English rights deal on behalf of an Italian author with Jonathan Burnham at Talk Miramax Books. It was for what Burnham called "one of the most impressive thrillers I've read in many years"--In the Name of Ishmael by Giuseppe Genna, to be published in Italy by Mondadori. Campbell was acting for author and publisher both, and foreign rights in the book have already been sold in France, Germany, Holland and Spain. The thriller, which mixes fictional and real-life characters, involves the killing of a series of public figures, apparently by members of a sect. Genna, who has worked with the Italian government on secret criminal organizations, is also a novelist, journalist and poet.