Novelist Joseph Finder will get a seven-figure advance for his next two novels in a deal worked out between senior editor Keith Kahla at St. Martin's Press and Molly Friedrich at the Aaron Priest agency. The reason for the excitement was the first of the novels, called Paranoia, which SMP plans to publish next winter. It's a story of corporate espionage set in the current dreary economic times, and Kahla calls it "the first book since Grisham's The Firm to reimagine the thriller." Friedrich said it aroused huge interest among publishers, and she expects a movie deal to follow soon. The deal was for North American and audio rights. Finder's last book, High Crimes, from Morrow/Avon, was made into a popular movie.