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Arts & Entertainment

Fox News Legal Analyst Autographs Her Newest Thriller

'Hand of Fate' is Lis Wiehl's latest book in a series being optioned by CBS.

There were no TV trucks at Pink on Palmer Thursday night, but the wattage coming off Lis Wiehl—legal analyst and reporter for Fox News Channel—was self-sufficient.  

Wiehl—who is also Bill O'Reilly's sparring partner on "The O'Reilly Factor"—was hosting a signing for her latest thriller, Hand of Fate, which she co-authored with April Henry. It is currently being optioned for a show on CBS.

On hand were husband Mickey Sherman, a prominent criminal defense attorney, and close friends from Larchmont, where the couple has lived for eight years with their two children.

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Hand of Fate is the second book in the trial attorney's "Triple Threat" series—and the plot involves someone who sounds a lot like, uh, O'Reilly.

Factoring in O'Reilly

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"Bill [O'Reilly] likes to say the book is based on him," Wiehl said from her home earlier in the day. Before their TV partnership, Wiehl was on radio with O'Reilly for seven years.

The book jacket reads: "Outspoken radio talk show host Jim Fate dies tragically when poison gas fills the studio while his polarizing show, 'The Hand of Fate,' is on the air."

"It's fiction," Wiehl replied to the obvious query of whether Fate's demise was inspired by working with O'Reilly. 

Later in the evening, Wiehl read aloud a letter she received from a prominent pundit: "Wiehl…could ya not have tried a little harder to disguise me?"

It was from O'Reilly.

Write what you know

Solving the crimes in the series are three women: a federal prosecutor, an FBI agent and a TV crime reporter.

"The women do reflect me," Wiehl said. "I used to be a federal prosecutor, my dad was in the FBI and I'm a TV reporter." In her five years prosecuting, Wiehl says she won every case.

Her first thriller, Face of Betrayal, spent a month on The New York Times' bestseller list for hardcover fiction last June.

"I like to write about strong women who are fallible," Wiehl added.

Wiehl has written nonfiction, as well. The 51% Minority provides advice for women dealing with daily social inequalities. And in Winning Every Time, Wiehl discusses how she draws on years of trial experience to make use of lawyer-like thinking in every day life.

Currently a third book, Heart of Ice, is being readied, and Wiehl is working on the fourth.

High achiever

Wiehl is also an adjunct professor of law at New York University. Before moving from Seattle, she worked for the House of Representatives in the late 1990s.

The mother of two said she writes whenever she can.

"The train is a good time," she said. "I'm addicted to my blackberry. I write paragraphs and paragraphs on it."

"She's just an underachiever—it's awful," ribbed her husband, Sherman, at the signing.

Reflecting that his wife is "the most productive person on this planet," Sherman said he was inspired to write his book, How Can You Defend These People?, by watching his wife write hers.

Legal-ease

For all the seriousness of the underpinnings of Wiehl's books, they are, in the end, meant to be page-turners.

"The books give you a realistic sense of behind-the-scenes TV, radio and the law enforcement world. You're going to learn about what goes on in those worlds. But you're also going to be entertained."

The next signing for Hand of Fate is June 26, noon to 2 p.m., at Super Stop & Shop, 2425 Palmer Ave., New Rochelle; (914) 632-7084. For more info, visit www.liswiehlbooks.com

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