Four novels by one of the world’s best-selling thriller writers are being developed into a TV series by Shane Brennan, the creator of "NCIS: Los Angeles," Deadline.com reports.

The novels, by David Balducci, are known as the King and Maxwell series, as they feature two former Secret Service agents-turned private eyes named Sean King and Michelle Maxwell.

According to the article, " ‘David has created a fascinating world with those 2 characters who are involved in the shadowy side of the power and politics from inside the Beltway to Wall Street,’ Brennan said. Because a broadcast series calls for 22-24 episodes a season, ‘we’ll take the characters further than David would do,’ Brennan said, ‘but we will be very true to the mythology of the characters he created.’ Balducci himself had offered to help in bringing his heroes to the screen."

For our money here at TVWeek, we think Balducci may be the premier mainstream thriller writer around today. Furthermore, his works are surprisingly absent from Hollywood, for the most part. Prior to this announcement, the only Balducci work tackled by Hollywood has been Clint Eastwood’s 1997 theatrical movie "Absolute Power," based on Balducci’s novel of the same name. That movie had William Goldman adapting the novel.

The four King and Maxwell novels that will be the basis of the series are "Split Second," "Hour Game," "Simple Genius" and "First Family."

Brennan’s self-named production company, based at CBS Studios, will be developing the project for CBS. "Brennan has tapped CBS TV Studios’ current executive Grant Anderson to run his Shane Brennan Prods. as president," the article adds.

One final note. If you have not read Balducci before, we here at TVWeek highly recommend his "The Simple Truth" as a good starting point. (It’s got nothing to do with the 1986 movie of the same name.) In 1999 then President Bill Clinton said Balducci’s "The Simple Truth" was his favorite novel of the year. With the dog-days of summer upon us, it’s a great page-turner to read at the beach or the pool or wherever you may be trying to beat the heat.