Nick Lassiter is an author.
At least he is trying to be. He has written a couple of books but they have not yet seen publication. He keeps trying, though.
He is described in an introduction to the first recorded adventure as "Mr. Everyman [who] becomes an unwitting intelligence operative". That is a pretty good summation. He does have at least one thing going for him that the rest of us do not and that will help him, in a way, survive being such a fish-out-of-water when he gets deep in trouble (pardon the mixed metaphor): his father is a high-ranking member of the CIA. Interestingly, it is not really because of his father's covert connections that he gets into trouble; they will help getting out.
When we first meet him, Lassiter is really at a low spot in his life....
Now Lassiter's troubles will start because of writer's block by a famous thriller writer named Cameron Beckett IV, described by his agent as "one of the world's biggest literary brands - second only to James Patterson". The man had put out bestsellers for 20 years but was out of ideas, except for drinking more and hiring more hookers (he was down to 6 or 7 a month). His agent decided to give him a boost by "borrowing" from the slush pile (his words) of submitted manuscripts that would never see publication. What could it hurt? It wasn't really stealing, was it?
Well, when it turns out that the chosen book was by Lassiter and when the book comes out three years later and is made into a blockbuster movie, Lassiter gets rather perturbed about it. Mind you, Lassiter has just been dumped by his girl friend and fired from his job so he was already in a pretty lousy mood. That will prompt him to head to the Big Apple and the publishers of the book and that will get him into major troubles of a clandestine nature (you need to read the adventure to understand) and that will be why he will need Dad's help.
It will also be how he will come into contact with Skyler, one of the deadliest paid assassins currently plying the trade.