Replying to I am looking for some books

So my mother and I were discussing books and there is this set of books she wants to get but can't figure out what they are called/the author that wrote them. Her description is something like this:

"The man that wrote them was a CIA agent and one day he walked in to a publisher and asked them to publish the books that he had written. About a week later the man had died and the publishing company published them. The books were fiction and kind of went along the lines of the type of job that the man had(CIA-ish). There are 3 books in this series and they are a trilogy of sorts."

Now the reason I ask is that I have a 40% off anything at Borders and I offered it to her and she want's the books but can not remember the title/author of them.

Any help fellow readers of NS?