james patterson first book biography

James Patterson

Who Is James Patterson?

James Patterson is a prolific author who has written detective stories, thrillers, science fiction, romance and young adult novels. His first book was published in 1976. While being a published author, he continued moving up the ranks of the advertising world until 1996, when he decided to leave his life as an executive to focus on writing full time. Patterson holds the Guinness World Record for having the most books on The New York Times ' best-seller list.

Early Years

Patterson was born in Newburgh, New York, on March 22, 1947. Patterson was a good student but didn't enjoy reading until after he graduated high school. He attended Manhattan College as an undergraduate before starting coursework for a master's degree in English literature at Vanderbilt University. Patterson left Vanderbilt after a year, and then took a job as a copywriter at ad agency J. Walter Thompson in 1971.

Success and 'Alex Cross' Series

Though Patterson climbed the company ranks, eventually becoming its North American CEO, he also wrote fiction in his spare time. His first published book, The Thomas Berryman Number , came out in 1976. It won an Edgar Award, a top prize for mystery writers.

Patterson penned several other novels, but it was not until 1993 that he achieved breakout success with Along Came a Spider . Patterson used his work experience to orchestrate a television ad campaign for the novel, which helped it become a best seller. In 1996, Patterson left his life as an executive in order to focus on writing.

Varied Genres

Patterson has also written a number of books about a New York City detective, Michael Bennett, with 10 adopted children. Another popular Patterson series is Women's Murder Club, which was adapted into a short-lived TV show in 2007. Patterson’s repertoire extends to romance novels, science fiction, historical fiction and even nonfiction. In addition, he has authored books for younger readers, with series such as Maximum Ride and Witch & Wizard . Whatever the genre, Patterson is known for writing involving, page-turning stories.

Writing Process and Records

Patterson's name appears on more books than most other authors; he released 13 books in both 2013 and 2012, and 14 books in 2011. Patterson’s prolific output is achieved with the help of co-authors. His first co-authored work was Miracle on the 17th Green (1996), written with Peter de Jonge. He later teamed with former U.S. President Bill Clinton to pen the thriller The President Is Missing , published in 2018.

When working with another writer, Patterson first writes an extensive outline, which is then sent to the co-author. The co-author produces a first draft, with Patterson keeping an eye on the story's progression and handling revisions before the book is published.

In 2010, Patterson earned a place in the Guinness World Records as the first author to sell more than 1 million e-books, and his ever-growing number of New York Times best sellers — he'd already accumulated 114 of them according to a May 2015 article in the Times — is another Guinness record. As of January 2016, he had sold more than 350 million books worldwide.

Patterson earns millions each year for his work, and his success in brand management even became a case study at Harvard Business School.

Personal Life and Honors

Patterson married Sue Solie in 1997; the two had a son, Jack, the following year. Belief in the importance of helping children learn to love reading compelled Patterson to set up ReadKiddoRead.com . The website advises parents about selecting books for their children.

In 2015, Patterson was awarded the National Book Foundation's Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. That year, he also donated $1.75 million to public school libraries and $1 million to independent bookstores throughout the U.S.

In 2019, President Donald Trump awarded Patterson the National Humanities Medal.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: James Brendan Patterson
• Birth Year: 1947
• Birth date: March 22, 1947
• Birth State: New York
• Birth City: Newburgh
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: James Patterson is a prolific author of thrillers, mysteries, young adult novels and more. His first successful series featured psychologist Alex Cross.
• Writing and Publishing
• Astrological Sign: Aries

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CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: James Patterson Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/james-patterson
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: March 20, 2020
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014

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James Patterson (born March 22, 1947), perhaps best known as the writer of the Alex Cross detective series, ranks among the most prolific of contemporary American authors. He even holds the Guinness World Record for the number of New York Times number one best-selling novels sold and he was the first author to sell more than one million ebooks.

Fast Facts: James Patterson

• Known For : Prolific and best-selling author with many works adapted to popular films
• Born : March 22, 1947 in Newburgh, Newburgh, NY, U.S.
• Parents : Isabelle and Charles Patterson
• Education : Manhattan College, Vanderbilt University
• Published Works : "Alex Cross" series, "Women's Murder Club" series, "Maximum Ride" series, "Michael Bennett" series, "Middle School" series, "I Funny" series
• Awards and Honors :   Edgar Award, BCA Mystery Guild's Thriller of the Year, International Thriller of the Year award, and Children's Choice Book Award for Author of the Year
• Spouse : Susan Patterson
• Children : Jack Patterson
• Notable Quote : "There's no such thing as a kid who hates reading. There are kids who love reading, and kids who are reading the wrong books."

Before Patterson headed off to college, his family moved to the Boston area, where he took a part-time night job at a mental hospital. The solitude of that job allowed him to develop an appetite for reading literature; he spent most of his salary on books. He lists “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez as a favorite. Patterson went on to graduate from Manhattan College and holds a masters’ degree in English literature from Vanderbilt University. 

In 1971, he went to work for the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, where he eventually became CEO. It was there that Patterson came up with the iconic phrase “Toys R Us Kid.” This advertising background is apparent in the marketing of his books, as Patterson supervises the design of book covers down to the last detail and was one of the first authors to orchestrate advertising his books on television. His techniques have even inspired a case study at Harvard Business School; “Marketing James Patterson” examines the effectiveness of the writer’s strategies.

Published Works and Style

Despite his widespread popularity—he’s sold some 300 million books—Patterson’s methods are not without controversy. He uses a group of co-authors , which allows him to publish his works at such an impressive rate. His critics, who include contemporary authors such as Stephen King, question whether Patterson is too focused on quantity at the expense of quality.

James Patterson's first novel, "The Thomas Berryman Number," was published in 1976, after being turned down by more than 30 publishers. Patterson told The New York Times that his first book compares favorably to his current works in one way:

“The sentences are superior to a lot of the stuff I write now, but the story isn’t as good.”

Despite its slow start, "The Thomas Berryman Number" won an Edgar Award for crime fiction that year.

Patterson makes no secret of his current use of co-authors, a group that includes Andrew Gross, Maxine Paetro, and Peter De Jong. He likens the approach to the collaborative efforts of Gilbert and Sullivan or Rodgers and Hammerstein: Patterson says he writes an outline, which he sends to the co-author for refining, and the two collaborate throughout the writing process. He’s said that his strength lies in concocting plots, not in parsing individual sentences, which suggests he has refined (and perhaps improved) his writing technique since his first novel. 

Despite the criticism that his style is mechanical, Patterson has hit on a commercially successful formula. He’s written 20 novels featuring detective Alex Cross, including "Kiss the Girls" and "Along Came a Spider," 14 books in "The Women’s Murder Club" series, and the "Witch and Wizard" and "Daniel X" series.

Hollywood Blockbusters and Childhood Literacy

Given their broad commercial appeal, it's no surprise that several of Patterson's novels have been made into movies . Academy Award-winner Morgan Freeman has played Alex Cross in adaptations of "Along Came a Spider" (2001) and "Kiss the Girls" (1997), which also starred Ashley Judd.​

In 2011, Patterson wrote an op-ed for CNN urging parents to become more involved in getting their kids to read. He discovered his son Jack wasn't an avid reader. When Jack turned 8, Patterson and his wife Susie made a deal with him. He could be excused from chores over summer vacation if he would read every day. Patterson later launched the child literacy initiative Read Kiddo Read , which offers advice for age-appropriate books for kids of various ages. 

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James Patterson: a life in writing

E yebrows were raised a few weeks ago when a series of full-page ads appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Publishers Weekly and elsewhere in the US literary press, asking "Who will save our books? Our bookstores? Our libraries?" Thirty-eight great American books, fiction and non-fiction, were cited as examples of work that might have been lost without vibrant publishing and bookselling industries and cultures: from William Faulkner to Junot Díaz; Norman Mailer to Joan Didion; Thomas Pynchon to Art Spiegelman. The ad concluded by comparing the federal bailouts of the banking and car sectors to the neglect of books. Striking stuff, but it was not so much the sentiments expressed that caused surprise, as the signature at the bottom of the man who had paid for and written them: James Patterson .

In fact Patterson is familiar with deploying the power of advertising – he is a former chairman of agency J Walter Thompson – and in recent years he has been an outspoken advocate for books and child literacy. But most of all his intervention fits with a career that has not only seen him become one of the world's biggest-selling authors, but also one who has in the process revolutionised the popular book market.

Speaking to Publishers Weekly, Patterson straightforwardly explained his motivations: "I like to do things." His complaint was: "Publishers are sitting around saying: 'Woe is me.'" His advice: "Get in attack mode." This approach has helped him publish more than 100 books and sell approaching 300m copies. As long ago as 2006 his work passed $1bn in gross income and in recent years, in which he has topped the Forbes list of highest-paid authors, his earnings have been estimated at $80m-$100m a year. It has made him famous enough to appear as a character on The Simpsons , and more intriguingly, his marketing strategies have been the subject of a Harvard Business School study.

It was Patterson who first showed that television advertising could work for books. More radically, he has demonstrated that working with co‑writers can dramatically multiply sales. While he continues to write solo his books featuring Alex Cross – the black, single‑parent, Washington DC detective and psychologist, who first brought Patterson to a mass audience – he generally works with named collaborators on other bestselling series such as the Women's Murder Club (San Francisco cop, lawyer, doctor and journalist who combine to solve crimes) and the Michael Bennett series featuring a New York widower detective with 10 adopted children. Alongside these and the other thrillers, Patterson's oeuvre is expanding at the rate of 10 books a year and also takes in romance stories and, increasingly, books for young adults.

"My short answer to the question as to why work with other people is Gilbert and Sullivan, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Woodward and Bernstein, Lennon and McCartney and it goes on," he says. "There is a lot to be said for collaboration and it should be seen as just another way to do things as it is in other forms of writing, such as for television, where it is standard practice." But back in 2000 – he had by then written five Alex Cross books (his 21st is out this autumn) – when he suggested publishing multiple books in a single year his publishers were initially aghast.

"They wanted one hardback and one paperback a year. I had ideas for an Alex Cross, a standalone thriller and a romantic novel. My publishers weren't comfortable with the romance because it wasn't my brand. So I gave them my idea of what a brand is: a connection to someone or some product, from which people can expect something. With my books people expect the pages will turn. They'll know the difference between what looks like a love story and an Alex Cross book. So the choice becomes: 'Do I want to read a page-turning love story?'"

The success of those three books led Patterson to increase his annual production by working with collaborators. He conducts the enterprise from the Florida home where he lives with his wife and 15-year-old son. The first stage is to write a 60-70 page outline for every book. "Then I'm not like a publisher who asks to see a finished work in two years. I get material from the writers every two weeks. If it's going well I say keep at it. Or I say 'stop' and let's look at those last 40 pages again if the train has gone off the track."

Patterson wasn't the first writer to openly collaborate, but he has been by far the most commercially successful. "There was a certain amount of fear from publishers. And some journalists couldn't conceive of how this guy could be involved in so many projects and therefore thought it was bullshit. But everyone who comes to my office eventually says: 'Oh. I get it'. Because around the place they will see 30-35 manuscripts in different stages of development and they have to come to realise that I am a maniac."

Patterson was born in 1947 in Newburgh, a town that was then "the all-American city, and is now the murder capital of New York state". He has said that money was not plentiful when growing up, but a greater poverty came from the emotional detachment of his father. "He never had a father around himself and while you did feel there was a bond, it wasn't expressed much. We weren't beaten. Food arrived on the table. But eventually you see that parts of it were not optimal and you try to deal with that."

As a high school valedictorian in one of the best Catholic schools in the area Patterson applied to both Harvard and Yale. "But I never even heard from them. Then I was told I had been accepted at Manhattan College, which was a Christian Brothers college I had not applied for. It turned out the brothers had never actually sent off my applications. Actually Manhattan College was fine and was where Rudy Giuliani went. But in those days if you were Catholic you went to a Catholic college."

Although a star pupil at school, he only read enough "to get out of Newburgh". It was not until his family moved to near Boston, just before he started college, and he took a part-time job at a mental hospital that he started to "read my brains out. And not commercial fiction. Stuff that really stretched me: The Tin Drum ; One Hundred Years of Solitude . Working nights meant I was paid overtime and I'd go into Cambridge and buy maybe 10 books a week. The hospital was used by a lot of wealthy families, which was also a new socio-economic thing for me. And it had an artistic tradition: Robert Lowell was there for a while; Ray Charles used to check in; James Taylor; Sylvia Plath had been there before my time. There was a tradition of wonderful craziness."

He left Manhattan College with an English degree and enrolled on an MA programme at Vanderbilt University. But after receiving a "lucky" high number in the Vietnam draft lottery, in 1971 he took a job in advertising at J Walter Thompson. "I never particularly liked advertising and it hadn't been anything I'd had in mind." But he says the job was right for him when his long-term girlfriend developed a brain tumour and subsequently died. "I wanted no time by myself so I threw myself into work and went from creative director to running the company in two and a half years." Patterson was instrumental in award-winning campaigns for companies such as Kodak, Burger King and Toys R Us. But throughout this time he also wrote. It was while working at the mental hospital that he had first started "scribbling and found that I loved it. It seemed I was never going to produce a Ulysses or One Hundred Years of Solitude – although maybe I sell myself a little short in terms of magic realism, which I think I maybe could've done in an interesting way. But somewhere along the way I read Day of the Jackal and The Exorcist . I hadn't read much commercial fiction, but I liked these and thought I maybe could do books that people turn the pages of."

So he wrote The Thomas Berryman Number , a thriller about a political murder in the US deep south, which was soon turned down by 31 publishers. "But the rejections were genuinely kind and encouraging, and it wasn't long before one said yes." His debut was published in 1976 and the following year Patterson took a call in his office from the organisers of the Edgar awards for crime fiction.

"They wanted to know if I could come to their prize ceremony. I told them the date was difficult and eventually they had to break protocol and say: 'You have to come, you've won!' So I went. Although I was still half thinking they had lied just to get me there and sweated it until they said my name. And when I had my little moment to say something I said 'I guess I'm a writer now'."

In fact he continued to work in advertising, at increasingly senior levels, until 1996. His early productivity as a novelist was unremarkable and over the next 15 years he published five novels. Everything changed with the publication of his first Alex Cross story, Along Came a Spider , in 1992. Cross was a compelling character, but the book became Patterson's breakthrough because of his insistence, against all received opinion in publishing, that it should be advertised on TV.

"It didn't take a lot of study for me to look at the ads and say that some things could be done better. I thought television advertising could work and as we didn't have enough money to do it across the US, it was obvious to pick three or four significant cities. We could afford Washington, New York and Chicago. The ads went on, the book jumped onto the bestseller list, and then the bestseller list becomes your advertising."

His early work was reviewed in the normal way with much praise for his debut including nods to Chandler, and a more mixed response to the follow-ups. But as his popularity, and especially his productivity, has increased so his books are now rarely reviewed in mainstream print – although reader reviews remain plentiful. Not that this has restricted criticism: Stephen King once described him as "a terrible writer" – a fact that didn't stop Patterson including King's Different Seasons in his Publishers Weekly ad of 38 American books that would be missed – to which one of Patterson's stock lines in response is to point out that while "thousands of people hate my stuff, millions of people like it".

He acknowledges that The Thomas Berryman Number had better sentences than most of his work since, "but it didn't have a better story. Everyone has a handful of anecdotes they know people will like when they tell them. But if you wrote them out you'd see that you don't tell them in good sentences. And I became much more interested in telling those colloquial stories than I was in style."

His prose is doggedly functional with short sentences and chapters relentlessly working to propel the plot. Here's the opening of the most recent Alex Cross novel:

"It's not every day that I get a naked girl answering the door I knock on. Don't get me wrong – with twenty years of law enforcement under my belt, it's happened. Just not that often.

"Are you the waiters?" this girl asked. There was a bright but empty look in her eyes that said ecstasy to me, and I could smell weed from inside. The music was thumping, too, the kind of relentless techno that would make me want to slit my wrists if I had to listen to it for long.

"No, we're not the waiters," I told her, showing my badge. "Metro police. And you need to put something on, right now."

She wasn't even fazed. "There were supposed to be waiters," she said to no one in particular."

His discussion with collaborators is mostly at the level of "the nugget that drives every sentence and every word in a chapter, say, in which we are going to bond with two characters. Everything in it – how they meet, where they meet, how they talk, their responses to each other – is all going to make you want to read more about these two people."

And while he is aware that his work has been described as mechanical – "and maybe I am sometimes" – it is something he has come to instinctively. "I didn't study it. A lot of it is emotional with me. You have to care. So many thrillers don't work because you don't care about the characters or the situation. I saw the latest Die Hard movie and I just didn't care. In the first two, the Bruce Willis character was engaging, unusual and funny. The villains were also interesting. But when someone condescends to the genre you can smell it straight away."

He is working to a two-year schedule of 10 books a year. "It's funny that publishers were once against me writing more than one book a year. The situation has changed a lot since then. If I now said I was writing only one book this year, not 10, they would have a heart attack. They are plugged into the money."

At one stage Patterson's books generated 30% of his publisher's revenues. "That brings responsibility for me as well as them. I want them to make money. I don't send my agent in there to beat them up for every nickel he can get. But I want them motivated to do what they do well, and if they're not making money they won't be motivated."

So what part does the money play in motivating him? He had little as a child and the vast sums that now roll in have not slowed his work rate or productivity and can't all be spent on buying ad space to defend books. "My life revolves around my writing, my wife and my son. And I'm not just shovelling shit about that. That's the stuff that works for me. Yes, I do have a really big house in Florida, which is a little bit of an embarrassment." (It's a beachfront estate, next to one previously owned by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, that the Pattersons bought for $17.4m; they spent another $14m on renovations.) "It is too big and ridiculous and I don't even go to the bottom floor, but what we get back in terms of the view is glorious and I much prefer living in my money than having it in the bank."

He says the most satisfaction he received from money was when he achieved a similar status to two friends who are recently retired school teachers in Georgia. "They live in a nice town. They ride their bikes to the ocean. They have some savings and pensions and they are not worrying about money. The lack of it is such a source of unbelievable stress. Beyond that I'm not very materialistic and to some extent I've had to learn how to spend it. Now if there's something I really want I do tend to get it, so while I sometimes try to think that it doesn't really matter, I also realise I might have become a difficult person to buy Christmas presents for."

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James Patterson

The creator of the famous character of psychologist Alex Cross, James Patterson is the accomplished American author of not only thriller novels but also romance and non-fiction works. Patterson spent most of his working life in advertising before establishing a career in writing. With 71 novels in 33 years of which 19 topped the list of New York Times bestsellers, Patterson remains amongst the most widely read authors of these times.

James Patterson was born in Newburgh, New York, on March 22, 1947. Patterson attended the Manhattan College where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree and later earned a Master’s degree from Vanderbilt University. Although Patterson wrote even before becoming a dedicated writer, he became a full time writer after retiring from the advertising business in 1985. His first book, The Thomas Berryman Number was published in 1976. Patterson introduced FBI Agent and forensic psychologist Alex Cross for the first time in his bestselling novel Along Came a Spider published in 1993. Some more famous titles from the Alex Cross series include Kiss The Girls (1995), Pop Goes the Weasel (1999), Violets are Blue (2001), Mary, Mary (2005), and Cross (2006). In addition to being immensely popular, this series has also been the top-selling investigative series for 10 years. Patterson has often collaborated with other writers and co-authored books with authors such as Maxine Paetro, Andrew Gross, and Peter De Jonge.

Having sold more novels than that of Stephen King , John Grisham and Dan Brown combined; James Patterson is the single most selling author of 63 hardcover titles according to The New York Times, holding the same status in The Guinness World Records. In addition to The New York Times, Patterson’s books have also appeared on the NovelTracker’s top-ten. His literary efforts have been acknowledged by the Edgar Award, the Children’s Choice Book Award, BCA Mystery Guild’s Thriller of the Year and the International Thriller of the Year Award.

Despite callous criticism from critics and other authors including horror writer Stephen King who once called Patterson a terrible writer, Patterson’s novels continue to sell like hot cakes and have been adapted to screen many times over the years. Some of the famous Hollywood movies based on James Patterson’s novels include Kiss the Girls (1997) and Along Came a Spider (2001). Noted adaptations to television include Child of Darkness, Child of Light (1991), Miracle on the 17th Green (1999), 1st to Die (2003), Women’s Murder Club (2007) and James Patterson’s Sundays at Tiffany’s (2010). James Patterson has also appeared on television as himself in several episodes of Castle and a show of The Simpsons.

A great supporter of developing reading habits in children, Patterson is the founder of James Patterson PageTurner Awards which began in 2005. The foundation has donated more than US$850,000 to various institutions, schools and individuals that create new and creative ways of bringing back the excitement of books and reading. However, these awards were halted in 2008 when Patterson launched ReadKiddoRead.com, another initiative to pursue the cause of reading by helping parents and teachers to choose the best books for their children.

James Patterson currently resides in Briarcliff Manor, New York and Palm Beach, Florida, with his wife, Susan, and son, Jack.

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James Patterson biography

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James Patterson

James patterson biography.

James Patterson has created more enduring fictional characters than any other novelist writing today with his Alex Cross, Michael Bennett, Women's Murder Club, Private, NYPD Red, Daniel X, Maximum Ride, and Middle School series. As of January 2016, he has sold over 350 million books worldwide and currently holds the Guinness World Record for the most #1 New York Times bestsellers. In addition to writing the thriller novels for which he is best known, he also writes children's, middle-grade, and young-adult fiction and is also the first author to have #1 new titles simultaneously on the New York Times adult and children's bestsellers lists. The son of an insurance salesman and a schoolteacher, Patterson grew up in Newburgh, New York, and began casually writing at the age of nineteen. In 1969, he graduated from Manhattan College. He was given a full ride to Vanderbilt University's graduate program in English but dropped out after a year, knowing that he wouldn't be able to continue reading and writing for pleasure if he became a college professor. Instead, he moved to New York to become a junior copywriter for the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, eventually becoming CEO of its North American company. In 1976, while still working for J. Walter Thompson, Patterson published his first novel, The Thomas Berryman Number , with Little, Brown and Company. After being turned down by thirty-one publishers, it won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Patterson's 1993 novel, Along Came a Spider, his first novel to feature Alex Cross, was also his first New York Times bestseller in fiction. In 2001, Morgan Freeman starred as Alex Cross in a film adaptation of Along Came a Spider, and Tyler Perry also played the character in the 2012 film Alex Cross. A film adaptation of Patterson's middle-grade novel Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life will be released in theaters in October 2016. For his initiatives to help kids become passionate readers and for his philanthropic efforts, Patterson was awarded the National Book Foundation's 2015 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. James Patterson has donated more than one million books to students, emphasizing some of the most under-resourced schools and youth programs in the country. In 2015, Patterson donated $1.75 million to school libraries throughout the United States, and $250,000 in holiday bonuses to individual bookstore employees. He also gave $1 million to independent bookstores in 2014. Patterson has recently donated over $26 million to his and his wife's alma maters—the University of Wisconsin, Vanderbilt University, and Manhattan College—and he has established over four hundred Teacher Education Scholarships at twenty-four colleges and universities throughout the country. Patterson has also donated over 650,000 books to U.S. soldiers at home and overseas. In May 2015, Patterson launched a new children's book imprint at Little, Brown, called JIMMY Patterson, that is unwaveringly focused on one goal: turning kids into lifelong readers. This imprint also provides resources, strategies, and programs to serve teachers, parents, librarians, and booksellers. Patterson will be investing proceeds from the sales of JIMMY Patterson Books in pro-reading initiatives. Patterson has also founded ReadKiddoRead.com, a website designed to help parents, teachers, and librarians ignite a new generation's excitement for reading. Awarded the National Book Foundation's Innovations in Reading Prize and the American Library Association's Great Websites for Kids, the site features thoughtful book reviews from a variety of genres and age ranges, a large and lively Facebook community, and contributions from other authors. Mr. Patterson's awards for adult and children's literature include the Edgar Award, the International Thriller of the Year Award, and the Children's Choice Award for Author of the Year. He lives in Palm Beach with his wife, Sue, and his son, Jack. From the author's website July 2016

James Patterson's website This bio was last updated on 07/03/2016. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.

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James Patterson talks about a number of his recent books including The Beach House , Violets Are Blue and Suzanne's Diary For Nicholas .

The Beach House is your first legal thriller, what lead you to write it? Did you enjoy writing it? Would you write another? I didn't specifically set out to write a legal thriller, I was just incredibly intrigued by the story in The Beach House . However, most of us are fed up with the injustice that poses for justice in this country. That's at the core of The Beach House . It also seemed like a fun idea to take on John Grisham at his own game. I generally like his stuff and the legal world is incredibly dramatic. There is a great deal of corruption in The Beach House in the local officials and in the corporate law firm, do you think this is a common occurrence? Do you have any experience with the law? Other than my hundreds of arrests I really don't have that much experience with the law. While the majority of people aren't corrupt, there certainly is an awful lot of corruption in this country. It's particularly tragic that some of it takes place at law firms, like the one depicted in The Beach House . There are many wealthy beach communities you could have chose as the backdrop for this story, is there anything particular that made you decide to use the Hamptons as the setting of the ...

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Saul Black is a pseudonym of Glen Duncan , author of The Last Werewolf and many other books. (more)

If you enjoyed: 1st To Die

Try: The Killing Lessons by Saul Black

Sandra Brown

Sandra Brown is the author of sixty-two New York Times bestsellers, including Low Pressure (2012), Lethal(2011) , Tough Customer (2010), Smash Cut (2009), Smoke Screen (2008), Play Dirty (2007), Ricochet (2006), Chill Factor (... (more)

If you enjoyed: Four Blind Mice

Try: Standoff by Sandra Brown

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The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill

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Bad Animals by Sarah Braunstein

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Douglas Westerbeke's much anticipated debut

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue meets Life of Pi in this dazzlingly epic.

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