“The Chinese had a saying that had been in her mind for a while, troubling her: Society prepares the crime; the criminal only commits it.”

American author

James Brendan Patterson is an American author known for a long run of bestselling fiction and for creating the Alex Cross, Michael Bennett, Women’s Murder Club, Maximum Ride, Daniel X, NYPD Red, Witch & Wizard, Private, and Middle School series. His career has also included stand-alone thrillers, nonfiction, and romance novels. His books have sold more than 425 million copies, and he was the first person to sell one million e-books. Many of his novels are written with other authors, with Patterson supplying the story and a coauthor doing most of the writing. That collaborative method has helped make his name as recognizable as the books themselves.