James Patterson was born in Newburgh, New York, on March 22, 1947. He graduated from Manhattan College in 1969 and received a M. A. from Vanderbilt University in 1970. His first novel, The Thomas Berryman Number, was written while he was working in a mental institution and was rejected by 26 publishers before being published and winning the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery. He is best known as the creator of Alex Cross, the police psychologist hero of such novels as Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls. Cross has been portrayed on the silver screen by Morgan Freeman. He has had eleven on his books made into movies and ranks as number 3 on the Hollywood Reporter's '25 Most Powerful Authors' 2016 list. He also writes the Women's Murder Club series, the Michael Bennett series, the Maximum Ride series, Daniel X series, the Witch and Wizard series, BookShots series, Private series, NYPD Red series, and the Middle School series for children. He has won numerous awards including the BCA Mystery Guild's Thriller of the Year, the International Thriller of the Year award, and the Reader's Digest Reader's Choice Award. James Patterson introduced the Bookshots Series in 2016 which is advertised as All Thriller No Filler. The first book in the series, Cross Kill, made the New York Times Bestseller list in June 2016. The third and fourth books, The Trial, and Little Black Dress, made the New York Times Bestseller list in July 2016. The next books in the series include, $10,000,000 Marriage Proposal, French Kiss, Hidden: A Mitchum Story (co-authored with James O. Born). and The House Husband (co-authored Duane Swierczynski). Patterson's novel, co-authored with Maxine Paetro, Woman of God, became a New York Times bestseller in 2016. Patterson co-authored with John Connoly and Tim Malloy the true crime expose Filthy Rich about billionaire convicted sex offender Jeffrey Eppstein. In January 2017, he co-authored with Ashwin Sanghi the bestseller Private Delhi. And in August 2017, he co-authored with Richard Dilallo, The Store. The Black Book is a stand-alone thriller, co-authored by James Patterson and David Ellis. In April 2018, he co-authored Texas Ranger with Andrew Bourelle. In May 2018, he co-authored Private Princess with Rees Jones. In August 2018 he co-authored Fifty Fifty with Candice Fox. (Bowker Author Biography)

Michael Ledwidge was born in the Bronx, New York. He received a bachelor's degree in English from Manhattan College. After college, he worked as a doorman on 50th Street and Park Avenue. He sent James Patterson a copy of his manuscript for The Narrowback to review. Patterson forwarded the manuscript to his agent and the book was soon published. Ledwidge and Patterson have co-authored numerous books including the Michael Bennett series. (Bowker Author Biography)