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 also writes the Women's Murder Club series, as well as the Maximum Ride series, Daniel X series, the Witch and Wizard… 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. He also made The New York Times Best Seller List for 2012 with his title I Funny: A Middle School Story and again in 2013 with his title Middle School: Get Me Out of Here!, 12th of Never, Alex Cross, Run, Confessions: The Private School Murders, Cross My Heart and The Christmas Wedding. Patterson is the co-author of Guilty Wives (2012) and Mistress (2013) with David Ellis. First Love, co-authored with Emily Raymond, made the New York Times bestseller list in January, 2014. James Patterson co-authored Private L.A. with Mark Sullivan and it made The New York Times Best Seller List in March 2014. Patterson also made The New York Times Best Seller List with Unlucky 13, Invisible, Treasure Hunters: Danger Down the Nile, and children's title Ultimate Showdown, book 5 in the Middle Scholl Series, in 2014.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 also writes the Women's Murder Club series, as well as the Maximum Ride series, Daniel X series, the Witch and Wizard 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. He also made The New York Times Best Seller List for 2012 with his title I Funny: A Middle School Story and again in 2013 with his title Middle School: Get Me Out of Here!, 12th of Never, Alex Cross, Run, Confessions: The Private School Murders, Cross My Heart and The Christmas Wedding. Patterson is the co-author of Guilty Wives (2012) and Mistress (2013) with David Ellis. First Love, co-authored with Emily Raymond, made the New York Times bestseller list in January, 2014. James Patterson co-authored Private L.A. with Mark Sullivan and it made The New York Times Best Seller List in March 2014. Patterson also made The New York Times Best Seller List with Unlucky 13, Invisible, Treasure Hunters: Danger Down the Nile, and children's title Ultimate Showdown, book 5 in the Middle Scholl Series, in 2014.Michael Ledwidge is a former New York city telephone man and the author of The Narrowback, which he wrote while working as a doorman in midtown Manhattan. Ledwidge was born and raised in the Bronx, where he attended the all-boys school Mount St. Michael Academy. He is a graduate of Manhattan College, where he decided to major in English because the thing he loved to do his whole life is read. After college Ledwidge worked as a doorman on 50th Street and Park Avenue. He wanted to become police officer but was frustrated when it became clear that he would have to wait years to realize his ambition. "Working as a doorman was losing its charm, so I said to myself, you know what, if you want to be a writer now's the time," he recalled. Ledwidge sent James Patterson a copy of his manuscript for Narrowback to review. Patterson forwarded the manuscript to his agent and the book was soon published. That was the beginning of a successful writing relationship. Ledwidge and Patterson have co-authored numerous books, most notably, the Michael Bennett Series. Titles in the series include; Burn, Gone and I, Michael Bennett.