SO MANY MURDERS.
SO LITTLE TIME.
The NYPD RED Mysteries
2011: I was having lunch with James Patterson and I said, “What do you think about an elite NYPD task force who are called in whenever there are high-profile crimes committed against New York City’s rich, famous, and powerful? I call them NYPD RED.”
And Jim did something he rarely does when someone pitches an idea to him. He smiled.
That smile changed my life. I wrote a string of #1 New York Times bestsellers under the Patterson brand, and eventually, with Jim’s blessing, I continued the series on my own.
Where to start: Yes, it’s a series, so if you’re a purist, read them in order. But since each book stands alone, I’d recommend you start with critics’ and the fans’ favorite: NYPD RED 7: THE MURDER SORORITY, then move on to NYPD RED 8: THE 11:59 BOMBER. (After that, you’re hooked.)
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The LOMAX AND BIGGS Mysteries
This is where it all started for me. After years of writing for TV and film, I decided to tackle one line on my bucket list. Write a book. So I wrote what I knew: show business at its most predatory—fame, money, ego, desperation, and the constant collision of ambition and reality. LAPD Detectives Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs work out of a station smack in the middle of Hollywood, where mayhem and madness aren’t accidental—they’re built in.
Where to start: Again, each book stands alone, but there’s an arc to the characters that is best enjoyed if you begin at the beginning, The Rabbit Factory. B&N critic Paul Goat Allen wrote “it’s as irreverently funny as it is ingeniously plotted,” and ended his glowing review with “Prediction: instant cult classic.” He was right. Lomax and Biggs fanatics pepper me with emails asking for the next book in the series. If you’re one of them, good news. The answer is soon.
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STANDALONES THAT STAND OUT
SNOWSTORM IN AUGUST — In Chapter one, a helicopter flies over Central Park and blankets it with 4,000 pounds of cocaine. Do you want to know what follows? Who’s behind it? Why? And how can they be stopped? That’s the other 67 chapters.
DON’T TELL ME HOW TO DIE — This book took me seven years to write. But it was the hill I was willing to die on. It turned out to be the best book I have ever written. A lot of reviewers agreed, and in 2025 they voted it one of the Best Books of the Year.
