Richard North Patterson Biography
Richard North Patterson was born on February 22, 1947 in Berkeley,
California. He grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland and graduated from Ohio
Wesleyan University in 1968. In 1971 he graduated Case Western Reserve Law
School and went on to serve as an Assistant Attorney General for the state of
Ohio. He was a partner in several of the country’s leading law firms and
also served as the liaison for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to
the Watergate Special Prosecutor.
He started writing at the age of 29 when he had completed law school. He
began his first book, The Lasko Tangent, as part of a creative writing
course at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. It won the Edgar Allan Poe
Award in the category "Best First Mystery Novel (American)" in 1980.
In 1993, he retired from the practice of law to devote himself to writing.
He is currently chairman of the National Governing Board for Common Cause, and
has served on boards of several advocacy groups dealing with gun violence,
political reform, and reproductive rights.
He lives in San Francisco and on Martha's Vineyard with his partner, Dr Nancy Clair. In addition to winning the Edgar Allan Poe Award, he is also the
recipient of the 1995 International Grand Prix de Littérature Policière (the
most prestigious award for crime and detective fiction in France).
Partial Bibliography, to date
Christopher Paget series
The Lasko Tangent (1979)
Degree of Guilt (1992)
Eyes of a Child (1994)
Novels
The Outside Man (1981)
Escape the Night (1983)
Private Screening (1985)
Caroline Masters (1995), published in the UK as Final Judgement
Silent Witness (1996)
No Safe Place (1998)
Dark Lady (1999)
Protect and Defend (2000)
Balance of Power (2003)
Conviction (2005)
Exile (2007)
The Race (2007)
Eclipse (2009)
The Spire (late 2009)
This biography was last updated on 07/10/2007.
A note about the biographies
We try to keep BookBrowse's biographies both up to date and accurate. However, with over 2000 lives to keep track of it's inevitable that
some won't be as current or as complete as we would like. So, please help us - if the information about a particular author is out of date,
inaccurate or simply very short, and you know of a more complete source, please let us know. Authors and those connected with authors:
If you wish to make changes to your bio, please send your complete biography as you would like it displayed so that we replace the old with the new, including your website URL if relevant.
