MatchUp

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES

LARA ADRIAN is the author of more than twenty-five novels, including the Midnight Breed vampire romance series, with nearly four million books in print worldwide. She also writes as Tina St. John, where her historical romances have won numerous awards including the National Readers Choice, the Romantic Times Magazine Reviewer’s Choice, and the Booksellers Best. All her novels regularly appear in the top spots of all the major bestseller lists. She lives in Florida. To learn more, visit laradrian.com.

STEVE BERRY is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of twelve Cotton Malone adventures and four stand-alone thrillers. His books have been translated into forty languages with more than twenty-one million copies in fifty-one countries. He’s a member of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries Advisory Board and a founding member of International Thriller Writers—a group of more than thirty-eight hundred thriller writers from around the world—serving three years as its copresident. Find out more at steveberry.org.

C. J. BOX is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-three novels including the Joe Pickett series. He won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel in 2009, as well as the Anthony Award, Prix Calibre 38 (France), the Macavity Award, the Gumshoe Award, Barry Award, and the Western Heritage Award for Literature. His novels have been translated into twenty-seven languages. Four have been optioned for film and television. He’s an avid outdoorsman and lives with his wife, Laurie, on a ranch in Wyoming. His website is cjbox.net.

SANDRA BROWN is the author of sixty-seven New York Times best sellers. She has upward of eighty million copies of her books in print worldwide. She holds an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Texas Christian University, where she and her husband Michael Brown, have instituted an annual scholarship. She has served as president of Mystery Writers of America, and in 2008 was named a Thrillermaster, the top award given by International Thriller Writers. In 2011, she participated in a USO tour of thriller writers to Afghanistan. Lots more can be found at sandrabrown.net.

LEE CHILD was born in Coventry, England, but spent his formative years in the nearby city of Birmingham. In 1995, at the age of forty, as a result of being fired during a corporate restructuring, he decided to see an opportunity where others might have seen a crisis. So he bought six dollars’ worth of paper and pencils and sat down to write Killing Floor, the first in the Jack Reacher series. Now there are tens of millions of Reacher novels across the globe in too many languages to count, and two major motion pictures involving the character. He divides his time between Manhattan, France, and England. Check him out at leechild.com.

NELSON DEMILLE spent three years at Hofstra University, then joined the army and saw action as an infantry platoon leader in Vietnam, where he earned the Air Medal, Bronze Star, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. His first major novel was By the Rivers of Babylon, published in 1978. There have been many more since, most #1 New York Times best sellers. He is a past president of Mystery Writers of America and was named Thrillermaster by International Thriller Writers in 2015. He holds three honorary degrees: doctor of humane letters from Hofstra University, doctor of literature from Long Island University, and doctor of humane letters from Dowling College. He lives on Long Island, New York, with his wife and son. For more, visit nelsondemille.net.

DIANA GABALDON holds degrees in zoology, marine biology, a PhD in quantitative behavioral ecology, and an honorary doctorate in humane letters. She spent a dozen years as a university professor before venturing into novel writing, creating the phenomenally successful Outlander series, which is published in forty-two countries and thirty-eight languages. It is also a hugely popular television series on the Starz network. She lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, with her husband. Her website is dianagabaldon.com.

ANDREW GROSS majored in English at Middlebury College. After earning an MBA from Columbia University, he first worked at the Leslie Fay Companies, a women’s clothing firm started by his grandfather, then went into the sports apparel field. Eventually, he followed his dream and started writing. Ultimately, he became the author of fourteen New York Times bestselling thrillers, five cowriting with James Patterson and nine on his own. His books are now sold in over twenty-five countries. His latest, One Man, is a World War II thriller built on his own family’s history. He lives in Westchester County, New York, with his wife. Find out more at andrewgrossbooks.com.

CHARLAINE HARRIS was born and raised in the Mississippi River Delta. First published in 1981, she was firmly embedded in the mystery genre before branching out into new territory. Starting with the premise of a young woman with a disability who wants to try interspecies dating, she created the Sookie Stackhouse urban fantasy series. The first book in the series, Dead Until Dark, won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery in 2001. The series, which ended in 2013, ultimately found readers in over thirty languages and became the HBO series True Blood. She lives in central Texas with her husband and, when not writing, takes care of a house full of rescue dogs. Learn more at charlaineharris.com.

LISA JACKSON is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than eighty-five thrillers. Before being published Lisa was a mother struggling to keep food on the table by writing novels, hoping that somebody would pay her for one of them. Eventually, that hope became a wonderful reality. Today, she’s neck deep in murder with over twenty million copies of her books worldwide. Learn more about her at lisajackson.com.

PETER JAMES is a bit of a rebel. In 1994, Penguin published his book Host on two floppy disks. Those disks are now in a London museum as the world’s first electronic novel. He is the author of twenty-eight novels with over seventeen million books worldwide. His list of awards is staggering. He’s also a self-confessed “petrol head,” at one time or another owning four Aston Martins, an AMG, a Brabus Mercedes, a Bentley Continental GT Speed, and two classic Jaguar E-Types. He still maintains an international racing license and divides his time between a country home near Brighton, Sussex, and his apartment in Notting Hill, London. To learn more, check out peterjames.com.

J.A. JANCE was introduced to Frank Baum’s Oz books as a second-grader. After reading the first book she was hooked, knowing from that moment on she wanted to be a writer. She published the first Detective J. P. Beaumont adventure, Until Proven Guilty, in 1985. Since then there have been twenty-one more Beaumont books. Two other series have joined the Beaumont collection, one with Arizona County Sheriff Joanna Brady and the other with a former Los Angeles news anchor turned mystery solver, Ali Reynolds. She divides her time between Bellevue, Washington, and Arizona. All things about her can be learned at jajance.com.

MICHAEL KORYTA is the author of eleven New York Times bestselling thrillers. Before turning to writing, he worked as a private investigator and a newspaper reporter, then taught at the Indiana University School of Journalism. His first novel, the Edgar-nominated Tonight I Said Goodbye, was accepted for publication when he was only twenty years old. He wrote his first two novels before graduating from college and was published in nearly ten languages before he fulfilled the “writing requirement” classes required for his diploma. He lives in Indiana with his wife, Christine, a cranky cat named Marlowe, an emotionally disturbed cat named John Pryor, and an exceedingly athletic dog of unknown heritage named Lola. For more check out michaelkoryta.com.

ERIC VAN LUSTBADER published his first international best seller, The Ninja, in 1980. Since then he’s written more than twenty-five bestselling books, which include not only his own works, but, a continuation of the famed Jason Bourne series. His work has been translated into over twenty languages. Before turning to writing full-time, he enjoyed highly successful careers in the New York City public school system, where he still holds licenses in both elementary and early childhood education, and in the music business, where he worked for Elektra Records and CBS Records. He lives in both New York City and Long Island. Find out more at ericvanlustbader.com.

GAYLE LYNDS is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of ten espionage novels, including The Assassins, The Book of Spies, and The Last Spymaster. Her career began oddly—with short stories published in literary journals while at the same time writing male pulp fiction. After that, her first novel, Masquerade, was listed by Publishers Weekly among the top ten spy novels of all time. Still focusing on suspense and geopolitics today, she’s hailed by Library Journal as “the reigning queen of espionage fiction.” With Robert Ludlum, she created the Covert-One series. A member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, she cofounded International Thriller Writers with David Morrell in 2004. She lives with her husband in Maine. Get all the details at www.GayleLynds.com.

VAL McDERMID didn’t have the practical skills to make a success of writing stage drama, and her first agent did nothing to help her acquire them. Instead, he fired her as a client. That’s when she turned to crime writing (thrillers, on this side of the pond), a genre she’d always enjoyed reading. She started writing Report for Murder in 1984, but the book wasn’t published until 1987. Thirty-five more novels have followed (look who got the last laugh on that inconsiderate agent). She splits her year between writing and promoting, living in South Manchester and Edinburgh. To learn more visit valmcdermid.com.

DAVID MORRELL was a mild-mannered college professor when he wrote a novel called First Blood (1972), a story about a Vietnam veteran suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder who comes into conflict with a small-town police chief, the two fighting their own version of the Vietnam War. That troubled veteran was named Rambo. He went on to write many more New York Times bestselling thrillers, including the classic spy trilogy The Brotherhood of the Rose, The Fraternity of the Stone, and The League of Night and Fog. Lately, he’s been exploring 1850s Victorian London in his Thomas De Quincey series. With Gayle Lynds, in 2005, he cofounded International Thriller Writers. He lives with his wife in New Mexico. To explore more, visit davidmorrell.net.

KATHY REICHS is actually Dr. Kathy Reichs, one of only eighty-two forensic anthropologists ever certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. For years she consulted to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in North Carolina, and she continues to do so for the Laboratoire de Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale in the province of Québec. Her first novel, Déjà Dead, became a New York Times best seller. There have been twenty-three Temperance Brennan novels since, most #1 New York Times best sellers. The hit Fox TV series Bones is based on her books. She divides her time between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Montreal, Québec. All things Kathy Reichs can be learned at kathyreichs.com.

CHRISTOPHER RICE wrote four New York Times bestselling thrillers, received a Lambda Literary Award, and was declared one of People magazine’s Sexiest Men Alive—and all before he was thirty years old. His debut novel, A Density of Souls, was published when he was but twenty-two. It became both a controversial and overnight best seller, greeted with a landslide of media attention, much of it devoted to the fact that he is the son of famed vampire chronicler, Anne Rice. Nowadays, with his best friend, New York Times bestselling novelist Eric Shaw Quinn, he has his own Internet radio show. You can download, or stream, every episode at TheDinnerPartyShow.com. For more on Chris visit christopherricebooks.com.

JOHN SANDFORD is the pseudonym of John Roswell Camp, who won the Pulitzer Prize for journalism in 1986. He is the author of forty published novels, all of which have appeared on the New York Times bestseller lists, most in the #1 slot. He is also the coauthor of three young adult books with his wife, Michele Cook, and coauthor of the science fiction thriller Saturn Run with Ctein. The past is one of his passions, and he is the principal financial backer of the Beth-Shean Valley Archaeological Project in the Jordan River Valley of Israel (with a website at rehov.org.). He has homes in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and in the countryside near Hayward, Wisconsin. Learn more at johnsandford.org.

LISA SCOTTOLINE is an Edgar Award winner and New York Times bestselling author of suspense fiction. She also writes a humorous nonfiction series with her daughter Francesca Serritella, which began with Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog. She has served as president of Mystery Writers of America and has over thirty million copies of her books in print, published in over thirty-five countries. She lives in the Philadelphia area with an array of disobedient pets. Get better acquainted with her at scottoline.com.

KARIN SLAUGHTER is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of sixteen novels and countless short stories (they could actually be counted, but she’s too lazy). Her work has been translated into thirty-five languages and has sold nearly forty million copies. She enjoys running and not running. She once swam with sharks in Australia, went weightless in the zero-g Vomit Comet, jumped naked into the Baltic after a bracing sauna in Finland, and plans to enter the suborbital space program once stuff reliably stops blowing up. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and divides her time between the kitchen and the living room. Learn more at karinslaughter.com.