Books by Richard North Patterson

A man has been found dead, a gun still wedged in his mouth. It looks like Ricardo Arias killed himself…but the physical evidence tells a different story. The police investigation turns up all sorts of troubling data—a bitter estrangement between Ricardo and his wife, Terri; an ugly custody battle over their six-year-old daughter, Elena; charges of child molestation. And before long there''s a murder suspect: San Francisco defense attorney and political hopeful Christopher Paget.But where''s the motive? It could be that Paget is Terri''s new lover. Or that Paget''s own teenage son is the one who''s accused of abusing Elena. But a series of long-hidden secrets—on both sides of the case—are slowly rising to the surface…and threaten to explode in the courtroom, where the final verdict will be delivered. Where the truth about what really happened to Ricardo Arias will either be revealed—or buried for good...

TV journalist Mary Carelli admits that she shot and killed Mark Ransom, one of the world''s most famous authors. She claims it was self-defense. She swears he tried to rape her. Now she has to prove it in a court of law—with her former lover acting as her attorney…Christopher Paget is one of the top lawyers in the country. But defending the mother of his son in the trial of the decade, he begins to have doubts. Is Mary telling the truth? Did she invent her story about the rape? What is she hiding? With each shocking revelation, Paget is forced to question his defense, his ethics, and the whole legal system. Because no one, not even the judge, is completely innocent. And guilt is a matter of degree…

Mark Darrow grows up to become a superb trial lawyer - thanks to the mentorship of Lionel Farr, a professor at Caldwell, the local college. Now, it's time for Farr to ask his still-youthful protege to return the favour: an embezzlement scandal threatens to destroy Caldwell. Returning to his alma mater as president opens old wounds. Sixteen years before, he discovered the body of a black female student, Angela Hall, at the base of The Spire, the bell tower that dominates the leafy campus. His best friend, Steve Tillman, was charged with Angela's murder and given a life sentence. Darrow begins his own inquiry into the murder, and is soon convinced that the killer is still at large. His own life too may be at risk . . . Gripping and razor-sharp, The Spire is a hugely satisfying thriller, a poignant love story - and Richard North Patterson's most compelling novel in years.

Chris Paget's well ordered world is blown apart by his love for his assistant, Terri, in the sequel to Degree of Guilt. Terri's ex husband, Ricky, is determined to destroy them both and instigates a child custody battle for Terri's four-year old daughter, accusing Terri of neglect and Paget's teenage son of sexual molestation.

Two months after the suspicious and much-publicized death of his father, it is taking all of Adam Blaine's character to suture the deep wounds - both within his family and himself - torn open by the tragedy.

In a novel of international intrigue, an American lawyer, Damon Pierce, attempts to save Bobby Okari, the West African leader of a protest movement, from execution by the country's corrupt and autocratic leader. Pierce is in a race against time, and as the complex trial-involving terrorism and the geopolitics of oil, missing witnesses and evidence, and the whims of a lawless country-unfolds, bodies fall and fates dangle. Complicating matters further is Okari's wife, Marissa Brand, with whom Pierce had a relationship years before that he's never quite forgotten; she, in fact, persuaded him to take the case in the first place, and it is who she plays a crucial role in the eventual outcome of this taut and atmospheric novel.

David Wolfe is an ambitious former homicide prosecutor who is planning to run for Congress. A political dinner for the Israeli Prime Minister is hosted by his current girlfriend, Carole Shorr, a liberal supporter of both the Palestinian and Israeli causes. But when David receives a call from Hana Ashawi, a Palestinian woman who was David's classmate at Harvard Law School, he is rattled. Hana was more than a peer - she was his lover. Suddenly David finds himself thrown into a situation with enormous global and political implications as well as emotional ones. A new pact between rival factions is planned, and David and Carole decide to watch the historic moment when the parties will all meet. It turns out to be an occasion of desperate, tragic and far reaching consequences...

Corey Grace-a handsome and charismatic Republican senator from Ohio-is plunged by an act of terrorism into a fierce presidential primary battle with the favorite of the party establishment and a magnetic leader of the Christian right. A decorated Gulf War pilot, Grace insists on voting his own conscience rather than the party line, and this stubborn independence-together with his growing romance with Lexie Hart, an African-American movie star-has earned him a reputation as an unpredictable iconoclast. But Grace is still haunted by a tragic mistake buried deep in his past, and now his integrity will be put to the test in this most brutal of political contests, in which nothing in his past or present life is off-limits. A vivid and sometimes frightening depiction of contemporary power politics, The Race culminates in a deadlocked and febrile party convention where Grace must resolve the conflict between his feelings for Lexie and his presidential ambitions-and decide just who and what he is willing to sacrifice.Corey Grace-a handsome and charismatic Republican senator from Ohio-is plunged by an act of terrorism into a fierce presidential primary battle with the favorite of the party establishment and a magnetic leader of the Christian right. A decorated Gulf War pilot, Grace insists on voting his own conscience rather than the party line, and this stubborn independence-together with his growing romance with Lexie Hart, an African-American movie star-has earned him a reputation as an unpredictable iconoclast. But Grace is still haunted by a tragic mistake buried deep in his past, and now his integrity will be put to the test in this most brutal of political contests, in which nothing in his past or present life is off-limits. A vivid and sometimes frightening depiction of contemporary power politics, The Race culminates in a deadlocked and febrile party convention where Grace must resolve the conflict between his feelings for Lexie and his presidential ambitions-and decide just who and what he is willing to sacrifice.

When the body of eleven-year-old Thuy Sen is found in San Francisco Bay, the police swiftly charge Rennell and Payton Price with her grisly murder. A twelve-person jury, helped along by an incompetent lawyer for the defense, are quick to find the brothers guilty - and to sentence them both to die for their cimes. Twelve years later, Payton is days from his execution, and overworked pro bono lawyer Teresa Peralta Paget, her husband Chris, and stepson Carlo, a recent Harvard law graduate, become convinced not only that Rennell didn't receive a fair trial, but that he's innocent. Racing against the clock and against insurmountable legal obstacles, Teresa, Chris, and Carlo desperately try and stop the execution of an innocent man. 'Patterson has the rare gift of enthralling as he informs' Mark Lawson, Guardian

An estranged son buries the father he despised, but soon finds himself questioning everything he thought he knew about him.

A hard-hitting, nail-biting and all-too-real race against time thriller.

ESCAPE THE NIGHT -a powerful novel of suspense and scandal, of surveillance and threat, of amnesia and obsession, of parents and children - and the long buried secret that links them all in a deadly chain. Peter Carey is the son of privilege - and an heir to terror.

Mary Ann Tierney, aged 15, takes on her own parents and US constitutional law in a bid to protect her future right to bear children. This story plays out the consequences when the media takes people's private lives and turns them into public entertainment.

The setting is Steelton, a struggling Midwestern town trying to save its decaying inner city by building a major league baseball stadium. Dark Lady introduces Assistant County Prosecutor Stella Marz, who has escaped her alcoholic father and working class background to become head of the Prosecutor's homicide unit.

In The Lasko Tangent, Richard North Patterson has written an unstoppable thriller of one man's fight for justice - the man who became the hero of his phenomenal international bestseller, Degree of Guilt.

A family-revenge story and courtroom drama. A young man is brutally murdered and his distraught girlfriend is charged and brought to trial. Her aunt, about to take up a top job in the US Court of Appeals, decides to defend her, but it is the girl's first contact with her family for 20 years.

No Safe Place centres on seven days in a closly contested Presidential primary, in which political violence, abortion politics and potential scandal all converge.

Sam has never left home, and Tony has never returned since the trauma that changed his life: the brutal murder of his first love, Alison, of which he was wrongly accused and which turned everyone, even Sam, against him.

Set in Alabama, society lawyer Adam Shaw is married to the beautiful Kris Ann who has bound him to a life he despises and her father, Roland Cade, his senior partner and rival.

Holding the wife of a wealthy newspaper mogul and Stacy's manager hostage, Phoenix mounts a televised trial of his own - in which Stacy Tarrant and Tony Lord are the helpless defendants, millions of viewers are jurors, and - unless his chilling demands are met - Phoenix is the unstoppable executioner.