
As well as the Alex Cross series, Patterson has created the Private series of novels, which feature cities across the world such as London, Berlin and Sydney. He has created several series based around multiple characters, with his most prolific being the Alex Cross series, which has seen some of the books, such as Kiss The Girls and Along Came A Spider turned into movies. Since his debut novel back in 1976, Patterson has put his name to currently 150 books, with the majority of them being in the crime fiction genre.

The book follows Berryman on his hits and also those leading the manhunt for him. The Thomas Berryman Number was Patterson’s first foray into the world of published literature, and the titular character is a hit-man named Thomas Berryman. It was during this period in advertising that Patterson wrote and published his first novel.


After graduating from Vanderbilt University with an MA in English, Patterson moved into the world of advertising, which is the career he stayed in until the mid 1990s.
