BOOK REVIEW

Judge and Jury is just one of James Patterson's over 50 legal thrillers. Exclusive Books has two of his newest ones that arrived last week on sale and about 10 of his 49 other crime novels. Last year I hailed the Brazilian writer, Paulo Coelho, (Mmegi, November 28 2008) as one of the most published living authors today, with 100 million books in circulation. Patterson beats him by 50 percent, with 150 million sold. Patterson holds the New York Times bestsellers list record of all time.

Patterson is most famous for his Alex Cross series of 16 novels. He has not had many of his books made into movies, but his first two on Cross made the grade: Along Came a Spider (1992) and Kiss the Girls (1995).