Three Women Disappear
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 9780316541619
First entered: 31st, Oct 2020
Number of weeks: 2
Book Summary
Authors
Name: James Patterson
Hometown: Newburgh, New York
About the author:
Offical US Site
Offical UK Site
Offical James Patterson Young Adult Site
Offical Site for James Patterson's Middle School Series
James Patterson has created more enduring fictional characters than any other novelist writing today with his Alex Cross, Michael Bennett, Women’s Murder Club, Private, NYPD Red, Daniel X, Maximum Ride, and Middle School series. As of January 2016, he has sold over 350 million books worldwide and currently holds the Guinness World Record for the most #1 New York Times bestsellers. In addition to writing the thriller novels for which he is best known, he also writes children’s, middle-grade, and young-adult fiction and is also the first author to have #1 new titles simultaneously on the New York Times adult and children’s bestsellers lists.
The son of an insurance salesman and a schoolteacher, Patterson grew up in Newburgh, New York, and began casually writing at the age of nineteen. In 1969, he graduated from Manhattan College. He was given a full ride to Vanderbilt University’s graduate program in English but dropped out after a year, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to continue reading and writing for pleasure if he became a college professor.
Instead, he moved to New York to become a junior copywriter for the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, eventually becoming CEO of its North American company.
In 1976, while still working for J. Walter Thompson, Patterson published his first novel, The Thomas Berryman Number, with Little, Brown and Company. After being turned down by thirty-one publishers, it won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Patterson’s 1993 novel, Along Came a Spider, his first novel to feature Alex Cross, was also his first New York Times bestseller in fiction.
In 2001, Morgan Freeman starred as Alex Cross in a film adaptation of Along Came a Spider, and Tyler Perry also played the character in the 2012 film Alex Cross. A film adaptation of Patterson’s middle-grade novel Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life will be released in theaters in October 2016.
For his initiatives to help kids become passionate readers and for his philanthropic efforts, Patterson was awarded the National Book Foundation’s 2015 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.
James Patterson has donated more than one million books to students, emphasizing some of the most under-resourced schools and youth programs in the country. In 2015, Patterson donated $1.75 million to public school libraries throughout the United States, $1 million to independent bookstores, and a further $250,000 in holiday bonuses to individual bookstore employees. He also gave $1 million to independent bookstores in 2014.
Patterson has recently donated over $26 million to his and his wife’s alma maters—the University of Wisconsin, Vanderbilt University, and Manhattan College—and he has established over four hundred Teacher Education Scholarships at twenty-four colleges and universities throughout the country. Patterson has also donated over 650,000 books to U.S. soldiers at home and overseas.
In May 2015, Patterson launched a new children’s book imprint at Little, Brown, called JIMMY Patterson, that is unwaveringly focused on one goal: turning kids into lifelong readers. This imprint also provides resources, strategies, and programs to serve teachers, parents, librarians, and booksellers. Patterson will be investing proceeds from the sales of JIMMY Patterson Books in pro-reading initiatives.
Patterson has also founded ReadKiddoRead.com, a website designed to help parents, teachers, and librarians ignite a new generation’s excitement for reading.
Name: Shan Serafin
Hometown: Cincinnati
Born: Nov, 1982
About the author:
Shan Serafin is an American film director, screenwriter, and novelist. In both film and literature he is known for his work in the thriller and action genres. For stage productions, the majority of his work falls under drama.
As a writer, he continually collaborates with best-selling novelist James Patterson, with whom he's co-authored The Women's War, an action thriller about three female special ops; Come And Get Us, a thriller about a young mother stranded in the desert; and Revenge, a thriller about a hitman avenging his wife. Serafin is known for fiction narratives featuring strong female characters often entangled in violent predicaments. His first novel Seventeen is the story of a seventeen-year old adolescent who gives herself seven days to live. His second solo-effort is Conquest, a fiction narrative of the toils of modern dating.
His film-directing career began with The Forest (2011), which was the first of three feature films he would write and direct. The Forest is a supernatural thriller shot on-location in the infamous Aokigahara Jukai suicide forest, which stars Aidan Bristow and Michael Madsen. His second film, Misfire (2013), starring Jaina Lee Ortiz, is a stylized action-thriller depicting rival female assassins converging on the same target. His most-recent film, The Believer (2017), is a psychological thriller involving demonology within the context of marital strife. Serafin's directorial work in theater began with a stage play he also co-wrote entitled The Essential Bond, a biographical narrative about the true story of two-time Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling. The Essential Bond starred John Astin and Matt Ashford and ran for three months.
Serafin is a Buddhist practicing with the Soka Gakkai International organization of Nichiren Buddhism. He currently resides in Los Angeles and Paris.
