Latest news with #JamesPatterson
CBS News
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Club Calvi talks to authors James Patterson & Mike Lupica talk about their new book "The Hamptons Lawyer"
Please consider joining our Facebook group by CLICKING HERE. Find out more about the books below. New York Times bestselling authors James Patterson and Mike Lupica are back with another "Jane Smith Thriller." The first book in the series, "12 Months to Live," was a Club Calvi Ficpick in 2023. Book three in the series, "The Hamptons Lawyer" is out now. Patterson is one of the most prolific writers of our time, with nearly 300 books published. "Too many," he joked with Mary. "The only biography of me: James Patterson, too many books." Patterson says you don't have to have read the other books in the Jane Smith series to enjoy "The Hamptons Lawyer." Lupica told Mary that he and Patterson take pride in writing strong female characters. "We are married to two brilliant, beautiful women and they read our stuff before it gets to our female editor," Lupica said. "Mike's wife, Taylor, is reading and then my wife, Sue, reads and then we have a woman editor who is as tough as our wives almost," said Patterson. "If they don't like these characters, our lives at home become extremely difficult," Lupica added. In the series, Jane is fighting cancer. "Her mantra is work to live, live to work," Lupica says. "She's defending a guy who is pretty much a dirtbag. She believes he got set up. This is the most, and this is a new word that I came up with, the most 'courtroomy,' of the Jane Smith series. This trial is really fun. And as we always say about Jane, it will probably work out well if somebody doesn't kill her first." Mary asked Patterson about his long career, writing many books in several genres. "Somebody said you are lucky if you find something you like to do in life, and that it's a miracle if they pay you to do it," Patterson said. "I get to do that. There's a line that's been driving me, it's not my line, for a few years: my time here is short. What can I do most beautifully? And, honestly, working with Mike is a beautiful thing. We have so much fun. We have our own little writers' room. We just go back in forth on the phone, or on zoom. And that's what happens with Jane Smith "The Hamptons Lawyer." You can read an excerpt, and purchase the book, below. The CBS New York Book Club focuses on books connected to the Tri-State Area in their plots and/or authors. The books may contain adult themes. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ From the publisher: Undefeated criminal defense attorney Jane Smith—known as the Hamptons Lawyer—never fails to make her case. The Hamptons on Long Island is known for its beautiful beaches, its luxury lifestyle—and its exclusive legal advice. When Jane Smith takes on a famous celebrity client, she's armed and ready: with brilliant arguments, hard evidence—and two Glocks. Yet she's chased down, shot at, and risks contempt of court. That's when mounting a legal defense turns into every day in court could be her last, she's a survivor. For no James Patterson lives in Westchester County and Florida. Mike Lupica lives in New York. "The Hamptons Lawyer" by James Patterson & Mike Lupica (ThriftBooks) $22 ONE JIMMY CUNNIFF AND I are inside the shooting range at the Maidstone Gun Club a little after seven in the morning. Both former NYPD cops, I'm now a criminal defense attorney, he's my investigator and indispensable right-hand man, in addition to being the best friend I've ever had, or maybe anybody has ever had. Like me, he's also a survivor. At least for now. It wasn't so terribly long ago that we both survived a late-night shootout that turned the Walking Dunes of Montauk, out near land's end on eastern Long Island, into the OK Corral. One of the shooters somehow managed to get away. The other wasn't quite as lucky. Jimmy and I aren't here at Maidstone Gun getting ready for the next time. Neither one of us wants a next time, even though way too many people have been shooting—at both of us—since I began defending a local real estate guy named Rob Jacobson accused of committing his first triple homicide. Yeah, that's right. His first. Of two. As we get ready to begin today's competition, I am singing the old Aerosmith song "Janie's Got a Gun." "Janie's got a gun, her whole world's come undone . . ." "Well, maybe not her whole world," Jimmy adds. "Just this little corner of it." "You continue to forget something, Cunniff," I say. "I never lose." "Well, not on the big things." "You mean like cancer?" "Yeah, that's exactly what I mean." "To be determined," I tell him. "Shut up and shoot," he says. As the leadoff shooter, I step back from the plates and wait for Jimmy to start the clock. "When cops miss what they're aiming at," Jimmy says as he sets the timer, "they might hit grandma by mistake." "Or maybe, say, a client?" I ask him, grinning. "Don't give me any ideas about that bottom-feeder we're defending," he says. I hear the timer beep and start firing away. Six for six. They all go down. I want everything in my life to be this easy. Aim and fire. I want to stop feeling the way I've felt for the past eight months, that I'm the one with the target on my back. ***** One Week Later BRIGID CALLS JIMMY TO give him the heads-up that Jane is coming home from the cancer treatment center in Switzerland a day early, and Jimmy tells her he'll go pick her up at JFK. "How's she doing?" he asks. "I've been trying to leave her alone while they get her started on the juice." "So far, so good," Brigid says. "Everybody's very optimistic." "After just a few days?" Jimmy asks. "That's what they're saying," Brigid says. Jimmy says, "You know, you're not nearly as good a liar as your sister is." "I don't know what you mean by that, Jimmy," Brigid says. "My ass you don't," he says. "I was born at night, kid. Just not last night." He's waiting for Jane when she comes walking out of the United terminal. Jimmy grins at her before taking her bag. "You look like s***," he says. "I'm going to write off your rudeness to jet lag." Jane kisses him on the cheek. "Oh, wait. I'm the one with jet lag." His partner does most of the talking as they make their way out of the airport. Jimmy doesn't respond, but his hands are tighter than usual on the steering wheel, and he knows it's not just because of the traffic. "I don't want to hear more goddamn small talk!" Jimmy snaps. "I want to hear about you." "Whoa," Jane says. "I know this sounds like a question you should probably be asking me. But are you okay?" "Are you?" he asks. "All things considered, yeah," she says. "The good news is that because of the drugs I'm taking, I don't have to do another round of chemo. Bottom line? My prognosis is a lot better than when I went over there." "Is that so?" Jimmy says. Before Jane can answer, Jimmy yells, "Stop lying to me!" ***** "WHOA," I QUIETLY SAY again to Jimmy Cunniff, who sounds more upset, and looks more upset, than he did the day I told him I had been diagnosed with cancer. "When did I lie?" "When you tried to put a smiley face on this shit and make me think you're getting better," he says, "when we both know you're not." "You don't know that," I say. "As a matter of fact, I do." I wait now. I can always tell with him when there's more coming. There is. "I stopped to see Sam Wylie on my way to pick you up," he says. "At least I got the truth out of her." "And what truth might that be, you don't mind me asking?" "That this is last call for you," Jimmy Cunniff says. "And they're not going to know if these new drugs are working until they do." He pauses and then adds, "If they do." We ride for a few minutes in a silence so thick it makes me want to open a window. "Well," I finally say, "so much for my privacy rights." "When I'm the private detective," he says, "they don't apply." "Mind if we listen to some music before we change the subject?" "Yeah, I do mind." "Okay, be like that," I say, leaning forward a little so that, when he gives me a sideways glance, he can see that I'm smiling. "Sometimes you forget I'm only like that," he says. There is another long silence until Jimmy says, "Once and for all, you gotta tell your client to find another lawyer." I lean forward even more, so he can see the big smile that has now crossed my face, just because there's not a thing in the world I can do to stop it. "There is no other lawyer in his right mind who will take this case," I say. From "The Hamptons Lawyer" by James Patterson & Mike Lupica. Copyright (c) 2025 by the author and reprinted by permission of Little, Brown and Company, a division of the Hachette Book Group, Inc. Return to top of page
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
The Idaho Four review – a disturbing, necessary portrait of a killer and his victims
In the early hours of 13 November 2022 in an off-campus apartment in Moscow, Idaho, a masked assailant murdered four students. The dead, who would come to be known as the Idaho Four, were Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen. Each was stabbed multiple times. The killer left a gruesome scene and the motive was not readily apparent. Videos, cellphone records and solid detective work led law enforcement to Bryan Kohberger, a doctoral candidate at Washington State University. Arrested at his parents' home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, in late December, he was extradited back west. Scheduled to be tried this August, Kohberger, 30, instead pleaded guilty to murder. Escaping the death penalty, he will in all likelihood serve four consecutive life sentences, an additional 10 years for burglary, and die in jail. Sentencing is set for 23 July. An apparent embittered 'incel' – 'involuntary celibate' – and former heroin user, Kohberger signed a one-page confession, scant on details. He said he broke into the apartment but offered no reason for his crimes. An antisocial loner and video game fiend, he did not know his victims but may have met one of them, Mogen, at a restaurant. With their book The Idaho Four, James Patterson and Vicky Ward have written perhaps the definitive account of the murders – a disturbing, necessary portrait of a killer and his victims. Well-paced and well-written, their joint effort is a mesmerizing read and a great detective story, yet sadly all true. The prose is conversational and mellifluous. An array of facts, quotes and comments keep the reader's attention. Patterson is an award-winning, best-selling author of thrillers and non-fiction who has co-authored three novels with Bill Clinton. Jared Kushner, a son-in-law of Donald Trump, claims to have taken an online MasterClass from Patterson and then 'batted out' 40,000 words of his memoir, Breaking History. Ward is a former senior reporter at CNN and one-time HuffPost editor-at-large. Her previous books include The Liar's Ball, The Devil's Casino and Kushner, Inc. She has interviewed Trumpworld cast-outs, Michael Cohen and Anthony Scaramucci. She has turned an unflinching gaze at Jeffrey Epstein, the 47th president's one-time friend. For The Idaho Four, she interviewed more than 320 people, 'some many times'. Kohberger left bread crumbs. His path to destruction appears to have been blazed by Elliot Rodger, a mass murderer from a 'wealthy family', the son of a 'well-known movie director' who killed six people and wounded 14 near the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2014. Rodger, 22, was a virgin and 'furious about it', Patterson and Ward write. He plotted his 'day of retribution' for two years. He circulated a 137-page manifesto, airing his demons and frustrations. At the end of his spree, he killed himself. A martyr for a movement – and a role model for Kohberger – was born. Kohberger learned of Rodger in grad school. 'No one knows that, like Rodger, Bryan is a virgin who hates women,' Ward and Patterson write. 'No one knows that Bryan copes with loneliness by immersing himself in video games. Like Rodger, he goes for night drives. Like Rodger, he visits the gun range. And, like Rodger, he goes to a local bar and tries to pick up women.' In fall 2022, Kohberger took a brief ride from WSU in eastern Washington to Moscow, home to the University of Idaho. Walking into a restaurant, he spotted a blonde, blue-eyed waitress: Madison Mogen, Maddie for short. 'She's the epitome of the women who turned down Elliot Rodger,' Patterson and Ward write. 'Her name is Maddie, like Elliot's childhood friend Maddy, who grew into someone who ignored Rodger.' 'She comes over to ask what he'd like. 'He knows what he'd like. 'Her.' Mogen's friends hypothesize that she spurned Kohberger's advances, so he began to stalk her. Phone records add credence to the theory. Moscow police alleged that Kohberger was near Mogen's apartment at least a dozen times between late August 2022 and the murder, 'almost always late at night, cloaked in darkness'. Until Kohberger was arrested, the ghost of Rodger continued to haunt. Two administrators of the University of Idaho – Case Discussion Facebook group began noticing strange posts from a member under an alias: Pappa Rodger. 'Of the evidence released, the murder weapon has been consistent as a large, fixed-blade knife,' the poster wrote. 'This leads me to believe they found the sheath. This evidence was released prior to autopsies.' This was the first time anyone had publicly mentioned a sheath. Early in the investigation, Moscow's police chief shared the existence of the sheath with a senior member of the force. After Kohberger's arrest, 'Pappa Rodger' disappeared. Earlier, Kohberger's classmates in a psychology program labeled him the 'Ghost,' Patterson and Ward report, because: 'There's something spooky about him.' A professor, Dr Katherine Ramsland, told the class that psychopaths' brains are different from those of other people. By extension, 'the only way to cure a psychopath is to get him therapy at a very early stage, by around age four, and try to train his brain to change.' Kohberger listened carefully – and took copious notes. The Idaho Four is published in the US by Hachette
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
The Idaho Four review – a disturbing, necessary portrait of a killer and his victims
In the early hours of 13 November 2022 in an off-campus apartment in Moscow, Idaho, a masked assailant murdered four students. The dead, who would come to be known as the Idaho Four, were Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen. Each was stabbed multiple times. The killer left a gruesome scene and the motive was not readily apparent. Videos, cellphone records and solid detective work led law enforcement to Bryan Kohberger, a doctoral candidate at Washington State University. Arrested at his parents' home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, in late December, he was extradited back west. Scheduled to be tried this August, Kohberger, 30, instead pleaded guilty to murder. Escaping the death penalty, he will in all likelihood serve four consecutive life sentences, an additional 10 years for burglary, and die in jail. Sentencing is set for 23 July. An apparent embittered 'incel' – 'involuntary celibate' – and former heroin user, Kohberger signed a one-page confession, scant on details. He said he broke into the apartment but offered no reason for his crimes. An antisocial loner and video game fiend, he did not know his victims but may have met one of them, Mogen, at a restaurant. With their book The Idaho Four, James Patterson and Vicky Ward have written perhaps the definitive account of the murders – a disturbing, necessary portrait of a killer and his victims. Well-paced and well-written, their joint effort is a mesmerizing read and a great detective story, yet sadly all true. The prose is conversational and mellifluous. An array of facts, quotes and comments keep the reader's attention. Patterson is an award-winning, best-selling author of thrillers and non-fiction who has co-authored three novels with Bill Clinton. Jared Kushner, a son-in-law of Donald Trump, claims to have taken an online MasterClass from Patterson and then 'batted out' 40,000 words of his memoir, Breaking History. Ward is a former senior reporter at CNN and one-time HuffPost editor-at-large. Her previous books include The Liar's Ball, The Devil's Casino and Kushner, Inc. She has interviewed Trumpworld cast-outs, Michael Cohen and Anthony Scaramucci. She has turned an unflinching gaze at Jeffrey Epstein, the 47th president's one-time friend. For The Idaho Four, she interviewed more than 320 people, 'some many times'. Kohberger left bread crumbs. His path to destruction appears to have been blazed by Elliot Rodger, a mass murderer from a 'wealthy family', the son of a 'well-known movie director' who killed six people and wounded 14 near the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2014. Rodger, 22, was a virgin and 'furious about it', Patterson and Ward write. He plotted his 'day of retribution' for two years. He circulated a 137-page manifesto, airing his demons and frustrations. At the end of his spree, he killed himself. A martyr for a movement – and a role model for Kohberger – was born. Kohberger learned of Rodger in grad school. 'No one knows that, like Rodger, Bryan is a virgin who hates women,' Ward and Patterson write. 'No one knows that Bryan copes with loneliness by immersing himself in video games. Like Rodger, he goes for night drives. Like Rodger, he visits the gun range. And, like Rodger, he goes to a local bar and tries to pick up women.' In fall 2022, Kohberger took a brief ride from WSU in eastern Washington to Moscow, home to the University of Idaho. Walking into a restaurant, he spotted a blonde, blue-eyed waitress: Madison Mogen, Maddie for short. 'She's the epitome of the women who turned down Elliot Rodger,' Patterson and Ward write. 'Her name is Maddie, like Elliot's childhood friend Maddy, who grew into someone who ignored Rodger.' 'She comes over to ask what he'd like. 'He knows what he'd like. 'Her.' Mogen's friends hypothesize that she spurned Kohberger's advances, so he began to stalk her. Phone records add credence to the theory. Moscow police alleged that Kohberger was near Mogen's apartment at least a dozen times between late August 2022 and the murder, 'almost always late at night, cloaked in darkness'. Until Kohberger was arrested, the ghost of Rodger continued to haunt. Two administrators of the University of Idaho – Case Discussion Facebook group began noticing strange posts from a member under an alias: Pappa Rodger. 'Of the evidence released, the murder weapon has been consistent as a large, fixed-blade knife,' the poster wrote. 'This leads me to believe they found the sheath. This evidence was released prior to autopsies.' This was the first time anyone had publicly mentioned a sheath. Early in the investigation, Moscow's police chief shared the existence of the sheath with a senior member of the force. After Kohberger's arrest, 'Pappa Rodger' disappeared. Earlier, Kohberger's classmates in a psychology program labeled him the 'Ghost,' Patterson and Ward report, because: 'There's something spooky about him.' A professor, Dr Katherine Ramsland, told the class that psychopaths' brains are different from those of other people. By extension, 'the only way to cure a psychopath is to get him therapy at a very early stage, by around age four, and try to train his brain to change.' Kohberger listened carefully – and took copious notes. The Idaho Four is published in the US by Hachette
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE How Bryan Kohberger's chance encounter with a pretty young waitress in a Greek vegan restaurant set the stage for the murder of four Idaho students: JAMES PATTERSON reveals killer's sinister motivation
In court in America, Bryan Kohberger, 30, has pleaded guilty to the murder of students Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Maddie Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves, who have become known as the Four. This follows a plea deal to save him from the death penalty. Here, thriller writer James Patterson and investigative journalist Vicky Ward delve into the crime that shocked America and the mind of the weird individual who carried it out.
Fox News
6 days ago
- Fox News
Kohberger practiced home invasions and burglary techniques years before murdering Idaho students: new book
Idaho student killer Bryan Kohberger got his first hands-on experience as a burglar while pilfering homes to fund a teenage heroin addiction, according to a new book. "He was a heroin addict as a young guy [in Pennsylvania], and he was breaking and entering into houses," crime novelist James Patterson told Lawrence Jones on "FOX & Friends" Wednesday morning. "He'd been doing it for years, and that's exactly what happened in Moscow. He broke into this house and killed these four beautiful students." Patterson teamed up with investigative journalist Vicky Ward on "The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy," which dropped earlier this week. While Kohberger has no publicly visible criminal record in his home state, he was forced out of a security job for reasons that have not been made public and reportedly has an expunged 2014 conviction for the theft and sale of his sister's iPhone after a stint in rehab to pay for his heroin addiction when he was 19. In 2023, police confirmed to Fox News Digital the case had been expunged and said they had no record of it to share. Kohberger's dad, Michael Kohberger, told police that his son had just gotten out of rehab, swiped the phone and paid a pal $20 to drive him to the mall, where he allegedly sold it for $200, ABC News reported previously. The killer, now 30, was going to face a capital murder trial next month until he unexpectedly changed his plea on July 1, when he admitted to four counts of first-degree murder and one of felony burglary. He acknowledged that he pre-planned the slayings and that when he entered the off-campus rental home at 1122 King Road, he intended to kill. The authors found victims from Kohberger's past in Pennsylvania, where he spent most of his life, who shed new light on his capacity for manipulation and plotting. "I felt chills when Connie Saba told me the story of how a teenage Kohberger had manipulated her into inadvertently telling him when she'd be out of the house to visit her son, Jeremy in jail, because he planned to break into her house and steal an iPad and other things from her," Ward told Fox News Digital. It was a striking betrayal, she said, because Kohberger had next to no friends and Jeremy Saba might have been the only one. "Connie Saba had been nothing but welcoming and kind to him, so it was a devastating breach of trust – and when Connie Saba imitated Kohberger coming back a year or so later to apologize to her for the break-in (as part of his rehab process), she showed me the creepy way he just 'appeared' in her kitchen like a ghost, frightening her," she said. "One could imagine him just 'appearing' at 1122 King Road on the night of the murders." Kohberger cased out the rental home around a dozen times before the murders, according to court documents. Before school officials had it razed last year, it was situated on a slope in front of a parking lot, giving Kohberger a potential vantage point overlooking multiple windows, including those of 21-year-old victim Madison Mogen's bedroom. "Mark Baylis, a former Navy SEAL, believes Kohberger successfully stalked him and his property for hours, days possibly, to steal valuables from him," Ward added. "It showed the cold-blooded, calculated side of Kohberger – a side that I think we all saw in court in early July when he pled guilty – with zero emotion." Kohberger stood up in court, with his back straight, admitting to the murders without a glance at his parents or those of the victims, most of whom were in the room. In the gallery near the defense table, his father wiped away tears and asked a bailiff for water. At one point, even Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson choked down a tear as he wrapped up a summary of the prosecution's case. GET REAL-TIME UPDATES AT THE FOX NEWS TRUE CRIME HUB Throughout the proceeding, Kohberger fixed his eyes on lawyers in the room, the judge, and occasionally leaned over into the ear of his lead defense attorney, Anne Taylor. The 30-year-old was a criminology student at Washington State University, a 10-mile drive from the crime scene. He'd barely been there for one semester but was already worried about losing his scholarship, Patterson revealed. Kohberger had no meaningful connection to the victims, 21-year-olds Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, and 20-year-olds Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. But Patterson believes Mogen was the primary target when he snuck into the off-campus home at 1122 King Road on Nov. 13, 2022. She and Kernodle both worked at the now-shuttered Mad Greek restaurant, which had vegan menu options that the author believes appealed to Kohberger's meat-free diet. "He obviously had a big problem with women," Patterson said, based on roughly 300 interviews he conducted and public documents. "We believe he was targeting Maddie and things had happened... He was going to lose his scholarship." Kohberger was pursuing a Ph.D. in criminology at Washington State University – where he reportedly butted heads with other students. After his arrest, the school said it had cut ties. Kohberger's defense did not respond to a request for comment.
