Richard North Patterson (born February 22, 1947, in Berkeley, California) is an American fiction writer, attorney and political commentator.
He has served on the boards of his undergraduate and law schools, the National Partnership for Women and Families, the Family Violence Prevention Fund, PEN Center West, the Regional Panel For The Selection of White House Fellows, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, and the Renew Democracy Initiative, and was Chairman of Common Cause, the grassroots citizens lobby founded by John W. Gardner.
Patterson studied fiction writing with Jesse Hill Ford at the University of Alabama at Birmingham; his first short story was published in the Atlantic Monthly; and his first novel, The Lasko Tangent, won an Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1979.
Protect and Defend (2000), about the controversial nomination of the first woman to be Chief Justice, and her entanglement in an incendiary lawsuit regarding late-term abortion and parental consent, was a #1 New York Times bestseller and received a Maggie Award from Planned Parenthood for its treatment of issues regarding reproductive rights.
The Spire (2009) was a novel of psychological suspense, and In the Name of Honor (2010) portrays a military court martial for murder, and a legal defense based on PTSD.
Patterson's twentieth novel, Fall From Grace (2012), a family drama set on Martha's Vineyard, became his sixteenth New York Times bestseller.
During the 2015-2016 presidential campaign, Patterson was a contributing opinion writer for the Huffington Post, with a focus on politics and international affairs, as well as a guest commentator on television and podcasts.