David Ellis

David Ellis (born 30 October 1967, Downers Grove, Illinois) is an American lawyer, judge and crime novelist. His first novel, Line of Vision (2001), won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, and he has since co-written ten books with James Patterson.

Ellis graduated from the University of Illinois in 1990 and took his law degree at Northwestern University School of Law in 1993. He has practised in both the public and private sectors, served as counsel to the Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, and has been a justice of the Illinois Appellate Court since 2014.

G.P. Putnam's Sons published his early legal thrillers: Line of Vision (2001), Life Sentence (2003), Jury of One (2004), In the Company of Liars (2005) and Eye of the Beholder (2007). Line of Vision won the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel. Later solo novels include The Hidden Man (2009), Breach of Trust (2011), The Wrong Man (2012) and The Last Alibi (2013), and he went on to write Look Closer and The Best Lies. His collaborations with Patterson include Guilty Wives (2012), Mistress (2013), Invisible, The Black Book (2017), The Red Book and The Munich Affair.

For collectors

The book to look for is the Putnam first edition of Line of Vision (2001), his Edgar-winning debut. Collectors of his own novels should look for the Putnam firsts of the five books from Line of Vision to Eye of the Beholder (2007). Note that Open Library's author record for him also mixes in works by a different David Ellis, a literary scholar.