You’d be forgiven thinking it was JK Rowling, or even Stephenie Meyer of late, but American thriller writer James Patterson takes the crown as the world’s best-selling author of the past 20 years. A massive one in seventeen books sold in the US is a Patterson novel or collaboration, he even holds a Guinness world record for largest number of  New York Times bestsellers for a single author, which currently stands at 48.

 Best known for his Alex Cross series of detective thrillers, Patterson also penned the Women’s Murder Club, Daniel X, and Maximum Ride series of books, taking his total to 65 novels. Several of his books have been made into films. The next Alex Cross novel Cross Fire is due for release in November, and the next Women’s Murder Club title 9^th Judgment is due out in the next few weeks.