David Ellis is a lawyer and award-winning author of twelve novels.
As an author, Dave won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel for Line of Vision. Since then, he has published Life Sentence, Jury of One, In the Company of Liars, and Eye of the Beholder.
In 2009, The Hidden Man debuted Dave’s series character, Jason Kolarich. The Hidden Man was nominated for the L.A. Times Book Prize and Barry Award. His second Jason Kolarich novel, Breach of Trust, was based in part on the scandal involving impeached Governor Rod Blagojevich and was recently released in paperback as well. Dave’s third Jason Kolarich novel, The Wrong Man, was released on June 28, 2012 and has been nominated for the Silver Dagger Award for outstanding legal thriller.
Dave’s fourth Jason Kolarich thriller,The Last Alibi, will be released on August 1, 2013. In Alibi, Jason meets a new client who fears he’ll be the prime suspect in a pair of gruesome murders. But as the body count of young women in the city mounts, Jason soon realizes that he is the prime suspect. Is his client a serial killer? And with the restrictions of lawyer-client confidentiality, how can Jason stop his client and keep himself out of prison?
Guilty Wives, Dave’s first novel co-authored with best-seller James Patterson, was released in March of 2012. The international thriller, which chronicles the story of four frustrated wives who vacation in Monte Carlo and end up the most wanted criminals in French history, spent over two months on the New York Times bestseller list.
On August 5, 2013, his second novel with James Patterson, Mistress, will be released. Mistress features Benjamin Casper, a man tortured by paranoia, his mind constantly scrolling through pop-culture references and presidential trivia, who obsesses over a woman who meets an untimely death when she falls from a sixth-story balcony. Ben’s chase to discover her killer sends him into the deep waters of international espionage and dark military secrets from decades ago—and could bring down a sitting U.S. president.
Since then, Dave has released Invisible, Murder House, and most recently, The Black Book, an instant #1 New York Times bestseller, which he also co-authored with James Patterson.
Dave’s novels have been sold worldwide and have been translated into Italian, Japanese, German, Dutch, French, Polish, Czech, Bulgarian, Chinese and Spanish.
As a lawyer, Dave prosecuted and convicted Governor Rod Blagojevich in the Impeachment trial before the Illinois Senate. In December, 2014, Dave will be sworn in as the youngest-serving Justice of the Illinois Appellate Court for the First District.
Dave currently lives outside Chicago with his wife and three children.