Novelist James Patterson and journalist Vicky Ward are writing a nonfiction book about the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the Associated Press reports.
Little, Brown announced it will publish the book, which has no release date or title yet.
The shooting death of Thompson on December 4 last year made headlines around the world. The CEO was walking in midtown Manhattan, on his way to a meeting at the New York Hilton Midtown hotel, when he was shot multiple times in the back and leg. Police recovered spent shell casings at the scene with the words “deny,” “depose,” and “delay” written on them.
Five days later, police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, arrested Luigi Mangione in connection with the slaying. He has been charged with murder by both state and federal authorities.
Patterson and Ward’s book on the killing will be their second collaboration on a timely true-crime case. Last month, Little, Brown published The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy, their book about the murders of four University of Idaho students by Bryan Christopher Kohberger in 2022. A critic for Kirkus called that book “an assembly-line book that doesn’t add much to what can easily be found online.”
In a statement on the new book, Patterson said, “This is a story about the American Dream Gone Wrong. It’s also a story of one young man’s descent from Ivy League graduate to notorious accused killer to so-called political martyr.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
