James Patterson: The Thomas Berryman Number (UK 2015)

From the Publisher:
You are about to read one of the classic novels of suspense by the world's bestselling thriller writer.

It starts with three terrifying murders in the American South. It ends with a relentless and unforgettable manhunt in the North.

In between is the gripping story of a ruthless assassin, the woman he loves, and the beloved leader he is hired to kill.

James Patterson: The Thomas Berryman Number. Century, ISBN: 9781780894416 (May, 2015), 320 p., £18.99, eBook £10.99.

James Patterson: The Thomas Berryman Number (USA 2015)

From the Publisher:
YOU ARE ABOUT TO BEGIN ONE OF THE CLASSIC AMERICAN NOVELS OF SUSPENSE BY ONE OF THE WORLD'S BESTSELLING AUTHORS.
It starts with three terrifying murders in the South. It ends with a relentless and unforgettable manhunt in the North. In between is the riveting story of a chilling assassin, the woman he loves, and the beloved leader he is hired to kill with extreme prejudice.

The winner of the Edgar® Award for Best First Novel, THE THOMAS BERRYMAN NUMBER marked the debut of acclaimed and bestselling author James Patterson. No other novelist writing today has created more enduring fictional characters, including legendary Alex Cross from the most popular detective series of the past twenty-five years.

James Patterson: The Thomas Berryman Number. Grand Central Publishing, ISBN: 9781455561605 (January, 2015), 273 p., $16.00.

James Patterson: The Thomas Berryman Number (USA 2006)

From the Publisher:
You are about to begin one of the classic American novels of suspense by one of the world's bestselling authors. It begins with three terrifying murders in the South. It ends with a relentless and unforgettable manhunt in the North. In between is the riveting story of a chilling assassin, the woman he loves, and the beloved leader he is hired to kill with extreme prejudice.

James Patterson: The Thomas Berryman Number. The First Novel and the Edgar Award Winner by the #1 New York Times Bestselling Author. Warner Books, ISBN: 0446600458 (May, 2006), 272 p., $7.99.

James Patterson: The Thomas Berryman Number (USA 1996)

From the Publisher:
Winner of the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America
James Patterson, author of the #1 bestsellers Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls, has written one of America's suspense masterpieces. The Thomas Berryman Number begins with three terrifying murders in the South. It ends with a relentless and unforgettable manhunt in the North. In between is the riveting story of a chilling assassin, the woman he loves, and the beloved leader he is hired to kill with extreme prejudice.

James Patterson: The Thomas Berryman Number. Warner Books; ISBN: 0446600458 (April, 1996), 272 p., $5.99.

James Patterson: The Thomas Berryman Number (USA 1977)

From the Publisher:
The most brilliant assassin in America is planning to gun down the country's leading black citizen.
"A tough, wry, and eloquent book." John D. MacDonald

THE THOMAS BERRYMAN NUMBER IS THE GRIPPER OF THE YEAR!
In Texas Tom Berryman took peyote as a kid, got the nickname of "Pleasure King" and nailed down a New Mexico priest -- now, many hits later, he plans his biggest number: to get Nashville's black mayor -- and stay alive and out of the way of the media, the high-placed politicos who hired him, and one Southern reporter who dogs his tracks across six states to stop a July 4th shootout in Dixie.

James Patterson: The Thomas Berryman Number. Ballantine Books, ISBN: 0345255526 (April, 1977), 218 p., $1.75.

James Patterson: The Thomas Berryman Number (USA 1976)

From the Publisher:
This novel marks the debut of a young writer who is more than at home in the territory staked out by the best crime novelists in the country. In fact, with its uncanny fair for authentic characters, dialogue, and suspense, The Thomas Berryman Number seems certain to generate the same kind of excitement that greeted The Friends of Eddie Coyle four years ago. But after reading The Thomas Berryman Number, there'll be no mistaking James Patterson for any other thriller writer now working.

The victim was Jimmie Lee Horn, mayor of Nashville, candidate for the U.S. Senate, the most promising black political leader in the South.

The "assassin" was Bertram Poole, a deranged young radical who, before police gunfire cut him down, fired two shots at Jimmie Lee Horn.

Every TV camera at that Tennessee Fourth of July rally photographed the two killings. Millions of stunned viewers watched the deaths replayed on their sets that night. But there was something even more horrifying about this grim shooting, something that no news film showed: the bullets from Poole's gun never reached Horn.

Instead, Jimmie Lee Horn had been "hit." It was the kind of professional job only one man could do.
And only one reporter had a lead on Thomas Berryman.

The Thomas Berryman Number is told by Ochs Jones, an investigative reporter from Nashville and an old friend of Jimmie Lee Horn. Low-key, resourceful, with a dry humor that keeps things on the sane side, Ochs Jones heads north to sort out the facts and play his hunches through the kind of story that lands huge advances and sensational newspaper serials -- the chilling biography of a young Texan named Berryman, who had an I.Q. of 166 and who decided to become a professional killer at the age of eighteen. Step by step, the trail leads Jones to uncover six more murders and a handful of people whose lives, in one way or another, are linked with Berryman and the Fourth of July killings: a man locked away in a New York psychiatric hospital says he can prove Bert Poole didn't shoot anyone; a Philadelphia hitman asserts he was paid ten thousand dollars to shoot a third gunman present at the fatal rally; and an unusual young woman "kept" in a grand Long Island shore house knows who actually did shoot the black politician - she was there.

Through four months of investigation covering six states and such places as Nashville, New York City, Long Island, and Revere Beach in Massachusetts, we follow Jones as he pulls off a reporting coup that grips us from the very beginning to the violent, unexpected finish -- the unraveling of "The Thomas Berryman Number."

James Patterson is a copywriter for a lead ing New York advertising agency. He is at present completing his second novel featuring Ochs Jones.

James Patterson: The Thomas Berryman Number. A Novel. Little, Brown & Co., ISBN: 0316693618 (March, 1976), 256 p., $7.95.