Top crime writer to donate €300k to bookshops

James Patterson, whose crime novels sell in the hundreds of millions around the world, is to donate €300,000 to independent bookshops in Ireland and Britain.

The US author, who has topped the New York Times bestseller list a record 57 times with his Alex Cross thrillers, said bookshops played an essential role in society and child development, and their plight in the face of cheap online booksellers needed to be highlighted.

“We’re in a revolution and evolution period because of e-books and online book distributors, the Amazons of the world, so I just want to try and make that transition as orderly, fair and as smart as we can,” he said.