'Eyes Wide Open' took shape from two real life events straight from my own past. One was the sad suicide of my young nephew, a troubled kid, who was found at the bottom of a landmark cliff in central California. The second was a chance encounter forty years ago with none other than, ahem, Charles Manson!

He eventually went back to work for his family's publicly held apparel firm the Leslie Fay Companies. A year later It was followed up by The Dark Tide ( 2007) which was nominated for Thriller of the Year by the International Thriller Writers Association. Gross received a degree in English from Middlebury College in 1974.

He is best known for his collaborations with suspense writer James Patterson. Andrew Gross (born 1952) is an American author of thriller novels including four New York Times bestsellers. They have all been publiAndrew Grossd by William Morrow an imprint of Harper Collins.