Novelist James Patterson, journalist Vicky Ward plan book on killing of Idaho college students

NEW YORK (AP) — Best-selling novelist James Patterson is teaming up with investigative journalist Vicky Ward on a book about the 2022 killing of four University of Idaho students.

Little, Brown and Company announced Friday that Patterson and Ward will “draw from dozens of exclusive interviews, extensive on-the-ground reporting, copious court transcripts” and their own planned attendance at the trial of suspect Bryan Kohberger, who was indicated this week by a grand jury in Boise.

Kohberger is accused of killing Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves at a rental home in Moscow, Idaho, near the University of Idaho campus. He has been charged with burglary and four counts of first-degree murder.

“The Idaho murders have captured imaginations all around the world and I’m as caught up in it as anyone else. Because all of this happened in such a small town, there are definitely echoes of ‘In Cold Blood,’” Patterson said in a statement. He is one of the world’s most prolific and popular novelists, but also has worked on nonfiction books, with subjects ranging from Princess Diana to Jeffrey Epstein.

The book on the Idaho killings does not yet have a title or release date.