Andrew Bourelle

Andrew Bourelle is an American novelist and university professor who co-created the Rory Yates series with James Patterson, a set of thrillers following a former rodeo champion turned law enforcement officer investigating crimes across the American West. Bourelle teaches creative writing at the university level and had published his own short fiction and literary work before entering the collaborative commercial thriller space through his partnership with Patterson. The Rory Yates novels combine western and rodeo culture, a backdrop Bourelle researched closely, with contemporary crime plotting, giving the series a regional identity distinct from more urban entries in Patterson's broad catalog of co-authored thrillers. Bourelle's academic background in creative writing informs the series' attention to voice and setting alongside its genre plotting requirements. He has continued to balance his teaching career with fiction writing, and the Rory Yates books remain his most widely read work, representing a successful entry point into commercial thriller publishing for a writer whose earlier career was rooted primarily in literary short fiction and academia.