Shan Serafin

Shan Serafin is an American novelist and filmmaker based in Los Angeles who became a co-author of James Patterson beginning in 2015, collaborating on several thrillers including The 13-Minute Murder, Come and Get Us, and Three Women Disappear. The son of two schoolteachers from Southern California, Serafin worked in corporate finance before shifting toward full-time writing, with early creative work in theater and film, including writing and directing for the stage, and journalism contributed to Buddhist publications. His collaborations with Patterson span different thriller subgenres, from action-driven premises involving special operations teams to more intimate suspense stories, reflecting a versatility that suited Patterson's broad, high-volume co-authorship model. Serafin's background directing and writing for theater and film gave his prose a strong visual, scene-based structure well matched to Patterson's fast-paced commercial style. He has continued to write within the thriller genre and remains active as both a novelist and filmmaker, contributing multiple titles to Patterson's extensive catalog of collaborative fiction over the course of their ongoing partnership.