Steve Berry (born September 2, 1955) is an American author and former attorney currently living in St. Augustine, Florida.^[1] He is a graduate of Mercer University's Walter F. George School of Law. He was a trial lawyer for 30 years and held elected office for 14 of those years. He is a founding member of International Thriller Writers—a group of more than 4,200 thriller writers from around the world—and served three years as its co-president.^[2]

Berry first appeared in print with his historical thrillers The Amber Room and The Romanov Prophecy in 2003 and 2004. A practicing attorney at the time, Berry had been writing fiction since 1990, and it took him 12 years and 85 rejections before selling a manuscript to Ballantine Books.^[1] Berry credits the nuns who taught him in Catholic school with instilling the discipline needed both to craft a novel and to find a publisher.

Berry's novels have been listed on The New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and BookSense bestseller lists. He has more than 25 million books in print, which have been translated into 40 languages and sold in 51 countries.^[3]

Berry resides in the northeast Florida area.^[4]

In 2012 and 2013, Berry's historic preservation work was recognized by the American Library Association, which named him spokesperson for National Preservation Week. Among his other honors is the Royden B. Davis Distinguished Author Award; the 2013 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award given by Poets & Writers; the 2013 Anne Frank Human Writes Award; and the Silver Bullet, bestowed in 2013 by International Thriller Writers for philanthropic work. He was also appointed by the Smithsonian Board of Regents to serve on the Smithsonian Libraries Advisory Board to help promote and support libraries in their mission to provide information in all forms to scientists, curators, scholars, students, and the public.^[3] A 2010 NPR survey named The Templar Legacy one of the top 100 thrillers ever written.^[5]