The first novel in James Patterson’s Alex Cross series came out in 1993, followed by 34 more books in the years since, about a Washington, D.C., police detective with a Ph.D. in forensic psychology.

Neighbours in Need is a grassroots group that started after Snowmaggedon to help people with food and shovelling. It continued on and grew to have 32,000 members. Now it is mired in accusations of ...