Viola Davis, the author!

The E.G.O.T. superstar has officially entered the literary world. Davis shared that she is the co-author of the legal thriller “Judge Stone,” written with James Patterson, and it’s set to be released this month. The novel centers on Judge Mary Stone, a Black circuit judge in a small Alabama town who must preside over a controversial teenage abortion case that shakes the community — material Davis told CBS Sunday Mornings she had been trying to write since childhood. 

Davis described the partnership with Patterson as “kismet,” saying her agent called with the concept and she immediately felt pulled into the project. “I always had this idea about writing a real controversial, dramatic, emotional novel about a courtroom drama in a small town,” Patterson told People. Davis added that the collaboration “reinvigorated my faith in what could be created in this art form, I’m just going to say it, for Black women.” 

The book’s stakes are crystal clear: an emotionally fraught, ethically complex courtroom fight that asks readers to consider justice, power, and community. Excerpts show Judge Stone managing jurors and courtroom logistics with a voice that’s equal parts humanity and authority — a character Davis suggested could be “our Atticus Finch,” a figure meant to reframe how Black women are portrayed in legal fiction. 

Davis and Patterson stressed that their objective was storytelling that centers complicated, surprising human beings, rather than tidy moral lessons. For Davis, the project married lifelong acting instincts with the craft of fiction. She said, “The foundation for me, collaborating on this book, is the very foundation of being an artist.” A reminder that the discipline of creating characters spans stage, screen, and page. “Judge Stone” is available for pre-orders.