Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
--Emily Dickinson
Here are some of the many bright lights we lost from the world of crime fiction in 2009:
Paul S. Anik, d. January 30. Co-founder of We're Dying To Meet Your Mystery Book Club in the west San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, and a book reviewer for"I Love A Mystery" Newsletter. He was 54.
J. G. Ballard, d. April 19. He wrote mostly in the sci-fi realm but he straddled the crime fiction genre, and some of his stories and books revolved around crime and violence. He was 78.
Jay Bennett, d. June 27. He won two consecutive Edgar Awards in the juvenile mystery category for The Long Black Coat and The Dangling Witness. Although mostly a YA author, he wrote adult mysteries such as So Sweet, So Wicked. He was 96.
James Brady, d. January 26. Perhaps best known for his long-time column in Parade magazine and as a magazine publisher, he also wrote four Beecher Stowe mystery novels set in the Hamptons. He was 80.
Ray Browne, d. October 22. He and his wife launched Clues: A Journal of Detection, with academic articles on mystery fiction and writers. He was 87.
Hortense Calisher, d. January 13. She wrote primarily lilterary novels and short stories but also penned one mystery novel under the pen name Jack Fenno, The Small Bang. She was 97.
Jacques Chessix, d. October 9. A Swiss writer who was also a poet, painter and essayist, his 22 novels wove elements of genre fiction into them, exploring the hidden dark, violent, often scandalous side of Swiss culture. He was 75.
Michael Cox, d. March 31. He wrote both nonfiction and was an editor of The Oxford Book of Victorian Detective Stories and of The Oxford Book of Spy Stories. He also wrote two crime novels set in Victorian England. He was 60.
Charles "Chuck" Crayne, d. February 16. He was a founder of the Bouchercon mystery conference. He was 71.
Lionel Davidson, d. October 21. An ex-journalist, he won three Gold Dagger awards from The Crime Writers Association of Britain for Night of Wenceslas, A Long Way to Shiloh, and The Chelsea Murder. He also received the 2001 Cartier Diamond Dagger from CWA. He also wrote children's novels under the pseudonym of David Line. He was 87.
Dominick Dunne, d. August 26. He was a Hollywood producer and writer who wrote about celebrity trials and penned books based on true crimes, such as The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, A Season in Purgatory, and Another City, Not My Own. He was 83.
Philip Jose Farmer, d. February 25. Known primarily as a science fiction writer, he also wrote mystery short stories and novels such as The Image of the Beast and The Adventure of Peerless Peer. He was 91.
Celia Fremlin, d. June 16. She won the Edgar for her first novel, The Hours Before Dawn and went on to publisher several other novels and short stories, collected in three volumes. She was 94.
Lyn Hamilton, d. September 10. She wrote mystery novels featuring an antiques dealer (The Xibalba Murders), and several in the McClintoch archaeology series. She was 65.
Jane Aiken Hodge, d. June 17. The American-born British writer authored a number of romantic historical novels but also contemporary mysteries like Strangers in Company and Deathline. She also penned a biography of Georgette Heyer. She was 91.
Hans Holzer, d. April 26. He authored well over 100 books on the supernatural and occult, including a nonfiction book on which one of the Amityville movies was based. He also wrote three mystery novels featuring psychic detective Randy Knowles. He was 89.
Roy Hoopes, d. December 1. He won the Edgar Award in the Critical/Biographical category for his biography of James M. Cain. He was 87.
Jack D. Hunter, d. April 13. The former WWII US Army counterintelligence officer wrote The Blue Max, later made into a movie starring George Peppard. He also wrote other books featuring that same protagonist, German pilot Bruno Stachel, as well as over a dozen other spy/action thrillers. He was 87.
H. Paul Jeffers, d. December 4. He wrote three novels in the Harry MacNeil private eye series and three in the St. John Bogdanovic police detective series. He also penned the Nick Chase series under the pen name Harry Paul Lonsdale and the Kate Fallon series using the M. T. Jefferson pseudonym. He was 75.
J. D. F. Jones, d. March 4. An editor at The Financial Times, he also wrote three thrillers under the pen name of David Jordan, featuring Tom Kane and Condon. He was 69.
Thierry Jonquet, d. August 12. The French author was known for roman noir and juvenile books. One of his novels, City Lights Noir, has been translated into English and is in development by film director Pedro Almodovar. He was 55.
Stuart Kaminsky, d October 9. He won the 1989 best novel Edgar from the MWA for A Cold Red Sunrise, featuring the Moscow Police Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov, and had several other series characters including Toby Peters, a 1940's Hollywood private eye; Abe Lieberman, an old Chicago cop; and Lew Fonesca, process server. He also wrote tie-in novels for CSI: New York and the Rockford Files, and served as Grandmaster of the Mystery Writers of America in 2006. He was 75.
Norman Katkov, d. September 13. He was a screenwriter for many well-known TV shows such as Mission Impossible, Ironside, and Mannix, but also wrote crime novels including Blood and Orchids and The Judas Kiss. He was 91.
Elmer Kelton, d. August 22. He mostly wrote westerns, but many of those were crime-oriented. He was 83.
Jack Lewis, d. May 24. In addition to be a screenwriter, movie stuntman, and co-founder of Gun World magazine, he wrote several western novels and four mystery novels, one featuring journalist Sam Light and three featuring stuntman Charlie Cougar. He was 84.
Hugh Leonard, d. February 12. Famous as a writer of Da and other plays, he also wrote crime plays such as Kill and The Mask of Moriarty (a Sherlockian pastiche). He was 82.
Larry Maddock (the pen-name of Jack Jardine), d. April 14. He penned sci-fi novels and mystery stories for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine during the 60's and also authored four novels in the Agent of T.E.R.R.A. series, featuring time-traveling secret agent Hannibal Fortune and his alien associate Webley. He was 77.
Malcolm MacPherson, d. January 17. He was a former Newsweek reporter who wrote several non-fiction books as well as crime novels such as the neo-Nazi thriller Protege, the computer techno-thriller The Lucifer Key, and Deadlock, a courtroom thriller. He was 65.
Norma Fox Mazer, d. October 16. Author of more than 25 books for young adults and children, she received two Lewis Carroll Shelf Awards, a Newbery Honor Book award, and an Edgar Award in the juvenile mystery fiction category for Taking Terri Mueller. She was 78.
John Mortimer, d. January 16. He started his career as a famous barrister in the UK and went to write several screenplays and TV plays. He also wrote a number of novels and short stories, including the bestselling Horace Rumpole of the Old Bailey series. He was 85.
Paul Nathan, d. December 12. He was a columnist for Publishers Weekly but also wrote short stories, articles, mystery novels (the Bert Swain series), and plays including Ricochet which won the 1981 Edgar in the play category. He was 96.
Sister Carol Anne O'Marie, d. May 27. She was a nun of Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in Los Angeles and the author of the Sister Mary Helen mystery novels. She was 75.
Barbara Parker, d. March 7. Her first suspense novel, Suspicion of Innocence was her master's thesis and featured Miami lawyers Gail Connor and Anthony Quintana. She authored seven additional "Suspicion" novels and five stand-alones. She was 62.
James Pattinson, d. October 18. The prolific British author wrote more than 100 books of thrillers and sea novels, including a couple of series characters, Sam Grant and Harvey Landon. He was 94.
Lawrence Payne, d. February 23. He first rose to fame as detective Sexton Black on British TV, then at 40, turned to writing crime novels featuring three series protagonists: Chief Inspector Sam Birkett; John Tibbet, a British amateur sleuth; and Mark Savage, a British private eye in London. He was 89.
Gordon Philo, d. January 24. A respected Secret Intelligence Service officer, he also wrote mysteries under the pseudyonum Charles Forsyte with his wife Vicky Galsworthy, featuring Inspector Richard Left. Forsyte also penned The Decoding of Edwin Drood, completing Charles Dickens's unfinished novel. He was 89.
James Purdy, d. March 13. He wrote over two dozen novels, including crime novels, such as Malcolm and Cabot Wright Begins. He was 94.
Diana Raymond, d. February 16. A poet and novelist, her crime novels include such titles as Incident on a Summer's Day. She also completed her cousin Pamela Frankau's posthumous crime novel, Colonel Blessington. She was 92.
Budd (Wilson) Schulberg, d. August 5. He was most famous for being the screenwriter behind On the Waterfront (1954) and A Face in the Crowd (1957), but also wrote several stories and novels including crime fiction.He was 95.
Johannes Mario Simmel, d. January 1. He was an ex-journalist whose spy thrillers were bestsellers in Germany. A few were translated into English, such as The Cain Conspiracy. He was 84.
Dick Stodghill, d. November 8. Another former journalist-turned novelist, as well as an ex-Pinkerton detective, he wrote many short stories which were published in magazines such as Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hichcock's Mystery Magazine, and Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, some featuring private eye Jack Eddy. He was 84.
William G. Tapply, d. July 28. He wrote a series of mysteries featuring Boston attorney Brady Coyne. He was 69.
Robert Terrall, d. March 27. He wrote five mystery novels under his own name, as well as three Harry Horne mysteries under the pen name John Gonzales, and five Ben Gates private eye novels written as Robert Kyle. He ghost-wrote 24 Michael Shayne novels under the "Brett Halliday" name. He was 94.
John Updike, d. January 27. Author of over 50 books of fiction, essays and poetry, he was best known for The Witches of Eastwick and his series of literary novels featuring Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom. He did write a pseudo-crime novel, The Terrorist and a mystery story, "Beck Noir," published in The New Yorker and later The Best American Mystery Stories 1999. He was 76.
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