Joe Gores, R.I.P.

From Vince Emery Productions:

Joe Gores is one of the world's best-regarded mystery writers. He is a three-time winner of the Edgar Award (the highest honor for mystery writers), and has also won the Maltese Falcon Award (Japan's highest award in the mystery field), and he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America.

Gores worked as a logger, a carnival roustabout, a teacher at a boys' school in Kenya, and for twelve years, as a detective. Gores' popular novels and stories about detective agency Daniel Kearney Associates are based on his own experiences as a San Francisco private eye. I regard them as the best-written and most enjoyable detective series by any current writer.

Gores has written scripts for Kojak, Columbo, Magnum P.I., Mike Hammer, Remington Steele, and other television series. Francis Ford Coppola produced a movie based on Gores' novel Hammett. Mr. Gores is currently writing the novel Spade & Archer, which will be the authorized prequel to The Maltese Falcon.

Ed here: I worked with Joe Gores on a number of occasions. What a gentleman and what a good guy. I hold his work in great esteem. He was something few writers ever are--an original. The Daniel Kearney stories and novels are linear descendants of Hammett and many of them are, to me, just as good. So long, Joe.