That's a damn shame. He visited here some time ago during DC
month. I had been a big fan of his great Leo Haggerty series,
as were some others here, so I decided to contact him out of
the blue to see if he'd be our guest. I found his office
address in the phone book and sent him a letter. He called me
to get the details. He seemed a bit surprised by the interest
in him, since it had been some time since his last novel. He
didn't even have an email address at the time, so he used his
wife's to drop in.
I'm probably greatly flattering us, but I like to think the
interested and knowledgable fans he found here might have
played some small role in his getting back into fiction
writing.
Turns out he kept my number. A few years later, his office
manager called to get my address so he could send me an ARC
of Mary, Mary, Shut the Door, an anthology of his short
stories. I sent him a thank you email along with a copy of
the rave about the book I posted here. I mentioned in passing
that the stories had whet my appetite for a novel about the
Ellis Brothers. He responded:
"I'm delighted that you enjoyed the stories.Thank you for the
very nice review.I have on the boards an Ellis Brothers
novel, a serial killer/forensic science book and a terrorist
novel. I hope these will slake your thirst for more of these
characters. Ben"
It's a shame he's now gone, but here's hoping some of this
work was completed so we'll have just a bit more to remember
him by.
Mark
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