Stuart M. Kaminsky, at 75; was prolific mystery novelist
NEW YORK - Stuart M. Kaminsky, a film scholar-turned-detective novelist who was widely known for his prodigious output, complex characters, and rich evocations of time and place, including Hollywood in its Golden Age, died Friday in St. Louis. He was 75.
The cause was hepatitis C, which Mr. Kaminsky contracted as an Army medic in the late 1950s, his wife, Enid Perll, said.
A longtime resident of Sarasota, Fla., Mr. Kaminsky moved to St. Louis in March to await a liver transplant.
Shortly after moving there, he had a stroke, making him ineligible for the transplant.
The author of more than 60 crime novels, Mr. Kaminsky typically wrote two or more books a year.
A past president of Mystery Writers of America, he was named a Grand Master, the organization’s highest honor, in 2006.
Mr. Kaminsky made his mystery debut in 1977 with “Bullet for a Star.’’ The novel introduced Toby Peters, a down-at-the-heels private eye in the 1930s and ’40s. The setting is Hollywood, and the client is Errol Flynn, who is being blackmailed.
Reviewing the novel in The New York Times Book Review, Harold C. Schonberg, writing as Newgate Callendar, called it “good, clean fun,’’ adding: “When the film buffs finish reading it, there will not be a dry eye in the house.’’
Later books in the series also featured real-life luminaries. In “Murder on the Yellow Brick Road’’ (1977), Judy Garland brings in Peters to solve the murder of a Munchkin on the MGM lot.
In “To Catch a Spy’’ (2002), Peters aids Cary Grant. “Mildred Pierced’’ (2003), in which a woman is shot with a crossbow, naturally features Joan Crawford.
Mr. Kaminsky created and sustained three other series characters.
Abe Lieberman, a 60-ish, intensely moral Chicago police officer beset by family troubles made his first appearance in “Lieberman’s Folly’’ (1991) and went on to star in “Lieberman’s Choice’’ (1993) and “Not Quite Kosher’’ (2002), among other titles.
Lew Fonseca, a depressive process server working in Sarasota, is the star of a series that includes “Vengeance’’ (1999), “Retribution’’ (2001), and “Bright Futures’’ (2009).
A philosophical Moscow police detective, Porfiry Rostnikov is a lone wolf who adores, covertly, the crime novels of Ed McBain.
The series, which takes Rostnikov from the Soviet era to the present, includes “Death of a Dissident’’ (1981), “Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express’’ (2001), and “A Cold Red Sunrise’’ (1988), for which Mr. Kaminsky won an Edgar Award in 1989.
Stuart Melvin Kaminsky was born in Chicago on Sept. 29, 1934.
Entering the University of Illinois on a soccer scholarship, he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1957, followed by a master’s in English literature in 1959.
In 1972, he received a doctorate in film studies from Northwestern University, writing his dissertation on the director Don Siegel.
Joining the
Mr. Kaminsky’s first marriage, to Merle Gordon, ended in divorce. Besides his wife, Perll, whom he married in 1987, he leaves his mother, Dorothy; a sister, Sara Rashkow; two sons and a daughter from his first marriage, Peter, Toby, and Lucy; a daughter, Natasha, from his marriage to Perll; and three grandchildren.
His other books include nonfiction titles about cinema, among them “American Film Genres: Approaches to a Critical Theory of Popular Film’’ (1974); “Clint Eastwood’’ (1974); “John Huston, Maker of Magic’’ (1978); and “Basic Filmmaking’’ (1981), with Dana H. Hodgdon.
Mr. Kaminsky also worked as a screenwriter. His credits include an episode of “A Nero Wolfe Mystery,’’ a series broadcast on A&E in 2001 and 2002.
His novels were routinely praised by critics for their tight plotting and sharp dialogue. In “The Melting Clock’’ (1991), for instance, Toby Peters finds himself working on behalf of a most unusual client.
In two short lines, Mr. Kaminsky captured the client’s essential nature as incisively as any biographer could. “Very few people know who I am,’’ the client, Salvador Dali, says. “And I am not one of them.’’