Famed novelist Elmore Leonard died Tuesday morning after complications from a stroke
at his home in Bloomfield Village. He was 87.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/21/books/......tml?_r=0

I worked with one of Elmore's son's in the past and had the great pleasure to meet his dad.
He will be missed.

Elmore Leonard has long been, along with Lawrence Block, my favorite writer of crime fiction. May he rest in peace. His books and screenplays, though, will live on.

One of the all-time greats, with an unsurpassed ear for dialogue.

He also wrote a number of westerns that were adapted for film, including "Hombre" starring Paul Newman and "Valdez Is Coming" starring Burt Lancaster. He wrote the screenplay "Joe Kidd" starring Clint Eastwood and Robert Duvall.

He started out as an advertising copy writer at Campbell-Ewald on the Chevy business, a firm I later worked at with his son. Like father like son.

I'm glad I started with Elmore Leonard with his early Detroit novels 52-Pickup, Unknown Man #89, and The Switch. Then just about everything thereafter (I may have missed a couple). Really sorry he's gone.