John Thomas Lutz (September 11, 1939 – January 9, 2021) was an American writer who mainly wrote

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ( ...

novels.

Career

Lutz's work included political suspense, private eye novels, urban suspense, humor, occult, crime caper, police procedural, espionage, historical, futuristic, amateur detective, thriller; virtually every mystery sub-genre. He was the author of more than forty novels and over 200 short stories and articles. His novel ''

Single White Female ''Single White Female'' is a 1992 American psychological erotic thriller film based on John Lutz's 1990 novel '' SWF Seeks Same''. It stars Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh and was directed by Barbet Schroeder. Plot New York City softwa ...

'' was the basis for the 1992 film starring

Bridget Fonda Bridget Jane Fonda (born January 27, 1964) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in ''The Godfather Part III'' (1990), ''Single White Female'' (1992), ''Singles'' (1992), ''Point of No Return'' (1993), '' It Could Happen to You'' ( ...

and his novel ''The Ex'' was made into the HBO original movie of the same title, for which he co-authored the screenplay. Lutz's novels and short fiction have been translated into almost every language and adapted for almost every medium. Lutz served as president of both

Mystery Writers of America Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is an organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday. It presents the Edgar Award ...

and

Private Eye Writers of America Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

. Among his awards are the MWA

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

, the

Shamus Award The Shamus Award is awarded by the Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) for the best detective fiction ( P. I. = Private investigator) genre novels and short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one si ...

(twice), The Trophee 813 Award for best mystery short story collection translated into the French language, the PWA Life Achievement Award, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society's Golden Derringer Lifetime Achievement Award. John Lutz also wrote stories for

jigsaw puzzles A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of often irregularly shaped interlocking and mosaiced pieces, each of which typically has a portion of a picture. When assembled, the puzzle pieces produce a complete picture. In t ...

Personal life and death

He and his wife, Barbara, split their time between St. Louis, Missouri, and Sarasota, Florida. Together, they had three children and eight grandchildren. Lutz died as a result of complications from

Lewy body dementia Lewy body dementias are two similar and common subtypes of dementia—dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD). Both are characterized by changes in thinking, movement, behavior, and mood. The two conditions have sim ...

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

, and

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Chesterfield, Missouri Chesterfield is a city in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. It is a western suburb of St. Louis. As of the 2020 census, the population was 49,999, . The broader valley of Chesterfield was originally referred to as "Gumbo Flats", derived ...

, on January 9, 2021, at age 81, during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Missouri The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the U.S. state of Missouri in March 2020. A university student who had recently been to Italy, was the first index case for COVID-19 in Missouri. She was treated at Mercy Hospital St. Louis. As ...

Bibliography

Series

*Alo Nudger *Fred Carver *Night *Frank Quinn

Standalone novels

* ''The Truth of the Matter'' (1971) * ''Bonegrinder'' (1977) * ''Lazarus Man'' (1979) * ''Jericho Man'' (1980) * ''The Shadow Man'' (1981) * ''Exiled'' (1982) (with Steven Greene) * ''The Eye'' (1984) (with Bill Pronzini) * ''Shadowtown'' (1988) * ''Single White Female'' (1990; original title: ''SWF Seeks Same''; see also movie page ''

'') * ''Dancing with the Dead'' (1992) * ''The Ex'' (1996) (adapted into a film — see ''The Ex'' (1997 film)) * ''Final Seconds'' (1998) (with David August)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lutz, John 1939 births 2021 deaths American mystery writers 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists Novelists from Missouri Edgar Award winners Shamus Award winners American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers Writers from Dallas 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Texas Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Missouri