Rex Burns (born 1935 in San Diego, California), born Raoul Stephen Sehler, is an American author of crime fiction. He has published numerous books, stories, articles, and reviews.

Personal life

Burns graduated from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

with a degree in English and Creative Writing. He went on to pursue a PhD in American Studies at the University of Minnesota, but his studies were temporarily interrupted by a term in the US Marine Corps, where he rose to the rank of

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. Until 2000, when he retired, Burns was a professor of

American literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also inc ...

at the University of Colorado Denver.

Career

At the age of 40, Burns began writing novels. His first, The Alvarez Journal, won the

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 ...

for best first novel. The book introduced Gabriel Wager, a hard-drinking Mexican-American detective with the Denver police force. The Wager series lasted for ten more books, one of which (The Avenging Angel) was adapted into the 1988 film Messenger of Death, starring

Charles Bronson Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky; November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) was an American actor. Known for his "granite features and brawny physique," he gained international fame for his starring roles in action, Western, and war ...

Bibliography

To date, Burns has written sixteen novels in three different series (plus another novel under the pseudonym "Tom Sehler").Rex Burns, Colorado Authors' League
/ref> Gabriel Wager Series # The Alvarez Journal (1975) # The Farnsworth Score (1977) # Speak for the Dead (1978) # Angle of Attack (1979) # The Avenging Angel (1983) # Strip Search (1984) # Ground Money (1986) # The Killing Zone (1988) # Endangered Species (1993) # Blood Line (1995) # The Leaning Land (1997) Devlin Kirk Series # Suicide Season (1987) # Parts Unknown (1990) # Body Guard (1991) Touchstone Agency Mysteries # Body Slam (2014) # Crude Carrier (2014) As "Tom Sehler" * When Reason Sleeps (1991) Fables # The Frogs of Sawhill Ponds, Vol. 1 # The Frogs of Sawhill Ponds, Vol. 2 Non-fiction * Success in America: The Yeoman Dream and the Industrial Revolution (1976) * Crime Classics: The Mystery Story from Poe to the Present (1990)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burns, Rex 1935 births American crime fiction writers Living people American male novelists Writers from San Diego Stanford University alumni University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni University of Colorado Denver faculty United States Marine Corps officers Edgar Award winners 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Colorado