Requiescat in pace

  Last Veteran's Day, I posted some comments on mystery and crime fiction authors and protagonists who were military veterans. So in commemoration of Memorial Day today, I thought I'd post a list of crime fiction authors who served in the military but who have passed on since Memorial Day 2007. With one exception, these are all World War II vets, which isn't surprising considering their age range. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, an average of 1,800 veterans die each day, and 10 percent of them are buried in the country's 125 national cemeteries. An estimated 686,000 veterans died in 2007.

So in today's blog we celebrate the lives and service of these men who were willing to give their lives to the cause of democracy and who also gave us memorable contributions to the world of crime fiction:

Andrew Britton is the youngest of the list. He served as a combat engineer in the U.S. Army for three years, during which time he was assigned to the 1st Engineer Battalion at Fort Riley, Kansas. In the summer of 2001, he received orders for Korea, where he served with the 2ID, the famed 2nd Infantry Division. He was honorably discharged as a specialist in 2002. He died at the age of 27 on March 18, 2008, from a congenital heart condition. Despite his youth, he wrote three highly-regarded Ryan Kealey counterterrorist operative novels, The American, The Assassin, and The Invisible.

Arthur C. Clarke served in the Royal Air Force as a radar instructor and technician from 1941-1946. He was mostly known as a writer of science fiction (2001: A Space Odyssey), but he also wrote some sci-fi/mystery short stories, such as "Crime on Mars" (published in the July 1960 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine) and several others. He died at the age of 90 on March 19, 2008. 

Clive Exton spent two years in the British Army, stationed in Germany. He was known for his TV scripts for the Agatha Christie Poirot series (1989-2001) starring David Suchet, and episodes of Rosemary & Thyme, the British series starrting  Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris as gardening detectives Rosemary Boxer and Laura Thyme (2003-2006). He also dramatized Wolf to the Slaughter (based on Ruth Rendell's 1967 novel) in 1987 starring George Baker as Inspector Wexford.  He died at the age of 77 on August 16, 2007.

John Gardner volunteered for service in the Royal Marines during World War II. He also was a former priest and journalist who penned the first Boysie Oakes novel, The Liquidator (1964), as a parody of the spy novels popular in the 60's. He also wrote regular spy novels with protagonists Derek Torry and Herbie Kruger. He's probably best-known as the author of the renewed James Bond novels, the first of which was Licence Renewed in 1981. Most recently he had began a series featuring Suzie Mountford, a 1930's police detective, and the fifth in that series, No Human Enemy, will be published posthumously August 5, 2008. Gardner died at the age of 80 on August 3, 2007.

Oakley Maxwell Hall served in the Marines during World War II. He used the pseudonym Jason Manor to write several mysteries, including Too Dead to Run and The Read Jaguar featuring California private eye Steve Summers. He also authored Murder City, A Game for Eagles, and the Ambrose Bierce series. He dead at the age of 87 on May 12, 2008.

Joe L. Hensley served in the United States Navy during World War II a Pharmacist's Mate in the Navy Hospital Corp. He had a multi-faced career as a journalist, legislator, attorney, and judge, beforing publishing his first book THE COLOR OF HATE in 1960. He also wrote short stories published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine among others. He was probably best-known in crime fiction for the Donald Robak series, featuring a crusading defense attorney based on himself, including Deliver Us to Evil in 1971. His last novel, Snowbird's Walk, a standalone, was released posthumously by St. Martin's in 2008. He died at the age of 81 on August 27, 2007.

James Leasor was a British author who served in Burma with the Lincolnshire Regiment during World War II and became a correspondent for the Forces newspaper after being wounded in action. He wrote in many disciplines, including thrillers, historical novels, and non-fiction title. His crime fiction work included the Dr. Jason Love thrillers, the first of which was Passport to Oblivion in 1964 and a serie with the unnamed owner of Aristo Autos, which began in 1969 with They Don't Make Them Like That Any More. Under the pseydonym of Andrew MacAllan, he also wrote several standalone thrillers. He died at the age of 87 on September 10, 2007.

Robin Moore served in World War II as a nose gunner in the U.S. Army Air Corps, flying combat missions in the European Theater. For his outstanding service, he was awarded the Air Medal. He was most famous for his half fiction/half nonfiction work The Green Berets and the non-fiction book The French Connection: A True Account of Cops, Narcotics, and International Conspiracy. He died at the age of 82 on February 21, 2008.

If you know of other names to add to this listing, please do.