In Memoriam

Dennis Richard Murphy

Dennis Murphy died of lung cancer on June 15 in Toronto, Canada. He began writing mystery stories after a notable career as a documentary filmmaker. His stories were nominated several times for the Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis awards. "Fuzzy Wuzzy", published in EQMM, August 2006, won the 2007 Arthur. His first novel, DARKNESS AT THE BREAK OF NOON, will be published posthumously in February 2009 from HarperCollins Canada.
An interview with Dennis Murphy can be found at the Poe’s Deadly Daughters blog, http://poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com/2007/09/canada-calling-dennis-richard-murphy.html

Gregory MacDonald
James Crumley

Crime fiction has recently lost several of its most interesting figures through the deaths of Gregory MacDonald and James Crumley.  MacDonald wrote in the light-hearted vein.  His most popular character was Fletch, who appeared in a number of novels and motion pictures in the 1980s and 1990s, although Flynn was probably a potentially richer creation never fully exploited.  Crumley began writing in the late 1960s, and was one of the first crime writers to set his books regionally and to make the region an important player in his work.  His region of choice was the American southwest.  Both men were 71 at the time of their deaths.