Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Dick Stodghill, R. I. P.

The Star Press.com: Stodghill wrote far more than all that, though. A former Pinkerton Detective Agency operative himself, he was a longtime fan of classic mystery writers, whose attributes he could discuss at length, and during an earlier, temporary retirement from his newspaper work, tried his hand at it with amazing results.

A fan of short stories, his soon began to appear regularly in top mystery publications, most notably Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Even after his eventual return to newspaper work, he was a regular contributor, his stories frequently culled for hard-cover collections published by groups like Mystery Writers of America and Private Eye Writers of America.

Indeed, during last month's Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in Indianapolis, his story Panic on Portage Path was a nominee for a 2009 Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

He was also a great mentor to aspiring authors. He will be missed.
http://www.dkchristi.com

Todd Mason said...

I gather from several comments on discussion lists that he was most active as a contributor to AHMM when I was letting issues get away from me altogether, in the early '80s. By all accounts, a good man and a good writer.

Ed Gorman said...

Very sorry to hear about Dick's death. He wrote many, many fine stories over the years,