John Lutz (mystery writer)

John Thomas Lutz (September 11, 1939^[1] – January 9, 2021)^[2] was an American writer who mainly wrote mystery novels.

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 work has been translated into almost every language and adapted for almost every medium.^[3]

His novel Single White Female was the basis for the 1992 film starring Bridget Fonda^[4][5][6][7] 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 many languages and adapted for many types of media.

Lutz served as president of both Mystery Writers of America and Private Eye Writers of America. Among his awards are the MWA Edgar Award, the Shamus Award (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.^[8][9]

Lutz spoke of writing as a labor of luck as much as love: “I just clock in and clock out five days a week, and miraculously I get paid,” he said in 2003. “I write every day as if it’s a job, and I enjoy it as much as I did when I began. It’s the writing of a book that I enjoy and not so much having the book come out.”^[10]

“The chemistry between a serial killer and his pursuer is important,” Mr. Lutz once told writer Ellen Harris in an interview for the Post-Dispatch. “It’s not enough to have a good villain and his nemesis; there must be parallels below the surface, a subterranean emotional relationship. Like Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty, and God and Lucifer in ‘Paradise Lost.’”

When young, Mr. Lutz worked as a switchboard operator for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. “That job also gave me insight into how cops think,” he told Harris in 2003. “Police think they are aware of a depth of the dark side of human nature that other people can’t imagine.” While reading a Bradbury story on the house’s porch at 13, he said, “it struck me that Bradbury was doing something extraordinary with words. That words could be used to convey more than information. “I wondered if I could do that, too,” he told Harris.

Mr. Lutz was already writing stories as a teen, although it took a few years for him to be published. For a time, he worked in the warehouse of the old Bettendorf-Rapp grocery stores or drove trucks, his wife said. They knew that payment for short stories would not be enough for a family and that he would have to write novels. His first, “The Truth of the Matter,” was published in 1971. Mr. Lutz eventually became a full-time writer, publishing one or two books a year until his death in 2021. ^[11]

The Southwest High School graduate met his future wife at 18 while working as an usher at the Tivoli Theatre. She was a candy girl. “He used to hate that story because it was so corny,” Barbara Lutz said. They married at 19 and raised their three children in Webster Groves.^[12]

Lutz and his wife, Barbara, split their time between St. Louis, Missouri, and Sarasota, Florida. Together, they had three children (Steven Lutz, Wendy Murray, and Jennifer Lutz-Bauer), eight grandchildren (Andrew Lutz, Emma Lutz-McKenna, Ellen Lutz Hustedde, Benjamin Murray, Sophia Murray, Elliott Murray, Lucas Bauer, and Jacob Murray), and three great-grandchildren.

Those who knew Lutz personally enjoyed his unassuming sense of humor, his love of puns, and his quick and occasionally self-deprecating wit. His writing idol was Ray Bradbury, who was known more for science fiction but who also wrote mysteries. After introducing himself to Bradbury at a conference, Mr. Lutz went back to his wife and said, “I embarrassed both of us.” ^[13]

Lutz died as a result of complications from Lewy body dementia, Parkinson's disease, and COVID-19 in Chesterfield, Missouri, on January 9, 2021, at age 81, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Missouri.^[2][14]

In 1995, Lutz received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America.^[15]

When Bouchercon, a convention for whodunit authors, came to St. Louis in 2011, Mr. Lutz was billed as a “local living legend.”^[16]

• Alo Nudger
• Fred Carver
• Night
• Frank Quinn

Lutz is the author of over 50 novels, including the following:

• 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 Single White Female)
• Dancing with the Dead (1992)
• The Ex (1996) (adapted into a film — see The Ex (1997 film))
• Final Seconds (1998) (with David August)

Lutz is the author of over 200 short stories and articles, including the following:

• Better Mousetraps (ed. Francis Nevins Jr., St. Partin's Press, 1988)
• Shadows Everywhere (Mystery Scene Press, 1994)
• Until You Are Dead (Five Star, 1998)
• The Nudger Dilemmas (Five Star, 2001)
• Endless Road (2003)

• Official website