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

Career

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 novel Single White Female was the basis for the 1992 film starring Bridget Fonda^[3][4][5][6] 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 almost every language and adapted for almost every medium.

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.^[7][8]

Personal life and death

He and his wife, Barbara, split their time between St. Louis, Missouri, and Sarasota, Florida. Together, they had three children and eight grandchildren.

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][9]