Stuart M. Kaminsky, a writer of impressive range who created four distinctive detectives for series set in Los Angeles, Chicago, Moscow and Florida, joined the elite of his craft in 2006 when the Mystery Writers of America named him a Grand Master.
A native of Chicago’s West Side who decamped for Sarasota, Fla., in 1989 but maintained ties to his hometown, Mr. Kaminsky, 75, died of complications from hepatitis and a recent stroke Friday, Oct. 9, in Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, said his son Peter.
Starting with “Bullet for a Star” in 1977, Mr. Kaminsky wrote more than 70 novels. He incorporated the names of his two sons for his first lead character, Toby Peters, a former movie lot security officer who prowled 1940s Hollywood on behalf of celebrity clients like Errol Flynn and Peter Lorre.
Leads in subsequent series were taken by Porfiry Rostnikov, a police inspector in Moscow; Abe Lieberman, a crusty but wise Chicago cop who works the streets with his younger partner, Bill Hanrahan; and Lew Fonesca, a former Cook County state’s attorney investigator now operating as a cut-rate private eye in Sarasota.
Mr. Kaminsky, who from 1972 until 1989 taught in the radio television and film program at Northwestern University, also wrote nonfiction books on film directors Don Siegel (“Dirty Harry”), Ingmar Bergman and John Huston, and actor-director Clint Eastwood.
He supplied the dialogue for Sergio Leone’s gangland epic “Once Upon a Time in America” and produced harrowing thrillers like “When the Dark Man Calls” and “Exercise in Terror.” He also wrote novelized versions of the television shows “The Rockford Files” and “CSI.”
“He was incredibly productive as a writer, always exploring new forms and new ways to tell stories,” said Chicago mystery writer Sara Paretsky, who credits Mr. Kaminsky with giving her career an early boost.
Always generous with fledgling writers, Mr. Kaminsky was a former president of the Mystery Writers of America and was active with the group’s Midwest chapter. For a number of years, he spoke at annual “Dark and Stormy Night” workshops for mystery writers, said Chicago novelist Barbara D’Amato.
“He did talk a lot about structure and plotting,” D’Amato said. “He was careful to say they needed to work at it, write and rewrite, and there is no magic.”
In fall 1979, Paretsky attended his class on “Writing Detective Fiction for Publication” at Northwestern. He encouraged her to set her novels in the financial world because that’s the field she was in at the time, read her manuscript and provided a connection to his agent and publishers.
“I don’t think it’s overstating it to say I owe my career to him,” said Paretsky, author of 13 novels featuring female private investigator V.I. Warshawski.
“A Cold Red Sunrise,” part of the Porfiry Rostnikov series, won the 1989 Edgar Award for best novel from the Mystery Writers of America. As a Grand Master Award winner, Mr. Kaminsky is among luminaries of the genre including Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler and Elmore Leonard.
Mr. Kaminsky graduated from Marshall High School and got a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois, starting at the downstate campus and finishing in Chicago, his son said.
He was an Army medic in the 1950s, when his family believes he got hepatitis C.
He worked as a photographer with a Milwaukee newspaper, did university public relations and wrote for obscure trade publications. In 1972, he received his doctorate from Northwestern’s School of Speech.
An early novel was rejected as pretentious by an agent who told him he should stick to writing textbooks, his son said.
“He stopped trying to write something moving and meaningful and important and just (went with) what was fun to write,” his son said. “It worked.”
Mr. Kaminsky’s first marriage ended in divorce, but he later married again.
Other survivors include his wife, Enid Perll; another son, Toby; two daughters, Lucy and Natasha; his mother, Dorothy; a sister, Sara Rashkow; and three grandchildren.
Services were held in St. Louis.
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