Joe Gores


Joseph Nicholas Gores was an American mystery writer. He was known best for his novels and short stories set in San Francisco and featuring the fictional Dan Kearney and Associates private investigation firm specializing in repossessing cars, a thinly veiled escalation of his own experiences as a confidential sleuth and repo man. Gores was also recognized for his novels Hammett, Spade & Archer and his Edgar Award-winning or -nominated works, such as A Time of Predators, 32 Cadillacs and Come Morning.

Life and career

Gores lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and was a longtime resident. He obtained a degree in English literature from Notre Dame University and received a master's degree, also in English literature, from Stanford University in 1961.
Gores worked for 12 years as a private investigator for San Francisco's David Kikkert & Associates, and put in other stints as a truck driver, logger, assistant motel manager and an English teacher at a boys' school in Kenya. In his novels he used variations of the names of former associates—such as Stan Groner. According to The Thrilling Detective Web Site, "He has often relied on his former occupations, particularly his stint as a private eye, to lend an air of authenticity to his work, blasting through the 'glamour' of detective work, showing the drudgery and grunt work of detection."
Gores died in a Marin County, California, hospital 50 years to the day after Dashiell Hammett died.

Literary career

Gores was a three-time Edgar Award winner, and only one of three authors to receive Edgars in three separate categories; Gores won Best First Novel, Best Short Story and Best TV Series Segment for writing an episode of the crime drama Kojak titled "No Immunity for Murder"—airdate Nov. 23, 1975.
In addition, Gores received the 1986 Maltese Falcon Award, Japan's highest commendation in the mystery fiction field and the Private Eye Writers of America lifetime achievement award. He was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America. His novels 32 Cadillacs and Come Morning were nominated for Best Novel Edgars.
Aside from Kojak, Gores wrote teleplays and screenplays for popular mystery series such as Remington Steele, B.L. Stryker, Mrs. Columbo, and ''Magnum, P.I.''

Crossovers

Gores and Donald Westlake wrote the same encounter between two of their characters from different perspectives in two different novels. In Chapter 18 of Gores' 1972 novel Dead Skip, San Francisco detective Dan Kearney meets Westlake's amoral thief Parker while looking for one of Parker's associates. The sequence is described from Parker's viewpoint in the 1972 book Plunder Squad, which Westlake wrote under the pseudonym Richard Stark. Gores hints further at the connection between the two books by referring to Parker's associates as "the plunder squad." Additionally, earlier in the novel, the book's protagonist Larry Ballard is described as being a reader only of Richard Stark novels.
Gores and Westlake also wrote a shared chapter in Westlake's Drowned Hopes and Gores' 32 Cadillacs, having the characters in those books influenced by the same event.

Works

Novels:
  • A Time of Predators
  • Interface
  • Wolf Time
  • Come Morning
  • Dead Man
  • Menaced Assassin
  • Cases
  • Glass Tiger
Hammett novels:
  • Hammett
  • Spade & Archer
DKA novels :
  • Dead Skip
  • Final Notice
  • Gone, No Forwarding
  • 32 Cadillacs
  • Contract Null & Void
  • Stakeout on Page Street and Other DKA Files
  • Cons, Scams & Grifts
Short story collections:
  • Mostly Murder
  • Speak of the Devil: 14 Tales of Crimes and Their Punishments
Editorial works:
  • Honolulu: Port of Call
  • Tricks and Treats
  • Marine Salvage: The Unforgiving Business of No Cure, No Pay
Non-fiction:
  • Marine Salvage: The Unforgiving Business of No Cure, No Pay
  • ''Joe Gores Interview''

    Selected short stories

Gores had written more than 100 short stories by 1993. This is a selection:
EQMM = Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine; DKA = stories involving Dan Kearney and Associates
  • "Inscrutable"
  • "Summer Fog"
  • "Ishmael"
  • "Sleep the Big Sleep"
  • "Dance of the Dead"
  • "File #12: Do Not Go Gentle"
  • "Detectivitis, Anyone?"
  • "Smart Guys Don't Snore"
  • "File #11: Jump Her Lively, Boys!"
  • "File # 9: Full Moon Madness"
  • "Rope Enough"
  • "Kirinyga"
  • "File #8: The O'Bannon Blarney File"
  • "Raptor"
  • "File #10: The Maimed and the Halt"
  • "Watch for It"
  • "The War Club"
  • "File #7: O Black and Unknown Bard"
  • "File #6: Beyond the Shadow"
  • "You're Putting Me On—Aren't You?"
  • "Trouble at 81 Fathoms"
  • "Force 12"
  • "The Andrech Samples"
  • "The Bear's Paw"
  • "The Criminal"
  • "Goodbye, Pops"
  • "Quit Screaming"
  • "Gunman in Town"
  • "File #5: The Maria Navarro Case"
  • "South of the Moon"
  • "File #4: Lincoln Sedan Deadline"
  • "File #3: The Pedretti Case"
  • "The Golden Tiki"
  • "Olmurani"
  • "File #2: Stakeout on Page Street"
  • "File # 1: The Mayfield Case"
  • "Odendahl"
  • "The Second Coming"
  • "Kanaka"
  • "The Seeker of Ultimates"
  • "A Sad and Bloody Hour" reprinted in Mike Ashley, ed., Historical Whodunits, Barnes & Noble, Inc. 1997, p.243
  • "My Buddy"
  • "Sweet Vengeance"
  • "The Price of Lust"
  • "Darl I Luv U"
  • "Trouble in Papeete"
  • "The Main Chance"
  • "Muscle Beach"
  • "The Mob"
  • "Night Out"
  • "Sailor's Girl"
  • "You Aren't Yellow"
  • "Down and Out"
  • "Killer Man"
  • "Chain Gang"

    Selected screenplays

  • B.L. Stryker: "Blind Chess"
  • T.J. Hooker: "Death Trip"
  • Magnum, P.I.: "A Pretty Good Dancing Chicken"
  • Remington Steele: "Let's Steele a Plot"
  • Kate Loves a Mystery : "Love, on Instant Replay"
  • Kojak: "Case without a File"
  • Kojak: "Bad Dude"
  • Kojak: "No Immunity for Murder"

    Audio drama

The German audio-drama producer Ohrenkneifer released "South of Market" on CD in August 2014. It was a full-cast audio drama version of the short story, in German.