American · 1939–2008
James Crumley was an American crime novelist whose hardboiled detective fiction set in the American West earned him a devoted literary following and comparison to Chandler and Hammett. A Vietnam veteran and creative writing professor, he brought literary ambition and Western melancholy to the detective form. His novels featuring C.W. Sughrue and Milo Milodragovitch are considered masterpieces of neo-noir.