Ah, Dennis....

From the AP via Publishers Lunch:

Mystery Novelist Dennis Lynds Dies at 81
By ALEX VEIGA
The Associated Press
Sunday, August 21, 2005; 1:36 AM

LOS ANGELES -- Dennis Lynds, whose tautly written mysteries featuring the one-armed Dan Fortune were praised for reflecting contemporary political and social issues, has died. He was 81.
Lynds, who wrote under the name Michael Collins, among others, died Friday at a San Francisco hospital from septic shock caused by bowel necrosis and multiorgan failure, Mark Powning, an investigator with the medical examiner's office, said Saturday.

Lynds collapsed Thursday in the parking lot of the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center while trying to visit his eldest daughter, who had been hospitalized there, said Kathleen Sharp, a family friend.

He died the next day at San Francisco General Hospital, Powning said.

Sharp said the author, who lived in Santa Barbara, had been ill for some time and had undergone several surgeries for a stomach condition.

In a career spanning more than four decades, Lynds wrote more than 80 novels and short stories, according to his Web site.

The first Dan Fortune novel, "Act of Fear," was published in 1967 and won the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award for best first novel. The last novel in the series, "Fortune's World," was published in 2000.

The Fortune novels were praised for their writing and for their willingness to reflect on contemporary political and social controversies.

"I write mysteries to say something, not just for entertainment," Lynds told the Santa Barbara News-Press in 1982.

Lynds was born in New York and moved to Santa Barbara in 1965.
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