Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / Charles Willeford — Guthrie-esque hobo, World War II hero, pulp-fiction genius — was one of the best crime writers of his generation, influential yet under-appreciated. Among his many books, Cockfighter became a cult-classic film starring Warren Oates, Miami Blues a quirky eighties jaunt with Alec Baldwin, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Fred Ward. His slender memoir, I Was Looking for a Street, wistfully encapsulated both the promise and the strange loneliness of mid-century America, much as Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald did in their detective fiction. The Pick-Up was a brutal, uniquely incisive parable about race in America. Thirty-two years after his death and almost 50 years after its initial publication, The Burnt Orange Heresy — arguably his best novel — has made it to the screen, courtesy of director Giuseppe Capotondi and screenwriter Scott Smith, who prove its timelessness.
