Name Marc Olden Role Author | Died 2003 | |
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Genre Crime fiction, Hardboiled, Mystery, Thriller Nominations Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original Books Poe Must Die, Fear's justice, A dangerous glamour, The ghost, They've Killed Anna | ||
Marc Olden (1933 – 2003) was an American author of mystery and suspense. He is perhaps best remembered for his haunting mystery Poe Must Die in which 19th century American author Edgar Allan Poe appears as a protagonist. He was a prolific author of forty books, two non-fiction and thirty-eight fiction.
He was recognized from the beginning of his career as a masterful crime writer and was nominated for the coveted Edgar Award for "They've Killed Anna", from his popular "Harker File" series about an investigative reporter. In 2000, the Black Caucus of the American Library Association presented Olden with the Literary Fiction Honor Award for his New York crime novel "The Ghost".
Career
Marc Olden started his writing career with two works of non fiction — a biography of Angela Davis and a study of Cocaine in 1970s New York — before turning to the genres of thriller and suspense. Under the pen name Robert Hawkes, Olden began writing the Narc series, which follows a policeman on a counterdrug task force. During those early years Olden also produced "Black Samurai". The book follows the exploits of Robert Sand, a martial arts expert and the only non-Japanese trained by a Japanese samurai master. It became a successful novel series and was later made into a film, starring actor/karate-stylist Jim Kelly. Many of Olden’s eastern influenced books, such as "Giri", "Dai-Sho", "Gaijin", "Oni", "Te", "Kisaeng" and "Krait" reflect his lifelong study of the martial arts. At his death he held advanced degree black belts in Aikido and Karate.
Several of his books were optioned for film rights.