Jonathan Goodman, R.I.P.

The Telegraph is reporting the death of Jonathan Goodman, "Britain's leading historian of crime." His work was well known all over the English-speaking world.

He will remain forever famous in the genre for writing more than three dozen books. The most impressive: The Killing of Julia Wallace - still in print forty years after it was written.

A favorite of American fans is the book he wrote chronicling his 6,000-mile trek across North America to visit famous murder sites. He wrote of his travels in Tracks To Murder. (More on that from the publisher, Kent State University Press.)

The Telegraph has details of the author's career and lists some other famous titles.

The Casebook has posted details on the author's passing and career.

Fantastic Fiction has a complete bibliography.

Comments

[Fiz]

Oh no! He was great friends with the Elmers of booksite fame, and a truly wonderful writer. It was he who hooked me on historic crime. I know he'd been in bad health for some years, and lived to a ripe old age, but it's still a loss.

[Foose]

Very sad. His book on Julia Wallace was fascinating, the perfect balance of evidence for and against the prisoner shows why it had such a grip on the crime writers of the period. As Raymond Chandler said, "The Wallace case is unbeatable; it will always be unbeatable." The imagination is still haunted by the fatal address, Menlove Gardens East, like Hilldrop Crescent, or Birdhurst Rise, the geography of domestic murder.