Roderick Thorp Books In Order

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Publication Order of Standalone Novels

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Roderick Thorp is a thriller and mystery fiction author that was born in the Bronx on September 1936.

He attended City College of New York which is where he began writing. It was at this time that he would become the winner of the Theodore Goodman Short Story Award.

Following graduation from college, he would work selling cars, then in a haberdashery, became a founder of a catering company, and worked for an insurance company.

When he was in his twenties, he was employed by his father who was the owner of a private detective agency.

At some point, he remembers spending a week lying underneath a bus as he spied on a mechanic who was stealing gasoline and selling it on.

He published “The Detective” in 1966 and this would be what made him retire from a career as a private investigator. The novel was an exploration of the lives of police detectives in big cities such as Los Angeles and New York.
The work garnered him some fame and a lot of money and he would become quite the sensation. Thorp now has more than a dozen novels to his name.

During the early 1970s, Roderick Thorp spent much of his time at Ramapo College in New Jersey where he was a literature teacher. In 1976, he moved to Los Angles where he for a time worked in newspapers.

It was at this time that he wrote “On the Cocaine Trail” a series of crime pieces for the “Los Angeles Herald Examiner.” Thorp also published “Nothing Lasts Forever” another detective novel that was so popular that it was optioned by 20th Century Fox.
It was this title that would ultimately become the inspiration for the “Die Hard” series. The movie adaptation that starred Bruce Willis was a blockbuster work that would go on to spawn several movies.

He would then take a break from writing and got into teaching online as he helped aspiring authors with their manuscripts.

Despite having achieved much success, he remained an unassuming man who drove nondescript cars and smoked ordinary cigarettes.

At some point, he asserted that he would never allow money to change his identity. According to him, the only things he values in life are honor, friendships, truthfulness, and loyalty.

The former private investigator and bestselling novelist Roderick Thorp died aged 62 at his home in Oxnard California. According to his son Roderick Thorp junior, the author had died of a heart attack three days before his body was discovered.
Over the years, Roderick had made a name for himself writing some of the most popular novels in the crime and mystery thriller world.

In the hard-boiled world in which he was respected, many critics considered him a master of characterization and suspense.

Aside from his works of fiction, he was survived by Claudia his wife, sons Stephen and Roddy, and Caroly, Valerie, and Stacey his grandchildren.

“The Detective” by Roderick Thorp tells the story of a private detective, war hero, public tough guy, and career cop whose private life is coming undone.
When one of his wartime acquaintances is killed when he fell from a race track roof his widow comes to him for help.

As he dives into the investigation, he finds himself drawn into the shadowy areas of his past – his troubled marriage, the war, and the tragic murder case that cost him his career in law enforcement.
“The Detective” is a psychological thriller that would ultimately be made into a Frank Sinatra-starring classic film. It is a showcase of a man that has to confront horror and violence – and himself.
Over the course of the novel, the police officer turned private investigator is forced to dredge up memories of his past.

He has once had to work on the case of a man that committed suicide in very bizarre circumstances that ultimately made him go off the rails.

It is easy to see why the work became a bestselling title that inspired a classic movie. Thorp pens his story as an anti-Hammet or Chandler as he exchanges their stylized private eye character for weather-beaten wariness.

Roderick Thorp’s novel “Nothing Lasts Forever” is the blockbuster work that inspired the Bruce Willis starring film “Die Hard.”

High on top of a skyscraper in Los Angeles, a Christmas party soon becomes a dangerous cage match pitting a single New York Police officer against a gang of international terrorists.
The more than a dozen heavily armed men had taken hostages and then started issuing demands, They promised bloodshed if their demands were not met.

However, what these criminals had not counted on was the one-man cavalry with no backup and no shoes, and no intention of backing down foiling all their plans.

As dozens of LAPD police officers swarm the outside of the building and the killer brandish rocket launchers and machine guns inside, it sets the stage for the ultimate war between some uber villain and an anti-hero.
Everyone that loves the “Die Hard” movies would instantly recognize this plotline. But before Willis made mince meat of the script and charmed audiences acting as John McClane, it was Roderick Thorp who charmed readers with his bestseller.

“River” by Roderick Thorp is a work that takes a deeper look into the real-life terrors of the “Green River Killer,” who has to be one of the most maniacal serial killers ever.
Living in the 1980s, he murdered more than 50 women in the Portland-Seattle area and was never convicted.

Thorp writes a well-paced but breathtaking story that takes his readers into the minds of a human demon and a detective struggling with personal demons.

The former is a despicable man who has a wanton disregard for human life that his motivations and actions would make almost anyone cringe.

Thorp is a brilliant author who writes a rollercoaster thriller that comes with a genuinely surprising ending.

Having worked as a crime reporter and private detective, he is a masterful storyteller and this comes out in his writing. He also does some great research which allows him to effortlessly draw readers into the story.