Lionel White  

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Lionel White (January 1905 – December 1985) was an American crime novelist, several of whose dark, noirish stories were made into films. His books include The Snatchers (made into a film as The Night of the Following Day by Hubert Cornfield starring Marlon Brando), The Money Trap (made into a movie by Burt Kennedy starring Glen Ford & Elke Sommer), The Big Caper (made into a film by Robert Stevens starring Rory Calhoun), Death takes the bus, Clean Break (adapted by Stanley Kubrick as the basis for his 1956 film, The Killing), and Obsession (adapted by Jean-Luc Godard as the basis for his 1965 film, Pierrot le fou) and by the Finnish director Seppo Huunonen for the 1974 film The Hair (Karvat) and Rafferty, adapted by 1980 Soviet Lenfilm production of the same title. He died in December 1985. Seven years later, Quentin Tarantino, in his film Reservoir Dogs, credited White, among others, as an inspiration.

White (AKA as L.W. Blanco) had been a crime reporter and began writing suspense novels in the 1950s. He wrote more than 35 books, all translated into a number of different languages. His earlier novels were published as Gold Medal pulp hard-boiled crime fiction, but when Duttons began a line of mystery and suspense books, he also wrote for them. He was most well known as what a New York Times review described as "the master of the big caper."

Novels

• A Death at Sea (1961)
• A Grave Undertaking (1961)
• A Party to Murder (1966)
• A Rich and Dangerous Game (1974)
• A Right for Murder (1957)
• Before I Die
• Clean Break (1955) (Re-released as The Killing)
• Coffin for a Hood (1958)
• Death of a City (1970)
• Death Takes the Bus (1957)
• Flight into Terror (1955)
• Hijack (1969)
• Hostage for a Hood (1957)
• Invitation to Violence (1958)
• Jailbreak (1976)
• Lament for a Virgin (1960)
• Love Trap
• Marilyn K. (1960)
• The Night of the Rape (1967)
• Obsession (1962)
• Operation - Murder (1956)
• Rafferty (1959)
• Run, Killer, Run! (1959)
• Seven Hungry Men!
• Steal Big (1960)
• The Big Caper (1955)
• The Crimshaw Memorandum (1967)
• The House Next Door (1956)
• The House on K Street (1965)
• The Merriweather File (1959)
• The Mexico Run (1974)
• The Mind Poisoners (1966). White started this Nick Carter book under a pseudonym for Signet's Killmasters Spy series. Valerie Moolman took over and finished it.
• The Money Trap (1963)
• The Ransomed Madonna (1964)
• The Snatchers (1953) (Filmed as The Night of the Following Day)
• The Time of Terror (1960)
• The Walled Yard (1978)
• To Find a Killer (also released as Before I Die) (1954)
• Too Young to Die (1958)

Sources

• Allen J. Hubin: Crime Fiction IV. A Comprehensive Bibliography, 1749-2000, 2010 Revised Edition (Locus Press).