Elmore Leonard added his handprints to the celebrity cement slabs at the Detroit Historical Museum Legends Plaza

Crime novelist Elmore “Dutch” Leonard won’t be finishing his 46th novel, the one his researcher and assistant Gregg Sutter said he’d been working on when the writer suffered a stroke in late July.

Leonard passed away at his suburban Detroit the morning of August 20, 2013. He would have been 88 in October. I’ve read many—not nearly all—of his books and seen most of the movies that have been made from some of them. I haven’t yet missed an episode of the FX TV show “Justified” based on his character, Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens. (The fifth season is scheduled to begin in January 2014.)

I had a chance to chat with Leonard during the photo shoot for the 1980s “Feel at home in my hometown” ad campaign for Detroit

So I’m hooked on Leonard, a fellow University of Detroit alum, and have posted a few stories at Great Lakes Gazette about him and his work:

Respect for Elmore Leonard is Justified

On the Day I Saved Dutch Leonard’s Life

FILMichigan: Out of Sight

Although Leonard’s no longer sitting in his living room, writing longhand on yellow pads of paper, his characters live on. Except those that don’t. But they (most of them, anyway) deserved to be offed.

Find out more at ElmoreLeonard.com

Stories and photos copyright Kath Usitalo unless otherwise noted