Roderick Mayne Thorp, Jr. (September 1, 1936 – April 28, 1999) was an American novelist specializing mainly in crime novels.

As a young college graduate, Thorp worked at a detective agency owned by his father. He would later teach literature and lecture on creative writing at schools and universities in New Jersey and California, and also wrote articles for newspapers and magazines.

Two of his best known novels were turned into movies: his 1966 work The Detective was made into a 1968 movie of the same name, starring Frank Sinatra as Detective Joe Leland, and his 1979 sequel to The Detective, Nothing Lasts Forever, was turned into the 1988 film Die Hard. Though Die Hard featured several similarities to the novel, it was not made as a sequel to the film version of The Detective. Also two of his films were turned into TV movies Rainbow Drive and Devlin. Thorp died of a heart attack in Oxnard, California.

Novels by Roderick Thorp

• Into the Forest (1961)
• The Detective (1966)
• Dionysus (1969)
• The Music of their laughter; an American album (1970)
• Wives: An Investigation (1971)
• Slaves (1973)
• The Circle of love (1974)
• Westfield (1977)
• Nothing Lasts Forever (1979) (reissued as Die Hard)
• Jenny and Barnum: A novel of love (1981)
• Rainbow Drive (1986)
• Devlin (1988)
• River: a Novel of the Green River Killings (1995)

External links

• Roderick Thorp at IMDb
• Story on Thorp's Death

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