Paul D. Marks, the award-winning mystery writer best known for the 2013 novel White Heat, died on February 28, his wife, Amy Marks, wrote on Facebook, saying in part, "He died peacefully listening to Beatles and cowboy music. He loved sharing his film noir alerts, his dog walking pictures, his love of writing and his thoughts on life with you. He used to boast that he could go anywhere in the country and would have a Facebook friend he could have lunch with."
A native of Los Angeles, Calif., Marks wrote extensively about the city and Southern California. He published four novels during his career and numerous short stories, many of which won awards. His novel White Heat, which was set in L.A. during the 1992 riots, won the Shamus Award for Independent Private Eye Novel in 2013. He published a sequel, Broken Windows, in 2018.
Marks's short stories appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Hardboiled, Mystery Weekly and more. His 2016 short story "Ghosts of Bunker Hill," also set in L.A., was published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and was voted #1 in its readers poll that year. His 2018 short story "Windward" appeared in the Best American Mystery Stories of 2018 and won the 2018 Macavity Award for Best Story. He published his last novel, The Blues Don't Care, in June of last year.
Marks was also a board member of the Los Angeles chapters of Sisters in Crime and the Mystery Writers of America.