Andrew Gross, "a member of a prominent New York apparel family who abandoned a career in the rag trade to write nearly 20 crime and political thrillers, including five bestsellers with James Patterson," died on April 9, the New York Times reported. He was 72.
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| Andrew Gross (photo: Jan Cobb) |
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In a Facebook post, Patterson wrote: "I'm saddened by the loss of my friend and co-author, Andy Gross. He was a hugely talented writer. We did several books together, including some of the early Women's Murder Club novels. Andy recently shared some personal reflections on his heroic battle."
Gross's own novels include Eyes Wide Open (2011), 15 Seconds (2012), No Way Back (2013), and Everything to Lose (2014), "as well as his popular series featuring the character Ty Hauck, a detective who probes the dark doings behind the mansion gates of Greenwich, Conn.," the Times noted, adding that The One Man (2016) "centers on a young Jewish man who escapes the Krakow ghetto early in World War II and later joins an American intelligence effort to rescue a renowned physicist from the Auschwitz concentration camp."
A grandson of Fred P. Pomerantz, founder of Leslie Fay Inc., Gross was in his 40s when he decided to trade his executive position with the apparel company for a writing career. In a 2015 interview, he said, "Basically, I came home without a job one night and announced to my wife and three kids that I wanted to write a novel."
He spent three years writing, editing, and attempting to sell his first novel, Hydra, which was never published. Then he received a call from Patterson's publisher asking if he would be willing to talk with the bestselling author. An editor at the publishing house had sent Gross's manuscript to Patterson, who invited him to breakfast and said that "he had several projects he wanted to write and not enough time to do them," Gross recalled on his website. "I had the incredible foresight to say yes."
Their first book together, 2nd Chance (2002), was the second installment of Patterson's Women's Murder Club series. Gross described his early experience working with Patterson "like a combination MFA and MBA rolled into one." The result: "My first book was a #1 bestseller." The partnership with Patterson led to further successful books, including Lifeguard (2005) and Judge & Jury (2006).
Gross subsequently wrote his own novel, The Blue Zone (2007), and in 2018 published "what he considered his most personal work, Button Man, about someone from a poor Jewish family on the Lower East Side of Manhattan who fights his way up the ladder in the garment trade only to find himself in a Depression-era standoff with vicious Jewish mobsters," the Times wrote.
Shortly after Gross's death, author Hank Phillippi Ryan posted on social media: "I wrote Andy Gross an email last week, reminding him of the wonderful dinner we had in New York some years ago and how my most powerful image of that night was how much he loved his wife Lynn and how much she loved him back. The two of them were goofy and giggling and brilliant, and I thought--these people are so happy and lucky and grateful! He made all of us happy too, and smarter and funnier and wiser. And I love this picture of us deep in discussion. We will miss him, and we are grateful, too."