Shane Craig Stevens (October 8, 1941 – 2007) was an American author of

crime novels Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a profession ...

. His parents are John and Caroline (Royale) Stevens. His novels include ''Go Down Dead'' (1966), ''Way Uptown in Another World'' (1971), ''Dead City'' (1973), ''Rat Pack'' (1974), ''By Reason of Insanity'' (1979), and ''The Anvil Chorus'' (1985).

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...

wrote an appreciation of Stevens in the Afterword of his novel ''

The Dark Half ''The Dark Half'' is a horror novel by American writer Stephen King, published in 1989. ''Publishers Weekly'' listed ''The Dark Half'' as the second-best-selling book of 1989 behind Tom Clancy's '' Clear and Present Danger''. The novel was ada ...

'' and paid tribute to him in that book, in which Thad Beaumont writes violent crime novels starring a character named "Alexis Machine," a reference to a character from Stevens' novel ''Dead City''. In Stevens' novel ''By Reason of Insanity'' the

serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...

character, Thomas Bishop, believes he is the son of

Caryl Chessman Caryl Whittier Chessman (May 27, 1921 – May 2, 1960) was a convicted robber, kidnapper, serial rapist, and writer who was sentenced to death for a series of crimes committed in January 1948 in the Los Angeles area. Chessman was charged with 17 ...

, who was executed in 1960 for various crimes including rape and kidnapping. The hero of his later novel ''The Anvil Chorus'', a Paris police inspector, is an Alsatian

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

apparently related to

Alfred Dreyfus Alfred Dreyfus (9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935) was a French Army officer best known for his central role in the Dreyfus affair. In 1894, Dreyfus fell victim to a judicial conspiracy that eventually sparked a major political crisis in the Fre ...

. Stevens also wrote two crime novels under the pseudonym J.W. Rider: ''Jersey Tomatoes'' (Arbor 1986) and ''Hot Tickets'' (Arbor 1987). The protagonist is Ryder Malone in both novels. The setting is New Jersey. Allen J. Hubin: ''Crime Fiction IV: A Comprehensive Bibliography, 1749-2000'', 2010 revised edition (Locus Press)) Malone is an extremely tough private detective who specializes in cases of murder.

References

1941 births 2007 deaths American male novelists Place of death missing Place of birth missing American crime writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers {{US-novelist-1940s-stub