Bruce Alexander

Background

Bruce Alexander (real name Bruce Cook) was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States in 1932. His father was a train dispatcher and because of his frequent new assignments family had to move often in Alexander's early years.

Education

Alexander graduated from Loyola University, Chicago, where he studied literature.

Career

Alexander served as a translator and public relations worker for the U.S. Army in Frankfurt, Germany, in the late 1950s when military service was still obligatory in the United States. In 1967, he settled at the National Observer in Washington D.C. as an editor and covered movies, books, and music. After the newspaper was shut, he started collaborating with the USA Today, the Detroit News, and then the Los Angeles Daily News (from 1984 to 1990) as a book editor. He held a position of a senior editor at Newsweek. Through the whole time, he was writing as a non-staff journalist, selling his works to different publishers such as the National Catholic Reporter.

Alexander started his career of a writer in 1971 from a nonfiction book The Beat Generation, published by Charles Scribner's Sons. His following book was a biography of a screenwriter Dalton Trumbo that was published in 1977 and became a plot base for 2015 film. Alexander's first fiction writing was Sex Life where the plot was set in Chicago, released in 1978.

Alexander's following fiction works was a series of novels about Los Angeles detective Antonio "Chico" Cervantes, which consisted of: Mexican Standoff, 1988; Rough Cut, 1990; Death as a Career Move, 1992; and Sidewalk Hilton, 1994.

The series about Sir John Fielding that brought him the most prominent success starts with the 1994 novel Blind Justice. The real Fielding, along with his half-brother, Henry Fielding, the author of several books including Tom Jones, founded London’s first police force, the Bow Street Runners. To this true historical background Alexander adds a cast of imaginary characters. The whole series consists of eleven books some of which were published only after the Alexander's death. Alexander died on November 9, 2003, in Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center because of a stroke.

Achievements

• Bruce Alexander wrote a successful series of novels about Sir John Fielding that was successful not only commercially, but also warmly taken by critics. His biographical book Trumbo was also adapted for the screen in 2015, twelve years after his death.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Person or Persons Unknown

    (John Fielding was famous not only as cofounder of London'...)

    1997
  • The Price of Murder

    (Experience the dangerous intrigue of Georgian England in ...)

    2003
  • Smuggler's Moon

    (Blind magistrate Sir John Fielding investigates corruptio...)

    1998
  • An Experiment in Treason

    (A packet of incendiary letters is stolen from the London ...)

    2002
  • The Color of Death

    (Suspicion and fear are running high in London, as a gang ...)

    2000
  • Jack, Knave and Fool

    (In this fifth Sir John Fielding mystery, the legendary ei...)

    1998
  • Trumbo

    (The true story that inspired the major motion picture sta...)

    1977
  • Watery Grave

    (In this third adventure, Sir John Fielding returns in his...)

    1996
  • Blind Justice

    (Now in trade paperback, the very first John Fielding hist...)

    1994
  • Rules of Engagement

    (“Richly detailed fiction…storytelling in the grand classi...)

    2005
  • Murder in Grub Street

    (The crime appeared as easily solved as it was wicked. A G...)

    1995
  • Death of a Colonial

    (“A rich rewarding trip for everyone.” - The New York Time...)

    1999

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• "The crime novel is sometimes relegated to a secondary rank in literature, and only certain authors are capable of raising the genre to the status of serious fiction. The adventures of Sir John Fielding, which uses an original point of view - that of a poor orphan who lends his eyes and pen to a blind judge - are distinguished by the quality of the writing and the accuracy of the historical setting. They make Bruce Alexander a great author of historical crime fiction." Alain Kerhervé, Senior Lecturer in English, University of Bretagne Occidentale

Connections

Alexander's first wife was Catherine Coghlan. They had three children in this marriage - Catherine, Bob, and Ceci. In 1994 he married Judith Aller, a concert violinist.

1st wife:

Catherine Coghlan

2nd wife:

Judith Aller

Doughter:

Catherine Cook

Son:

Bob Cook

Doughter:

Ceci Cook

References

• The Armchair Detective The Armchair Detective Winter 1996 Volume 29 #1 Carl Hiaasen, Bouchercon, Nancy Drew, Kinky Friedman Interview, Ellis Peters, Jeremy Brett, Ian Fleming
  1996