A Done Diehl

William Diehl, the onetime Georgia journalist and photographer who, at age 50, decided to stop wasting his life and become a novelist, died on Friday at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. He was 81.

Most people probably remember Diehl for his 1978 debut novel, Sharky’s Machine, or perhaps for 1992’s Primal Fear, which was later made into a movie starring Richard Gere and Edward Norton. But when I think of Diehl, what comes to mind is his last novel published during his lifetime, a period thriller called Eureka (2002). As I wrote in my review for Amazon.com, Eureka offered lots of menace but little true violence. Nonetheless, it was “a polished work,” the story of “Zeke Bannon, a young L.A. cop whose probing into the murder of a mysterious widow--electrocuted in her own bathtub--leads him to the once-sinful town of Eureka, now called San Pietro. It’s from there that [the widow had] been receiving anonymous cashier’s checks over the last two decades, money Bannon figures she earned by her silence. Was she helping to cover up the truth about a 1921 shootout that caused the death of Eureka’s frontier-style sheriff? Nobody in modern San Pietro will talk, least of all Thomas ‘Brodie’ Culhane, a World War I hero who cleaned up the town and is now running for governor of California. Torn between admiring Culhane and trying to link him to the widow’s killing, Bannon ignites historical enmities that threaten to express both men to their graves.” With solidly developed characters and an unexpected conclusion, Eureka showed the work of an accomplished hand.

As The Washington Post noted earlier today, “Diehl was writing his 10th novel at the time of his death. It was expected to be published sometime next year, his friends said.” Let’s hope his publisher follows through with that plan.

(Hat tip to Bill Crider.)