Les Roberts (mystery novel writer)

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Les Roberts is also the name of the primary author of two studies in the Lancet reporting nearly 100,000 civilian casualties in the Iraq War in 2004 and 2006

Les Roberts began his career as a contemporary American mystery novelist after twenty-four years in Hollywood, having written and/or produced more than 2500 half-hours of network and syndicated television. He was the first producer and head writer of The Hollywood Squares, and has written for The Lucy Show, The Andy Griffith Show, The Jackie Gleason Show and The Man from U.N.C.L.E., among others.

In 1987 he won the very first "Best First Private Eye Novel Contest" for An Infinite Number of Monkeys. Roberts also won the Cleveland Arts Prize for Literature and has been voted "Cleveland's Favorite Author" by Cleveland.com. He is past president of the Private Eye Writers of America and the regular mystery book critic for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He has been a professional actor, singer, businessman, teacher and jazz musician.

Roberts is primarily seen as a regional writer. Though his Saxon series is set in Los Angeles, he is best known for his Milan Jacovich series (it's pronounced My-lan Yock-o-vitch) set in his adopted hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. Jacovich, unlike many single, dashing private eyes of fiction, is a battered, Stroh's-drinking, polka-dancing Slovenian with a Serbian ex-wife and two sons that he sees every other Sunday. Jacovich's working-guy attitude has endeared him to many Cleveland readers.

[edit] Bibliography

The Saxon series

  • An Infinite Number Of Monkeys (1987)
  • Not Enough Horses (1988)
  • A Carrot For The Donkey (1989)
  • Snake Oil (1990)
  • Seeing The Elephant (1992)
  • The Lemon Chicken Jones (1994)

The Milan Jacovich series

  • Pepper Pike (1988)
  • Full Cleveland (1989)
  • Deep Shaker (1991)
  • The Cleveland Connection (1993)
  • The Lake Effect (1994)
  • The Duke Of Cleveland (1995)
  • Collision Bend (1996)
  • The Cleveland Local (1997)
  • A Shoot In Cleveland (1998)
  • The Best Kept Secret (1999)
  • The Indian Sign (2000)
  • The Dutch (2001)
  • The Irish Sports Pages (2002)
  • King of the Holly Hop (2008)

Other

  • The Chinese Fire Drill (2001)
  • The Scent of Spiced Oranges and Other Stories (2002)