Les Roberts (mystery novel writer)

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 (born Lester Roubert, July 18, 1937) to Lester Nathaniel and Eleanor (Bauch) Roubert in Chicago, Illinois, he changed his name to Roberts in 1968. Attended the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and Roosevelt University (1954–1956), served in the U.S. Army (1960–1962), and married Gail Medland in 1957; they divorced in 1980. Roberts has two children, Valerie Lynne and Darren Jon, one grandchild, Shea Holland Thompson.

Roberts began his career as a contemporary American mystery novelist^[1] after twenty-four years in Hollywood, having written and/or produced more than 2,500 half-hour segments 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 1986 he won the very first "Best First Private Eye Novel Contest" for An Infinite Number of Monkeys. Roberts also won the 1992 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 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 American Vietnam veteran, ex-cop, and former Kent State football star, with a Serbian strong-willed ex-wife and two sons that he sees every other Sunday. Jacovich's working-guy attitude has endeared him to many Cleveland readers.

Bibliography

The Saxon series

• An Infinite Number Of Monkeys (1987 ISBN 978-1930916302)
• Not Enough Horses (1988 ISBN 978-1930916326)
• A Carrot For The Donkey (1989 ISBN 978-0312025540)
• Snake Oil (1990 ISBN 978-0312044244)
• Seeing The Elephant (1992 ISBN 978-1930916333)
• The Lemon Chicken Jones (1994 ISBN 978-0312104900)

The Milan Jacovich series

• Pepper Pike (1988: ISBN 978-1-59851-001-0)
• Full Cleveland (1989 ISBN 978-1-59851-002-7)
• Deep Shaker (1991 ISBN 978-1-59851-003-4)
• The Cleveland Connection (1993 ISBN 978-1-59851-004-1)
• The Lake Effect (1994 ISBN 978-1-59851-005-8)
• The Duke Of Cleveland (1995 ISBN 978-1-59851-006-5)
• Collision Bend (1996 ISBN 978-1-59851-007-2)
• The Cleveland Local (1997 ISBN 978-1-59851-008-9)
• A Shoot In Cleveland (1998 ISBN 978-1-59851-009-6)
• The Best-Kept Secret (1999 ISBN 978-1-59851-010-2)
• The Indian Sign (2000 ISBN 978-1-59851-011-9)
• The Dutch (2001 ISBN 978-1-59851-012-6)
• The Irish Sports Pages (2002 ISBN 978-1-59851-013-3)
• King of the Holly Hop (2008 ISBN 978-1-59851-054-6)
• The Cleveland Creep (2011 ISBN 978-1-59851-071-3)

Other

• A Carol for Cleveland (1991 ISBN 0-944125-18-2)
• The Chinese Fire Drill (2001 ISBN 978-0786237609)
• The Scent of Spiced Oranges and Other Stories (2002 ISBN 978-0786243310)
• We'll Always Have Cleveland (2006 ISBN 978-1-59851-014-0)

References

External links

• A sample chapter from Les Roberts' book The Cleveland Creep