Get Shorty author Elmore Leonard dies aged 87

Elmore Leonard, one of America's foremost crime writers, has died at the age of 87.

The award-winning author of film hit Get Shorty died today from complications after a stroke.

“Elmore passed away this morning at 7:15 AM at home surrounded by his loving family," a statement on his website read.

According to the Detroit News, the author died at his home in the city's Bloomfield Village suburb.

He is survived by five children, 12 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Leonard wrote more than 40 novels populated by pathetic schemers, clever con men and casual killers.

Many of the novels - notably Out of Sight, Get Shorty and Be Cool - were made into films. Critics adored his simple, direct language.

His millions of fans made all his books since Glitz (1985) best-sellers. When they flocked to watch John Travolta in the movie version of Get Shorty in 1995, its author became the darling of Hollywood's hippest directors.

His novels were characterised by moral ambivalence about crime, black humour and wickedly acute depictions of human nature.

"When something sounds like writing, I rewrite it," Leonard often said.

As author Ann Arensberg put it in a New York Times book review: "I didn't know it was possible to be as good as Elmore Leonard."

One remarkable thing about Leonard's talent is how long it took the world to notice. He did not have a best-seller until he was in his sixties, and few critics took him seriously before the 1990s.

He had some minor successes in the 1950s and '60s in writing Western stories and novels, a couple of which were made into movies. But when interest in the Western dried up, he turned to writing scripts for educational and industrial films while trying crime novels.

The first, The Big Bounce, was rejected 84 times before it was published as a paperback in 1969.

Leonard followed up with several more well-written, fast-paced crime novels, including Swag (1976). Leonard was already following the advice he would later give to young writers: "Try to leave out the parts that people skip."

Hollywood rediscovered him. It took Barry Sonnenfeld to finally show Hollywood how to turn a Leonard novel into a really good movie. Get Shorty was the first to feel and sound like an Elmore Leonard novel.