Biography

Joe Gores was born on December 25, 1931 in Rochester, Minnesota, USA. He was a writer, known for Kojak (1973), Remington Steele (1982) and The New Mike Hammer (1984). He was married to Dori Corfitzen. He died on January 10, 2011 in Greenbrae, California, USA.

Author of the popular "DKA File" series (1969-1978), featuring private investigators, or "ops." Gores deromanticizes detective work in this series, showing the drudgery and grunt work of detection. After earning a master's degree from Stanford University in 1961, he taught at a boys' school in Kenya, and also worked as a hod carrier, a laborer, a logger, a clerk, a driver, a carnival helper, and an assistant motel manager. His later writing career was based on his twelve years as a private eye. His first novel, "A Time of Predators" (1969), earned the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel.

The novel "Drowned Hopes" by Donald E. Westlake shares a chapter with the novel "32 Cadillacs" by Joe Gores. The chapters are not identical however, instead presenting the same event from the perspective of the characters in each book. Similarly, Westlake's novel "Plunder Squad" (a Richard Stark/Parker novel) shares a chapter with Gores's "Dead Skip.".