Gregory McDonald, best known as the author of the FLETCH novels, died on September 7 in Giles County, TN. He was 71. Edward Champion confirmed the news tonight with the Giles County Ambulance Service.

I'm not even sure how I can describe what I feel, except that the mystery world was better off for McDonald being in it, even quietly, and now he is gone and it is diminished. No doubt there will be tributes (and feel free to post thoughts in the comments) and there won't be enough of them, I reckon. And as it happens, SOUVENIRS FROM A BLOWN WORLD, a collection of McDonald's writings during the 1960s and the 1970s, was reissued this month by Seven Stories Press.