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I hadn’t heard that Malone had died. I, too, am sorry to hear it. I hugely enjoyed all the books of his I’ve read. Time’s Witness is one of the best mysteries I’ve ever read, and he wrote other kinds of novels, too. Try Dingley Falls.

Sorry to hear of the death of novelist Michael Malone. Although I never met him, we have a connection nonetheless. When I was in the American Studies undergraduate program at Yale, I wrote my senior essay (about 75 pages) on novelist Wright Morris, and my faculty advisor chose Mr. Malone, an instructor at the time (1980), as the second reader because he was a novelist himself. I got a good grade from the two of them, and I appreciate that because even though I worked very hard on that essay, in retrospect I don’t think it was so good. My understanding of Morris was fine, but I have never had any gift at all for structuring longer pieces of writing. The shorter the take, the better I do. (I was a professional movie critic at one point, and not only did I hate the standard review format, I especially disliked spinning out a negative reaction when a sentence or two would do.)