Ross Thomas (February 19, 1926, in Oklahoma City – December 18, 1995, in Santa Monica, California) was an American writer of crime fiction.
[1] He worked as a public relations specialist, correspondent with the Armed Forces Network,[1] union spokesman, and political strategist in the USA, Bonn (Germany), and Nigeria before becoming a writer.
In addition to his novels, Thomas also wrote an original screenplay for the 1995 movie Bad Company, about a CIA affiliated private spy organization.
It was produced by Disney's Touchstone Pictures, scored by Joel and Ethan Coen's regular composer Carter Burwell and starred Ellen Barkin and Laurence Fishburne.
[citation needed] The first three novels in the McCorkle-Padillo series are written in the first person, as are a number of others through Yellow Dog Contract.