Crime writer Crumley dies

  Crime writer James Crumley, author of books such as "The Final Country," "The Right Madness" and "The Last Good Kiss," died Tuesday in Missoula, Mont., at the age of 68.
  According the The Washington Post, Crumley died of complications from kidney and pulmonary diseases.
  Crumley published 11 books, the best-known being "The Last Good Kiss." Patricia Sullivan of The Washington Post writes that the opening line of "Kiss" has been called the best in crime fiction:
  "When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonora, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon."
  Sullivan writes in the Post obituary that Crumley's work inspired crime writers Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane and Michael Connelly.
  "If you asked us to name one book that got us jacked up to write crime novels, it would be 'The Last Good Kiss,' " Pelecanos is quoted as saying in the Post obituary. "He tried to describe the country in the wake of Vietnam. It wasn't a detective novel. It wasn't a cop novel. He showed us a crime novel could be about something bigger than the mystery itself."
  For more on Crumley, check out Patricia Sullivan's blog at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2008/09/the_mystery_of_writing.html.