Anthologies#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Orbit 6 |
1970 |
Buy |
Die Hard Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Die Hard |
1979 |
N/A |
| Nothing Lasts Forever |
1979 |
Buy |
| 58 Minutes |
1987 |
N/A |
| 58 Minutes / Die Hard 2: Die Harder |
1987 |
Buy |
Joe Leland Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| The Detective |
1966 |
Buy |
| Die Hard |
1979 |
N/A |
| Nothing Lasts Forever / Die Hard |
1979 |
Buy |
Standalone Novels#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Into the Forest |
1961 |
Buy |
| Dionysius |
1969 |
Buy |
| The Music of Their Laughter |
1970 |
Buy |
| Wives |
1972 |
Buy |
| The Circle of Love |
1974 |
Buy |
| Slaves |
1977 |
Buy |
| Westfield |
1977 |
Buy |
| Jenny and Barnum |
1981 |
Buy |
| Rainbow Drive |
1986 |
Buy |
| Devlin |
1992 |
Buy |
| River |
1995 |
Buy |
| Hot Pursuit |
2014 |
Buy |
Roderick Thorp was born in the Bronx, New York, and worked as a private detective for nine years at an agency owned by his father. He also did crime reporting, including a major series on cocaine trafficking in southern California for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. He later taught literature and creative writing at colleges in New Jersey and California.
His 1966 novel The Detective was adapted into a film starring Frank Sinatra as detective Joe Leland. In 1975, after watching The Towering Inferno, Thorp had a dream about a man being chased through a skyscraper by gunmen. He turned that dream into Nothing Lasts Forever (1979), a sequel to The Detective. That novel was adapted into Die Hard (1988), one of the most successful action films ever made.
Beyond the books that inspired the Die Hard franchise, Thorp wrote a wide range of fiction. Rainbow Drive (1986) is a crime novel set in Los Angeles, and Jenny and Barnum (1981) is a historical novel about P.T. Barnum and the opera singer Jenny Lind.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many books has Roderick Thorp written?
Roderick Thorp has written twenty books across four series.
What was Roderick Thorp's first book?
Roderick Thorp’s first book is Into the Forest, published in 1961.
How is Roderick Thorp connected to the Die Hard films?
Thorp wrote Nothing Lasts Forever (1979), the novel that was adapted into the 1988 film Die Hard starring Bruce Willis. The book was a sequel to his 1966 novel The Detective, which had earlier been made into a film starring Frank Sinatra. When Sinatra turned down the sequel film, the project was reworked into Die Hard.