He was 87, which isn’t bad. Might have gone longer if he hadn’t kept smoking, but no real way to know that. I regret that I discovered him fairly late in life, in my early 50s. I loved everything of his I ever read, from the westerns to the crime stuff. He was a real master of dialog. He wrote characters that sounded true to life. They were all shades of gray, not a full black or white in the whole parade. If you never experienced him, I’d suggest Rum Punch for openers. And of course the books with Raylen Givens in them, starting with the short, Fire in the Hole. “Justified” is a wonderful series, and I only hope the producers will stay true to the course they have set when “Dutch” was around to lend a guiding word now and then. God bless Elmore.