Richard Martin Stern was an American novelist. Stern began his writing career in the 1950s with mystery tales of private investigators, winning a 1959 Edgar Award

Edgar Award

The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...

 for Best First Novel, for The Bright Road to Fear.

He was most notable for his 1973 novel The Tower

The Tower (novel)

The Tower is a 1973 novel by Richard Martin Stern. It is one of the two books that was used to create the movie The Towering Inferno, the other being The Glass Inferno....

, in which a fire engulfs a new metal-and-glass frame skyrise. Stern was inspired to write the novel by the construction of the World Trade Center

World Trade Center

The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...

 in New York City. Warner Brothers bought the rights to the novel shortly after its publication for roughly $400,000, and Stern's book eventually became the movie The Towering Inferno

The Towering Inferno

The Towering Inferno is a 1974 American action disaster film produced by Irwin Allen featuring an all-star cast led by Steve McQueen and Paul Newman.A co-production between Twentieth Century-Fox and Warner Bros...

, directed by Irwin Allen

Irwin Allen

Irwin Allen was a television and film director and producer nicknamed "The Master of Disaster" for his work in the disaster film genre. He was also notable for creating a number of television series.- Biography :...

 and John Guillermin and featuring an all-star cast. With an incredible fourteen million dollar budget, the film went on to earn over a hundred million at American box office.

Stern continued to write many novels, mainly mysteries and disaster-related suspense. He died in 2001 after prolonged illness.

Johnny Ortiz Mysteries

• Murder in the Walls (1971)
• You Don't Need an Enemy (1972)
• Death in the Snow (1973)
• Tsunami (1988) - not a Johnny Ortiz mystery, but a stand alone novel
• Tangled Murders (1989)
• Missing Man (1990)
• Interloper (1990)

Other novels

• The Bright Road to Fear (1958)
• Suspense: Four Short Novels (1959)
• The Search for Tabitha Carr (1960)
• These Unlikely Deeds (1961)
• High Hazard (1962)
• Cry Havoc (1963)
• Right Hand Opposite (1964)
• I Hide, We Seek (1965)
• The Kessler Legacy (1967)
• Merry Go Round (1969)
• Brood of Eagles (1969)
• Manuscript for Murder (1970)
• Stanfield Harvest (1972)
• The Tower
  The Tower (novel)
  The Tower is a 1973 novel by Richard Martin Stern. It is one of the two books that was used to create the movie The Towering Inferno, the other being The Glass Inferno....
  
  (1973) (one of two books used to create the film The Towering Inferno
  The Towering Inferno
  The Towering Inferno is a 1974 American action disaster film produced by Irwin Allen featuring an all-star cast led by Steve McQueen and Paul Newman.A co-production between Twentieth Century-Fox and Warner Bros...
  
  )
• Power (1974)
• Snowbound Six (1977)
• Flood (1979)
• The Big Bridge (1982)
• Wildfire (1985)