WASHINGTON, Jan 2: Mystery writer Donald Westlake, one the most prolific figures in US literary history, has died after a career that spanned half a century, it was reported on Friday. He was 75.

His wife Abigail Westlake said he collapsed of a heart attack while heading to a New Year’s Eve dinner in Mexico where he was vacationing, The New York Times reported.

The versatile writer who banged out his stories on a manual typewriter was also nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay of “The Grifters” (1990) and received three Edgar awards by the Mystery Writers of America.

Westlake’s website lists him as the author of 86 books and five screenplays, beginning in 1960 with his novel “The Mercenaries”. In a 2007 interview he said his output was up to 104 books. The latest, “Get Real”, was due to be published this year.

His pace was so relentless he pumped out 35 books in the 1960s that he wrote not only under his own name, but also under several pseudonyms, in part to battle the suspicion that anyone could write so many books so quickly.

Under his own name, he wrote on the antics of his criminal protagonist John Dortmunder. As Richard Stark, he wrote about an anti-hero criminal named Parker.—AFP