Roy Doliner

Roy Doliner (1932 – 2015) was an American author who published nine novels between the 1960s and 1980s, some of which were satires and some of which were in the spy fiction genre. He was also a longtime writing teacher at the New York University School of Continuing Education.

Life and career Doliner grew up in Brooklyn, New York, He then went to New York University. The couple lived in Manhattan; In 1966, Doliner sued his father in New York Supreme Court, claiming that his father had cut him out of the family canning business because he had married someone who was not Jewish.

Doliner's first novel, Young Man Willing (1960), was set in New York's Broadway theatre scene. It was published in the United Kingdom as well as in the United States. but no film was ever made. (At least one other novel of Doliner's was optioned, also without any result.) These first three novels of Doliner's tended to be lighter in tone, with satirical aspects; The Antagonists (1967) represented a turn to the more serious.

Over time, Doliner came to specialize in the 'intelligent thriller', or as a Newsday profile put it, "thrillers distinguished for craftsmanship and depth of theme." In addition to novels, Doliner wrote for magazines and worked on film screenplays.

Doliner also taught writing. The class was popular and he taught it for a number of years. By comparison, the pseudonymous Newgate Callendar, writing for the same publication, found The Thin Line unsatisfactory and "an ambitious book that somehow fails to coalesce."

Works Young Man Willing (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1960) [subsequent editions Fawcett, 1961; New English Library, London, 1964] The Orange Air (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1961) Sandra Rifkin's Jewels (New American Library, 1966) [same imprint, 1968] The Antagonists (Doubleday, 1967) [Barker 1968, Corgi 1969] Rules of the Game (Doubleday, 1970) For Love Or Money (Simon and Schuster, 1974) On The Edge (Viking Press, 1978) [Ballantine Books, 1978; Collins Crime Club, 1979; Fontana, 1980] The Thin Line (Crown Publishers, 1980) [Berkley Books, 1982] The Twelfth of April (Crown Publishers, 1985) [Pocket Books, 1986]