1985 Edgar Award for "Best Paperback Original Mystery Novel". His novel Trace: Too Old a Cat was nominated for "Best Paperback Original" at the 1987 Anthony Awards and the Shamus Awards of the same year. Also Smoked Out was nominated in this category in 1983, Trace in 1984 (along with a 1983 Edgar Award nomination), Trace and 47 Miles of Rope in 1985, Trace: Pigs Get Fat in 1986 (along with a 1986 Edgar Award nomination); and Trace: Too Old a Cat in 1987. Personal life A Korean War veteran, Murphy's hobbies included golf, mathematics, opera, and investing. He had five children from previous marriages—Deirdre, Megan, Brian, Ardath and Devin—and two more with former wife Nancy Cartwright, to whom he was married from 1988 until 2002. Death Murphy died on September 4, 2015 in Virginia Beach, Virginia at the age of 81, of heart failure resulting from lung disease, just nine days shy of his 82nd birthday. References External links 1933 births 2015 deaths American spy fiction writers Edgar Award winners Writers from Jersey City, New Jersey Shamus Award winners 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from New Jersey