Trevanian

Rodney William Whitaker (June 12, 1931 – Dec 14, 2005) was an American film scholar and writer who wrote several successful novels under the pen name Trevanian. Whitaker wrote in a wide variety of genres, achieved best-seller status, and published under several names, including Nicholas Seare, Beñat Le Cagot and Edoard Moran. He published the non-fiction The Language of Film under his own name.

Between 1972 and 1983, five of his novels sold more than a million copies each. He was described as "the only writer of airport paperbacks to be compared to Zola, Ian Fleming, Poe and Chaucer."