Trivia Time

I've used this camera as a blip before and today's journal entry is definitely an E-blip, there's a long "to do" list and not a lot of energy to get it all done. So, here's a camera from my collection and, as a bonus, a trivia question. It's an Argus rangefinder, frequently referred to as the Brick. This model played a minor recurring role in a popular movie series so the question is - what was the name of the author whose books inspired the movies?
* Using two pics from my archives, the extra is an image I had created some time ago to honor and remember 9/11.