'Serpico' author Peter Maas dead

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Best-selling author Peter Maas died Thursday at a Manhattan hospital, a spokeswoman said.

The author, who wrote more than a dozen novels and works of nonfiction in his long career, died at 5:40 p.m. at Mount Sinai Hospital, said spokeswoman Lucia Lee.

She did not disclose the cause of death. Maas was 72.

Maas' 1973 work, "Serpico" -- a real-life story about an undercover cop who couldn't be bought -- was made into a successful movie that garnered an Academy Award nomination for star Al Pacino.

Other well-known works -- including 1969's "The Valachi Papers" and 1997's "Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gavano's Story of Life in the Mafia" -- chronicled the world of organized crime.

Maas also wrote "Killer Spy" in 1995 about the case of CIA agent Aldrich Ames, convicted of spying for the Russians and the former Soviet Union.

His most recent book, 1999's "The Terrible Hours," detailed a U.S. submarine rescue before World War II. The NBC made-for-TV movie "Submerged" was based on the book.

Maas was born on June 27, 1929, in New York, and lived there until his death.