Judith Krantz, who almost singlehandedly turned the sex-and-shopping genre of fiction into the stuff of high commerce, making her one of the world’s best-selling novelists, if not one of the most critically acclaimed, died June 22 at her home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, the New York Times reported. She was 91.

Although she did not publish her first book until she was 50, Ms. Krantz reigned for decades afterward as the international queen of poolside reading. Her 10 novels — beginning with Scruples in 1978 and ending with The Jewels of Tessa Kent in 1998 — hasve together sold more than 85 million copies in more than 50 languages. Most became television movies or mini-series, many of which were produced by Ms. Krantz’s husband, Steve Krantz.