BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Goodbye, Mr. Westlake

This is not how 2009 should have started. This has to be the biggest loss to the crime fiction world. I’m referring to Donald E. Westlake, who has influenced countless authors over his career. On New Year’s Eve, he passed away due to a heart attack. So imagine my shock on New Year’s Day, checking the RSS feed and finding his obituary. I mean, I knew Westlake could not live forever, but I was hoping for at least a few more years and a few more books from this true master of the genre.

Now we’ll never have another new Parker story to read, but it seems fitting the last book he completed was a Dortmunder under his own name. Even though it didn’t matter what name he wrote under, you knew if he was involved, you were in for a treat. So today, I present a collection of Westlake books I’ve owned for some time, but never got around to until now. Mr. Westlake, you will be sorely missed. When I broke the news to him, Bill Crider summed up every fan’s voice with his one-word response: “Shit.”

KILLING TIME by Donald E. Westlake — This 1961 book was the second to actually feature Westlake’s own name (the first being THE MERCENARIES, aka THE CUTIE, which the fine folks over at Hard Case Crime will be reissuing next month). Right from the outset, you could tell Westlake was head and shoulders over his compatriots. That is not a slam to others in any way — just that there was a talent there that was only going to shine brighter than the rest.

The story deals with a corrupt town and the man who wants to clean it up. Resemblances to Dashiell Hammett’s RED HARVEST notwithstanding, this type of story is nothing new. But what is new is what Westlake actually does within it. Tim Smith has enough evidence on the goings-on in this community to put all the bigwigs away. He realizes it’s finally time to do something about it, but sadly, other people also have the same idea, with Tim becoming the No. 1 target in this nightmare town.

Even as Tim figures a way to rally the troops to his side, you just never know exactly where Westlake is going to close it all up. Some of the attempts include bombs, guns and hired killers, but it’s literally not until the last few sentences where it all comes down to it. Westlake pulls no punches in his storytelling, even from this early work. It’s well worth looking for, since it’s clear that in the world of Westlake, there are no black hats or white hats — everyone is wearing a gray one.

I KNOW A TRICK WORTH TWO OF THAT by Donald E. Westlake —  Enter Samuel Holt, a new mystery author that reminded critics of Westlake. Sure, it reminded them, since it was Westlake. He wanted to try something a bit different by writing under an assumed name. Unlike the Richard Stark novels, which people knew was Westlake flexing his serious crime writing, he wanted to see if he could come up with a new character that no one except the publisher would know was really written by him.

He was inspired by THE BACHMAN BOOKS of Stephen King and the idea that John D. MacDonald wrote the first three Travis McGee books together. So what started out as a fun idea for himself got ruined by an overanxious publisher who let the secret out to his sales staff, which then told bookstores. All of this is better explained by Westlake himself in the introduction to this 1986 novel.

Sam Holt is a former TV actor whose career was defined by one character: a criminologist named Packard. As Holt explains, he could easily live off the residual checks from his series that is still a hit with fans, even though it’s only in reruns now. Holt is going about his life, trying to decide if appearing on a TV quiz show would be a bit demeaning. Then an old friend comes to him with a raging case of paranoia.

It seems Holt was a cop long before an actor, and his pal was also on the force with him all those years ago. But recently, he has been working for a security firm that works in the gray areas of protection. Holt’s pal claims that people are after him and that anyone involved with what he has discovered is slowly being knocked off, all made to look like accidents. Holt promises that he will take care of his friend and that he can hide in his spacious New York apartment. Then, of course, his pal winds up dead in the middle of a dinner party, locked in a bathroom.

TRICK is just one fun ride of a read: a straight-up detective story with enough of the kind of humor that is prevalent in his Dortmunder books. You could say it’s a bit Agatha Christie — just a tiny bit — with Holt tracking down the clues that lead him into a businessman that is a Shabbas goy for the mob. I’d grab more of these books if I could find them on the cheap, since the reissue price is a bit much for a book that can be read in less than three hours.

THE HOT ROCK by Donald E. Westlake — Parker would never stand for this shit. That is at least what Westlake thought when he came up with the idea of Parker having to steal the same thing multiple times. So he came up with a new character who would have to deal with these type of problems. Therefore, we have Westlake’s other beloved series character: John Dortmunder. Funny enough, I’ve read other Dortmunder books, but never the first one, from 1970 — maybe for the simple reason that I’ve seen the tame movie version with that lightweight Robert Redford.

I’m assuming most people who are fans of Westlake probably know this plot by heart: Just-paroled robber Dortmunder is convinced by a friend to steal an emerald for an African national named Major Iko. But again, stealing the emerald once is just the start of this comic caper, since everything that can go wrong does. After the first robbery, one of Dortmunder’s crew swallows the gem so it’s not found when he is taken to jail.

This book is just Westlake having fun in the crime genre, putting up roadblock after roadblock for Dortmunder to get around, to snatch this emerald for the final payoff from Major Iko. Another headache is that they have to break out the crew member since they are all under the belief he still has the emerald, only to find out it’s hidden somewhere else, where it will involve the assistance of a helicopter. They also need a train at one point. Then, it all comes down to timing.

As Westlake points out in the introduction, it’s all because Parker has no sense of humor that we now have Dortmunder, who will be featured in Westlake’s last book, which he completed before his passing.

Next time: I really have no idea, but I’m guessing someone will be shot. —Bruce Grossman

Buy them at Amazon.

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• ASK THE PARROT by Richard Stark
• THE AX by Donald E. Westlake
• COPS AND ROBBERS by Donald E. Westlake
• DIRTY MONEY by Richard Stark
• THE HUNTER by Richard Stark
• KILLTOWN by Richard Stark
• LEMONS NEVER LIE by Richard Stark
• THE MAN WITH THE GETAWAY FACE by Richard Stark
• THE OUTFIT by Richard Stark
• PITY HIM AFTERWARDS by Donald E. Westlake
• POINT BLANK by Richard Stark
• SOMEBODY OWES ME MONEY by Donald E. Westlake
• THE SOUR LEMON SCORE by Richard Stark
• THE SPY IN THE OINTMENT by Donald E. Westlake
• 361 by Donald E. Westlake
• WHAT’S SO FUNNY? by Donald E. Westlake
• WHAT’S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN? by Donald E. Westlake