Trying to come up with themes for this column can be tough; sometimes, they can stare me right in the face. This one sat for months before I realized it: author names that all include the middle initial. The list could go on and on, but I won’t bother with that. Instead, here are three writers with prominent middle initials. To answer the column heading, they are Vincent, James and Edwin, respectively.
TRUST by George V. Higgins — Earl Beale is a two-bit crook with big ideas that everyone knows will never come through, and a former college basketball player who served jail time. It’s never brought up for what, but he does reference point-shaving while trying to con someone. Even though the 1989 book never gives a year, we can assume it was the late ’60s or early ’70s, since the Vietnam War is referenced multiple times as still going on.
This 1989 novel won me over literally on the first page alone, since it takes place a few miles from where I used to live, which gave me a great laugh. (Plus, I finally learned what the T.F. in T.F. Green Airport stood for.) Earl thinks he has it all worked out, since he has been building up a cache of photos of his girlfriend, who is sleeping with a married man, and traveling with him at his beck and call. But that is only a small part of this small-time crook, since the book feels more like a character study of Earl than a full-on story.
We follow Earl in his daily life when he’s not taking photos. He is called upon to get rid of a car for one of the local bosses, but he sees a chance of making money off it instead. As I stated, Earl makes one mistake after another in his criminal pursuits. It’s not that he is bad at them — just never the brightest when it comes to pulling it all together. Case in point: When he tries to do the blackmail scheme and won’t face the facts that he’s got nothing, the victim tells him to pretty much fuck off.
Which is what makes this book so fascinating. Earl is truly an unlikable prick that we can’t help but follow, even though most people would never want to deal with this asshole. But that is what makes Higgins’ books so great. We are shown a world where literally there is no one you can like or even want to meet; you just find it compelling that these people exist.
OPERATION WHIPLASH by Dan J. Marlowe — The Drake series seems to have been a mixture of various books of the day. First and foremost, it will remind readers of Richard Stark’s Parker books — not just with the tone, but with how the character has facial constructive surgery so no one can recognize him. They also try to pull off a James Bond element with Drake being some sort of Superman type.
The story for this 1973 novel opens with Drake’s lady friend Hazel having skipped town and he has no clue where she disappeared to or even why. See, Drake is miles away in another state, since where Hazel lives is loaded with people who want him dead. But when a friend of Hazel’s turns up out of the blue to bring Drake back to that area of Florida, he has to settle some scores.
While this goes on, we are given the whole history of how and why Drake got his new face in jail. The short and simple answer is to take revenge on a double-crossing crook. So once Drake’s back in Florida, the problems start piling up faster than snow in a blizzard, especially the slit throat of one of his former business partners who has been left for dead for days with no one noticing. Then there’s the discovery that the mob is back in town and making it uncomfortable for all.
I’ve read one other Drake book years ago, and like this one, it’s enjoyable, if a bit rushed in some spots. It’s definitely adult in tone — nothing that would make anyone blush, but just in the way subjects are dealt with and how cold and calculating Drake is.
THE SPY IN THE OINTMENT by Donald E. Westlake — Taking more than a few potshots at the whole spy rage that was going on at the time, Westlake gives us a truly fun ride in the Cold War world in this 1966 number, with a die-hard pacifist leading the charge as a reluctant superspy, coerced into working for a shadowy government agency.
J. Eugene Raxford is a just your normal leader of a pacifist group who by sheer mistake is thrown into the deep end of the spy world. Not only is Eugene’s group constantly monitored by government agencies, he fully knows where all the bugs are. Since it has been going on for years, he knows the procedures like clockwork, even referring to these agents only by letters since none of them ever give a real name.
One night, Eugene is visited by a true radical who is organizing a meeting of fringe groups with a plan to benefit them all. The problem is this radical came to the wrong group; it seems Eugene’s cause and a truly fanatical one have the same initials. Eugene knows he is in deep and does whatever he can to get the FBI — who he believes are the ones who have him under surveillance — to help. Unfortunately, he really stepped in it, since he will be the one going undercover to this massive meeting with his debutant girlfriend, Angela.
This sets off the plot fully in this hilarious take on the whole spy genre, where Eugene is given his own code name and some gadgets which would make Bond jealous, like an exploding credit card with a shoelace as a fuse. But this is nothing to the shock of both Eugene and Angela when they find out who is the mastermind: Angela’s brother, who ran off to China during the Korean War — a man so radical in his youth, only to have grown into a bigger menace.
I had no idea what to expect when I picked up this book or even how truly funny the events are. It’s worth it alone just to read of all these people at the big meeting. Westlake doesn’t just poke at the spy genre; he took a large two-by-four with a nail jutting out and whacked it like a piñata. His style comes through so well in this book that I wish he did more in this style. But then it would have taken time away from his two other characters we already love so much.
Next time: Starting off 2009 with a bang. —Bruce Grossman
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF GEORGE V. HIGGINS:
• COGAN’S TRADE by George V. Higgins
• THE RAT ON FIRE by George V. Higgins
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF DAN J. MARLOWE:
• PHOENIX FORCE #2: GUERILLA GAMES by Dan Marlowe
• THE VENGEANCE MAN / PARK AVENUE TRAMP / THE PRETTIEST GIRL I EVER KILLED: A TRIO OF GOLD MEDALS by Dan J. Marlowe, Fletcher Flora and Charles Runyon
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF DONALD E. WESTLAKE:
• 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
• 361 by Donald E. Westlake
• WHAT’S SO FUNNY? by Donald E. Westlake
• WHAT’S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN? by Donald E. Westlake
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
If you want really good, more obscure Higgins, try The Agent, which is like Glengarry Glen Ross with sports agents told as a noir story.
It’s really really mean. And funny.
Thanks for reminding me about “The Spy in the Ointment”. That was the first Westlake book I read–I think in high school–at and the time loved it. I’ll have to check it out again.