Three: So Tell Me About This Job We’re Gonna Pull
* ©1996 Oxford University Press. Used with permission.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to all my colleagues at the University of Chicago Press for making it a place that I feel honored, happy, and grateful to work at every single day. Thanks also to two of my most reliable Westlake informants, Trent Reynolds, whose Violent World of Parker (www.violentworldofparker.com) site is essential, and Nick Jones of Existential Ennui (www.existentialennui.com). Parker would trust those two on a job any day. My early readers, Charles Ardai (whose Hard Case Crime publishing enterprise introduced me to Westlake) and Sarah Weinman, earned great thanks by giving generously of their time and knowledge of Westlake’s work and crime fiction in general. And thanks to Lawrence Block, whom I’ve been reading since an auspicious trip to the Carmi Public Library at sixteen landed me A Ticket to the Boneyard, for his fine foreword. Speaking of libraries, I also owe thanks to the Chicago Public Library and the University of Chicago Library and their staffs for help with the research for this book.
Bonus thanks to Ethan Iverson (http://dothemath.typepad.com) for his unparalleled knowledge of Westlake and his indispensable help in going through Westlake’s cryptically organized files. And to Ethan’s wife, Sarah Deming, for her cooking and her company during our trip to the Westlake house, where Abby Adams Westlake was a gracious, friendly hostess and raconteur. I’ll be forever grateful to Abby for trusting her late husband’s legacy to me, and to Chicago. I hope we’ve done him proud.
To my mom, for giving me Agatha Christie, my dad, for giving me John D. MacDonald, and to Stacey Shintani, for happily living with me in a house full of books. And finally, ultimately, to Donald Westlake, for the countless hours of pleasure he gave us all.
CREDITS
“Writers on Writing: A Pseudonym Returns From an Alter-Ego Trip, With New Tales to Tell,” originally published in the New York Times on January 29, 2001, is reproduced courtesy of the New York Times.
“The Hardboiled Dicks,” originally published in The Armchair Detective, volume 17, issue 1, is reproduced courtesy of Otto Penzler.
“Introduction to Murderous Schemes,” originally published in Murderous Schemes: An Anthology of Classic Detective Stories (Donald E. Westlake and J. Madison Davis, editors), is © 1996, Oxford University Press, and is reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press.
“Ten Most Wanted,” originally published in The Armchair Detective Book of Lists (Kate Stine, editor), is reproduced courtesy of Otto Penzler.
“Introduction to Kahawa,” from Kahawa by Donald E. Westlake. Copyright © 1994 by Donald E. Westlake. By permission of Grand Central Publishing. All rights reserved.
“Peter Rabe,” originally published in Murder Off the Rack: Critical Studies of Ten Paperback Masters (Jon L. Breen and Martin Harry Greenberg, editors), is reproduced courtesy of Scarecrow Press / Rowman & Littlefield.
“Foreword to Thurber on Crime,” from Thurber on Crime by James Thurber. Copyright © 1991 by Rosemary A. Thurber. By permission of Grand Central Publishing. All rights reserved.
“The Worst Happens,” originally published in Sight and Sound, Autumn 1990, and later, in expanded form, in Backstory 4: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1970s and 1980s (Patrick McGilligan, editor), is reproduced courtesy of Sight and Sound and the University of California Press.
INDEX OF NAMES AND TITLES
Alexander, Les, 94–95, 98
Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, 62, 66, 76, 77, 80, 81, 136
Alger, Horatio, 141
Allen, Woody, 153
All the President’s Men, 164
Ambler, Eric, 73; The Light of Day, 73
Amin, Idi, 95–98
Ardai, Charles, 213
Asimov, Isaac, 64
Asphalt Jungle, The, 53
Atlantic Monthly, 62
Avakian, Aram, 157, 159
Barnett, Ray, 96–97; Uganda Holocaust, 96–97
Barr, Candy, 148
Batman, 81; Batman, 81
Baxter, John, 72
Beatty, Warren, 186
Beaumont, Charles, 64
Beauregard, Georges de, 156, 157–58
Beckham, Rex, 107
Bellow, Saul, 105
Benchley, Robert, xv, 139, 212
Bennett, John, 160
Bergman, Ingmar, 153
Bernard, Judd, 156
Bick, Jerry, 159
Bierce, Ambrose, 61, 212
Bin Laden, Osama, 205
Black, Karen, 164
Black Mask, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40–41, 44, 48, 52
Block, Lawrence, xi–xiv, 109–10, 213. See also Lord, Sheldon
Bogart, Humphrey, 21, 185, 186
Boland, John, 88; League of Gentlemen, 88
Boll, Heinrich, 205
Bologna, Joe, 159
Boorman, John, 156; Point Blank, 28, 156
Boucher, Anthony, 18, 66, 114, 137
Bradbury, Ray, 64
Breen, Jon L., 111, 206; Murder Off the Rack, 111, 206
Broekel, Ray, 149; The Chocolate Chronicles, 149
Budrys, Algis, 64
Burger, Knox, 111, 206
Burnett, W. R., 120
Cagney, James, 185, 186
Cain, James M., 122
Caldwell, Erskine, 114
Campbell, John, 65, 66–67, 68, 71
Capone, Al, 184
Capote, Truman, 160
Carroll, John, 175–78
Carroll, Mabel, 176–78
Castle, William, 156
Cavalier, Alain, 156; Mise à sac, 156, 157
Celine, 87
Champion, Gower, 156, 164
Chance, Lawrence, 194
Chandler, Raymond, xviii, 16, 41, 43–45, 47, 49, 52; The Long Goodbye, 46; Philip Marlowe series, 45–46
Charteris, Leslie, 122
Chartoff, Robert, 156
Chattahoochie Review, 62
Chinatown, 162
Christie, Agatha, 214
Clark, Curt, 153; Anarchaos, 153
Clarke, Arthur C., 64, 109
Coburn, James, 45
Cody, Buffalo Bill, 39
Coe, Tucker, 13–22, 23, 24, 84, 99, 153, 155, 161, 206; Kinds of Love, Kinds of Death, 161; Mitch Tobin series, 16, 25, 84; Murder among Children, 161. See also Westlake, Donald E.
Cole, Ted, 173–74
Columbo, 53
Conan Doyle, Arthur, 32, 99; Sherlock Holmes series, 57, 99, 132, 134, 163, 206
Conrad, Joseph, 63, 134
Constantin, Michel, 157
Cook, Elisha, 164
Cosby, Bill, 161–62
Costa-Gavras, Constantin, 170; The Ax, 170
Cotten, Joseph, 152, 206
Culver, Timothy J., 13–22, 25, 26, 153; Ex Officio, 13, 153. See also Westlake, Donald E.
Cummings, Robert, 83
Cunningham, J. Morgan, 153; Comfort Station, 153. See also Westlake, Donald E.
D’Amato, Barbara, 61
Dancigers, Georges, 156
Danihy, Geary, 62
Dannay, Richard, 205
Davidson, Avram, 69–71, 72
Davis, J. Madison, 52, 55
De Camp, Lyon Sprague, 64, 72
DeHaven, Carter, 156
Del Rey, Lester, 10, 64
Deming, Sarah, 213
Dennis, Allan, 161
Dent, Lester, 37; Oscar Sail series, 37
Detective, The, 51
Dickens, Charles, 84, 198; The Mystery of Edwin Drood, 84, 86
Dickinson, Peter, 73; Sleep and His Brother, 73
Dieterle, William, 153
Dillinger, John, 184
Dirty Dingus Magee, 21
Dostoevsky, Fyodor, 13
Douglas, Kirk, 20
Dresner, Hal, 11
Duvall, Robert, 164
Earp, Wyatt, 39
Ed McBain’s Mystery Book, 66, 173
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, 62
Ellin, Stanl
ey, 73; The Eighth Circle, 73
Farnol, Jeffrey, 129
Fellini, Federico, 153
Fleischer, Richard, 153
Flemyng, Gordon, The Split, 156
Flynn, John, 156, 164
Fonda, Henry, 141
Forbes, Bryan, 88
Ford, Glenn, 88
Forester, C. S., 53; Payment Deferred, 53
Forsyth, Frederick, 20
Franklin, Tom, 62
Franzen, Jonathan, 205
Frears, Stephen, xix, 29–30, 143–45, 166–68; The Grifters, 163, 166–68
Gaboriau, Émile, 32; Other People’s Money, 32; The Widow Rouge, 32; Within an Inch of His Life, 32
Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, The, 186
Gardner, Erle Stanley, 105; Perry Mason series, 70
Garfield, Brian, 86, 165–66, 199; The Stepfather, 165–66, 199
Garrett, Randy, 64, 66–67, 69
Gartenberg, Max, 112
Gates, David Edgerly, 61
Gibbs, Wolcott, 141
Gibson, Mel, 28
Girardi, Robert, 63
Godard, Jean-Luc, 28, 156, 157–58; Made in USA, 156, 157–58
Godey, John, 18; The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, 18; A Thrill a Minute with Jack Albany, 18
Godfather, The, 186
Gold, H. L., 68, 69
Goldman, William, 156, 158, 163–64
Goldsmith, Cele, 65, 68
Goodis, David, 122
Gores, Joe, 50, 52, 73; Interface, 50, 52, 73
Gorman, Cliff, 159
Gotlieb, Howard B., 102–4
Gould, Elliott, 161
Greenberg, Martin, 111
Greene, Graham, 120; This Gun for Hire, 120
Grimm, Brothers, 13
Gruber, Peter, 194–96
Hackett, Buddy, 161
Hale, James, 196–97; The 11th Ghost Book, 197; The 12th Ghost Book, 197; The 13th Ghost Book, 197; The 14th Ghost Book, 196
Hamilton, Donald, 46, 47, 52
Hammett, Dashiell, 16, 34, 36–37, 41–42, 44, 47, 49, 52, 73, 119, 120, 212; The Continental Op series, 17, 44–45, 47; The Dain Curse, 44–45; The Glass Key, 119; “The Gutting of Couffignal,” 45; The Maltese Falcon, 47, 73; The Thin Man, 41–43
Hardy, Oliver, 23
Harper, 158
Harris, Larry, 66–67
Hawkins, Jack, 88
Henry, O., 93, 212; “The Ransom of Red Chief,” 93
Higgins, Jack, 20
Higgins, George V., 129–31; The Friends of Eddie Coyle, 129; Victories, 130–31
High Sierra, 115, 186–87
Highsmith, Patricia, 16, 169–70; Ripley Underground, 169–70; Tom Ripley series, 169–70
Hill, M. F., 96; The Permanent Way, 96
Himes, Chester, 21, 58, 73; Gravedigger / Coffin Ed series, 73
Hitchcock, Alfred, 83, 153; Sabotage, 83; Saboteur, 83
Hoffman, Dustin, 159
Hunter, Evan, xiii, 78, 86, 109. See also McBain, Ed
Huston, John, 160; Beat the Devil, 21, 160; The Maltese Falcon, 160; The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 160
Interlenghi, Franco, 157
Ivernel, Daniel, 157
Iverson, Ethan, 213
Jacobs, Alexander, 156
Jewison, Norman, 153
Karina, Anna, 157
Kastner, 157, 158–60
Kaye, Danny, 141
King, Stephen, 197–99; On Writing, 197
King, Tabitha, 193, 197–99
Klass, Phil. See Tenn, William Knight, Damon, 109
Kubrick, Stanley, 88; The Killing, 88
Ladd, Alan, 85
Landers, Hal, 156, 161, 164
Laurel, Stan, 23
Laurent, Georges, 156
Lefcourt, Helen, 165
Lehane, Dennis, 62
Lehrer, Tom, 87
Lenny, 159
Leonard, Elmore, 128, 129
Leone, Sergio, 52; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, 52
Le Person, Paul, 157
Lion, Bess, 180
List, John, 165
Little Caesar, 116
Lord, Sheldon, xii. See also Block, Lawrence
Lord Peter Wimsey series (Dorothy L. Sayers), 33, 76
Lorre, Peter, 160
Ludlum, Robert, 19
MacDonald, John D., xviii, 47, 52, 105, 122, 145–47, 214; Cape Fear, 122; The End of the Night, 147
Macdonald, Ross, 20, 46, 47, 49–50, 52, 105; Black Money, 49–50; Lew Archer series, 46, 49–50. See also Millar, Kenneth
Mackendrick, Alexander, 165; A Boy Ten Feet Tall (a.k.a. Sammy Goes South), 165–66
Maggott, Poll, 180
Maibaum, Richard, 160
Mailer, Norman, 10, 109
Manners, William, 72
“Man Who Read John Dickson Carr, The” 53
Marshall, Alan, xi, xii. See also Westlake, Donald E.
Marvin, Lee, 28
Matheson, Richard, 64
Matthau, Walter, 137
May, Elaine, 137
Mayes, Wendell, 156
McAleer, John J., 132–33
McBain, Ed, 72, 78; 87th Precinct series, 87. See also Hunter, Evan
McCall’s, 119
McCarthy, Eugene, 51
McGilligan, Patrick, 163–70
McLuhan, Marshall, 38
McNeely, Thomas H., 62
McRea, Joel, 192
Meredith, Scott, 10, 11, 109
Merrill, Judith, 64
Mike Shayne’s Mystery Magazine, 81
Millar, Kenneth, 46. See also Macdonald, Ross
Miller, Arthur, 105
Milligan, Spike, 192; The Goon Show, 190–92
Mills, Robert P., 68
Mitchum, Robert, 161
Mnouchkine, Alexandre, 156
Mona Lisa, 122
Money Trap, The, 88
Montaigne, Eddie, 91
Moon, Bucklin, 72, 82
Moore, Archie, 164
Morley, Robert, 21
Morrison, Henry, xii, 11, 63, 110, 204–5
Moskowitz, Sam, 69
Mulford, Clarence E., 39; Hopalong Cassidy series, 39
Murdock, 178–79
Newhouse, David, 156
Newhouse, Rafe, 156
Nussbaum, Albert, 151–63
Oates, Warren, 142
O’Day, Anita, 164
Oedipus Rex, 13
O’Hara, John, xv
O’Keefe, Dennis, 92
Oxford American, 62
Paradise Lost, 44
Payback, 28
Penzler, Otto, 59, 84, 112
Perelman, S. J., 139
Peterson, Don, 161
Peugeot, Eric, 90
Peugeot, Raymond, 90
Philo Vance series (Ngaio Marsh), 33
Pitt, Brad, 204
Playboy, 62
Poe, Edgar Allan, 32, 57–58, 63; C. Auguste Dupin series, 57; “The Gold Bug,” 57; “The Imp of the Perverse,” 57; “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” 63; “ ‘Thou Art the Man,’ ” 57
Pohl, Frederik, 67–68, 69, 70, 72
Powell, Anthony, 132; A Dance to the Music of Time, 132
Powell, Dawn, 204; The Locusts Have No King, 204
Prather, Richard S., 47–49; Shell Scott series, 47–49, 52; “The Sleeper Caper,” 48; The Wailing Frail, 47–48
Proust, Marcel, 198; Swann’s Way, 198; Within a Budding Grove, 198
Queen, Ellery, 15, 76
Rabe, Peter, 73, 111–29; Agreement to Kill, 120; Anatomy of a Killer, 111, 125–26; Benny Muscles In, 116, 117; Black Mafia, 128; Blood on the Desert, 123; The Box, 111, 126–28; Bring Me Another Corpse, 123–24; Code Name Gadget, 111, 128; The Cut of the Whip, 126; Daniel Port series, 119–20, 122, 123–24, 126; Dig My Grave Deep, 119; Girl in a Big Brass Bed, 128; “Hard Case Redhead, 111, 112; A House in Naples, 118; It’s My Funeral, 122; Journey into Terror, 122; Kill the Boss Goodbye, 73, 111–12, 113, 116, 118, 120, 123; Manny de Witt series, 128; Mission for Vengeance, 122; Murder Me for Nickels, 1
13, 125; My Lovely Executioner, 124–25; The Out Is Death, 119–20; A Shroud for Jesso, 117–18; The Spy Who Was Three Feet Tall, 128; Stop This Man, 111, 115–16, 117, 120, 121; Time Enough to Die, 124; War of the Dons, 128
Ramus, David, 200–202; On Ice, 200–202
Reiner, Carl, 161
Reynolds, Trent, 213
Rice, Craig, 18
Richardson, Tony, 153
Rififi, 158
Ritchie, Jack, 136–38; A New Leaf and Other Stories, 136–38; “Package Deal,” 138; “Piggy Bank Killer,” 138
Roaring Twenties, The, 186
Roberts, Bobby, 156, 161, 164
Robinson, Edward G., 166, 185, 186
Rockefeller, Nelson, 25–26
Rogers, Joel Townsley, 73; The Red Right Hand, 73
Rosaire, Forrest, 37
Ross, Harold, 140
Ruben, Joe, 165–66; The Stepfather, 165–66
Runyon, Damon, 58, 129
Ryan, Robert, 164
Ryder, Winona, 204
Sabaroff, Robert, 156
Salt, Gary, 203–4
Santesson, Hans Stefan, 72
Schaefer, Jack, 40; Shane, 40, 52
Scott, Justin, 102
Secombe, Harry, 192
Sellers, Peter, 192
Sergeant Bilko, 91
Shakespeare, William, 13, 196; The Tempest, 42
Shaw, Captain Joseph M., 36
Sheckley, Robert, 64
Sheldon, Sidney, 20
Sheppard, Jack, 179–83
Shintani, Stacey, 214
Sidney, Sylvia, 83
Silvers, Phil, 91
Silverstein, Shel, 62
Simenon, Georges, 105
Sinatra, Frank, 51
Smith, Thorne, 19, 116
Socrates, 211
Spillane, Mickey, 17, 46–47, 48–49, 114; I, the Jury, 46–47; Mike Hammer series, 15, 17, 36, 46–47, 48–49, 52
Stahl, Levi, xiii
Stark, Richard, 13–22, 23, 24, 26, 27–30, 80, 82, 83, 93–94, 99, 100–101, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157–58, 160, 161, 162, 164, 205, 206; Backflash, 29; Break-out, 173; Comeback, 29; The Damsel, 160; Deadly Edge, 161; Firebreak, 29; Grofield series, 27, 155, 160; The Hunter, xvii, 80, 82, 156; The Jugger, 156; The Outfit, 156, 164; Parker series, xvii, xviii, 14, 15, 26, 27–30, 82, 83, 93, 95, 154, 155, 157–58, 173; The Score, 156; The Seventh (a.k.a. The Split), 156, 186. See also Westlake, Donald E.
Starr, Ben, 156
Star Wars, 189
Steinbeck, John, 105
Stine, Kate, 73; The Armchair Detective Book of Lists, 73
Stout, Rex, 132–36; The Doorbell Rang, 133; The Father Hunt, 133–35; Fer-de-Lance, 134; The Mother Hunt, 136; Nero Wolfe series, 132–36
Sturges, Preston, 192; Sullivan’s Travels, 192
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