2010: The year in Westlake

Note: New content will be light to non-existent for the next week or two, as I travel to celebrate a belated Christmas and an on-time New Year with my family back home.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this (very) hurriedly-written summary of 2010.

I hope that your holidays have been and will be […]

News for week ending 2010-12-25

Book Glutton on The Handle, Pieter Bruegel, and Cockaigne: http://bookglutton.blogspot.com/2010/12/bruegel-and-stark-and-frayn-and.html # Pulp Curry–Parker and the art of hard-boiled crime writing: http://bit.ly/igoiz3 # Randy Johnson (not that one) looks at Hellcats and Honeygirls. There are 75 of these bad boys left, so don't snooze. http://bit.ly/fnFDe5 # Ethan Iverson on Westlake and Anthony Powell: http://dothemath.typepad.com/dtm/2010/12/westlake-and-powell.html # […]

Nackles: A Christmas story by Donald Westlake

Note: I believe this story to be in the public domain. If it is not, please let me know and I will remove it from the site.

Merry Christmas!

Nackles

By Donald Westlake (writing as Curt Clark)

Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, […]

News for week ending 2010-12-18

100 Greatest Posters of Film Noir, 80-71: http://bit.ly/fVUIaR # Who we lost in 2010: http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2010/12/and-then-they-were-gone.html # Gail O'Connor at Disorganized, as usual reviews Comeback: http://disorganizedasusual.blogspot.com/2010/12/comeback-by-richard-stark.html #

Guest slot: The Da Vinci Code in the style of Richard Stark

I’m very pleased to present this piece by Ethan Iverson of The Bad Plus. It was written a few years back, then vanished down the memory hole for awhile. Ethan has kindly given me permission to reprint it.

Ethan is a huge Donald Westlake fan and became friends with Westlake as a result. His […]

Off topic: Dark Rising: The Savage Tales of Summer Vale

I rarely go off topic here, but this is much too cool for me not to mention.

My brother’s band, squint, has been toiling away for years and are finally experiencing some well-deserved success. They recently released their third album, Goodnight, Bad Intentions, to universal raves. The future looks bright for them.

In addition, […]

Review: The Sins of the Fathers by Lawrence Block (Matthew Scudder #1)

DEAD MEAT

The victim was a savagely butchered young Greenwich Village hooker. The accused killer was the homosexual youth who was her roommate. When the suspect hanged himself in his cell everybody was happy.

…except Matt Scudder. Scudder was being paid to find out the truth about the […]

News for week ending 2010-12-11

The Rap Sheet–News on Hard Case Crime's upcoming hardcovers: http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2010/12/hard-cases-hardcover-helpings.html # Edward Copeland–A person who don't look out for himself is too dumb to look out for anyone else (on The Grifters film) http://bit.ly/gQ4TP8 # Where Danger Lives–100 Greatest Posters of Film Noir, 90-81 http://bit.ly/fqTSyF # The Windows, a short story by Andrew Klavan: […]

Hellcats and Honeygirls finally shipping

Hellcats and Honeygirls, an omnibus of three early sleaze novels by Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake, is finally shipping (about five weeks late). I got my copy today and it’s beautiful. In the flesh, the dustjacket looks even more gorgeous than the above image.

The novels included are:

A Girl Called Honey (first chapter […]

Thoughts on Comeback posted

I have finally done a proper writeup of Comeback at the Comeback page. This is one I’m keenly interested in others’ thoughts on, so please comment if you’re so inclined.

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