Donald E. Westlake’s science fiction stories: “They Also Serve,” Analog, Vol. 68, No. 1, September 1961

As promised (or perhaps threatened—and while I’m linking to that last post, let me just quickly point out that Lawrence Block—yes, Lawrence Block—took the time to comment on it, a turn of events as pleasantly surprising as it is humbling), this week I’m returning to the short stories Donald E. Westlake wrote […]

News for week ending 2011-08-27

Christian Science Monitor–Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine at 70. http://t.co/dXV12cj # Strangeness based on Made in USA which was based on The Jugger. We're pretty far away from The Jugger at this point. http://t.co/dEZARTV #

Donald E. Westlake non-fiction: “Break-Out,” an essay in Ed McBain’s Mystery Book, No. 3, 1961

Back in May of this year, I posted a series of reviews on Existential Ennui of some of the short stories Donald E. Westlake wrote for American science fiction magazines in the 1950s and ’60s (along with a bibliography of those tales). Some of those stories were later collected in book form—notably in 1989’s […]

Hard Case Crime review: Getting Off by Lawrence Block writing as Jill Emerson (#101)

So this girl walks into a bar…

When she walks out there’s a man with her. She goes to bed with him, and she likes that part. Then she kills him, and she likes that even better.

She cleans out his wallet and keeps moving, taking a new name for each change of address. […]

Darwyn Cooke talks to MTV Geek, breaks some news

MTV Geek interviews Darwyn Cooke about Parker. Ordinarily, this is the sort of thing I’d just throw out over Twitter, but there’s some news here. The big news is that the “original Parker story” supposedly included in the upcoming deluxe Martini edition won’t in fact be an original. Instead, it’s a short adaptation of […]

Westlake Score: The Split by Richard Stark; UK movie tie-in edition (Coronet paperback, 1969)

This latest Westlake Score was inspired by my learned friend Olman, who almost secured a copy of the book in question during a recent holiday ramble around a number bookshops in the Canadian Maritimes (not as unusual as that sounds; I did a similar thing on my holiday this year). Olman spied this book […]

Elizabeth Taylor by John B. Allan–A Donald Westlake oddity returns!

One of the stranger items in the Donald Westlake canon is his 1961 biography of Elizabeth Taylor, written as John B. Allan. It also might be the last item you’d expect to return to print, but thanks to the efforts of Westlake fan and Violent World of Parker reader Seth R., it has. I’ll […]

News for week ending 2011-08-20

Pictures from the Parker shoot: http://t.co/ca8xQWs # Super Bowl champ Packer Desmond Bishop is a Jack Reacher fan and disappointed today. Get there next year, @desbishop55! http://t.co/3fjB5Rc # My favorite magazine returns! Welcome back, Cashiers du Cinemart! Just placed my order for #16 http://t.co/HxrtpWs # Wallace Stroby announces his new novel, Kings of Midnight, […]

Parker Progress Report: a review of Dead Skip by Joe Gores and Plunder Squad by Richard Stark

Did we all check out my exclusive little Q&A with Dexter creator Jeff Lindsay on my own books blog, Existential Ennui on Monday? And if not, why not? If that short interview tickled your fancy, Jeff is popping up on a handful of other British blogs this week as part of a […]

Off topic: a short, exclusive interview with Dexter creator and author Jeff Lindsay, over on Existential Ennui

Jeff Lindsay photo Copyright © Ed Miller

Slight change of plan: as I mentioned on Wednesday, I had intended my next post on The Violent World of Parker to be on Joe Gores‘s Dead Skip, but I’ve just posted a short interview over on my other blog, Existential Ennui, which I figured might […]