News for week ending 2012-02-25

Kumar Sivasubramanian at Deconstructing Comics pans Darwyn Cooke's The Hunter. Parker isn't for everybody! http://t.co/zccJyarQ # Washington & Lincoln deserve better than having birthdays combined as Presidents' Day. Here's a reading list anyway: http://t.co/5CIdiw4K # MysteryPeople has an interview with Charles Ardai about The Comedy is Finished. http://t.co/blmqnYsi # In the Mouth of Dorkness–Lee […]

What It Was, by George Pelecanos: book review on Existential Ennui

Blatant plug time, folks. Following Monday’s review of George Pelecanos’s 2011 novel The Cut, I’ve been pressing on with the Pelecanos posts over on Existential Ennui. You can find a review of his latest novel, the superfly ’70s blaxploitation crime fiction corker What It Was, here:

What It Was review

And, should […]

Donald Westlake’s lost novel, The Comedy is Finished, out today

I’m afraid I’ve let you down, here. I was planning on having The Comedy is Finished read and reviewed in time for today’s release and had set aside Thursday through Sunday for just that. Unfortunately, I had to lend a friend a hand Thursday night and due to some technology problems early last week, […]

Review: The Cut, by George Pelecanos

(NB: A version of this post also appears on Existential Ennui.)

I’ve a particular reason for cross-posting this review on The Violent World of Parker, as well as on Existential Ennui. I mean, George Pelecanos being ostensibly a crime novelist, and Donald E. Westlake/Richard Stark being an acknowledged influence on Pelecanos, obviously […]

Movie review: Drive (2011)

We lovers of noir don’t get a whole lot of bones thrown our way at the theater these days, so when Drive came out last fall to quite good reviews, I was excited. Unfortunately, its release coincided with the beginning of football season and the time of year in which I notoriously don’t do […]

Violent World of Parker Gazette Extra! DEW Day Edition!

I like screwing around with new gadgets for the website. Most of those gadgets aren’t worth a damn, which is why this site has very few of them. But I like it when a good one comes around.

I’ve been messing with a new feature, which I’ve named the Violent World of Parker Gazette, […]

News for week ending 2012-02-18

From the Albany Times Union, 10/21/95–Donald Westlake remembers his Albany haunts: http://t.co/7QcJJFwj # An excerpt from Donald Westlake's lost novel The Comedy is Finished, which will be released on 2/21: http://t.co/1VkpALf3 # Jesse Willis at SFFaudio–The Comedy is Finished available on audiobook, plus an interview with Charles Ardai: http://t.co/9AbIXCkU # A 1990 audio interview […]

DEW Day: a Dortmunder Daze / Parker Progress Report review of Jimmy the Kid, feat. Child Heist

(NB: This post also appears on Existential Ennui.)

As you’ll no doubt already be aware if you’ve read Violent World of Parker supremo Trent’s earlier post, today is Donald E. Westlake Day. Instigated by Patti Abbott to mark the imminent publication by Hard Case Crime/Titan Books of the “lost” Westlake novel The […]

DEW Day review: Money for Nothing by Donald E. Westlake

Note: This is my contribution to Donald Westlake Day, hosted by Patti Abbott. Her post with the full roundup of DEW Day links is here (and it will likely be updated throughout the day, so do check back). Many thanks to all participants and to Patti for putting this together.

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Elmore Leonard, Raylan Givens, and Justified on Existential Ennui

Just over a year ago on Existentiul Ennui I posted a series of reviews of Elmore Leonard‘s crime fiction stories featuring US Marshal Raylan Givens—the novels Pronto (1993) and Riding the Rap (1995) and the short story “Fire in the Hole” (2002), plus an introductory piece—comparing them to the TV show they […]