Goodbye Donald Westlake

[John Weagly]

Prolific mystery writer Donald Westlake (aka Richard Stark, aka Tucker Coe, aka several other pseudonyms) died on New Year’s Eve. Every August for my birthday I read a Donald Westlake “Dortmunder” novel and a Richard Stark “Parker” novel. Throughout the year I read other stuff he wrote, but this is always a special birthday treat for myself.

A couple of good sentences that always stuck with me:

“When the phone rang, Parker was in the garage, killing a man.”
-Opening sentence from the novel FIREBREAK

“…Three Finger Gillie looked like the creature that gives fairy tales their tension.”
-from the short story “Art and Craft”

He was one of the best of the best.