News for week ending 2012-03-31

Brian Murphy at SFFaudio reviews the audiobook of Donald Westlake's The Hook: http://t.co/oMX0ss5Q # Crime Fiction Lover has a good review of The Comedy is Finished: http://t.co/d44xPYKh # At the Scene of the Crime has a review of the Dortmunder novel Jimmy the Kid: http://t.co/CvqCdz7m # Gar Anthony Haywood at Murderati–There ain't no such […]

Beautiful British book jacket design, featuring Donald E. Westlake

Hello, chums. This, I’m afraid, is yet another plug for my personal books blog, Existential Ennui. But fear not if you’re getting a bit sick of all these plugs: I will be back soon with some actual, proper Violent World of Parker content—either a never-before-seen (online, anyway) Westlake Score, or a series […]

Not Quite Parker review: The Hunted–The Dame (#2) by Dave Zeltserman

You get some things right, you get some things wrong.

In my review of The Hunted, the first volume of Dave Zeltserman’s new series of the same name, I wrote:

“I got the impression that Zeltserman just wanted to get the origin story out of the way so that he could get on to […]

Not Quite Parker review: The Hunted #1 by Dave Zeltserman

The Hunted #1 - The Hunted by Dave Zeltserman

One of the neater things about the e-book revolution is that it is somewhat reviving shorter-form fiction. I’ve read more short stories in the year I’ve owned my Kindle than I did in the previous five years combined, as well as more novellas.

It also seems to be reviving pulp fiction and one of […]

News for week ending 2012-03-24

Release date of Jason Statham's Parker film pushed back to 1/25/13. http://t.co/jS1A2KfM # Bill Crider on Donald Westlake's book about the sleaze novel biz, Adios, Schehrazade: http://t.co/wIDOB4ng # Patrick at At the Scene of the Crime on The Man with the Getaway Face: http://t.co/lxv0Dfy9 # Loren Eaton of I Saw Lightning Fall debuts a […]

Hard Case Crime review: The Comedy is Finished by Donald E. Westlake (#105)

But Seriously, Folks.

The year is 1977, and America is finally getting over the nightmares of Watergate and Vietnam and the national hangover that was the 1960s. But not everyone is ready to let it go. Not aging comedian Koo Davis, friend to generals and presidents and veteran of countless USO tours to buck […]

Grab-bag post: SFFaudio podcast on Donald Westlake’s The Comedy is Finished, plus the Destroyer and John Carter (of Mars)

The Comedy is Finished

I recently recorded a podcast on The Comedy is Finished, hosted by Jesse Willis of SFFaudio and also featuring DEW’s son Paul Westlake, who, needless to say, had much more to add than I did.

This is a free-ranging discussion of both the novel […]

Thriller Writer Geoffrey Household on Existential Ennui

On the surface, Donald “Richard Stark” Westlake and British author Geoffrey Household would seem to have little in common. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll find . . . they still have little in common—beyond the fact that they both wrote thrillers, Westlake/Stark wrote a novel called The Hunter, and Household […]

News for week ending 2012-03-17

Olman's Fifty has a review of the Donald Westlake/Brian Garfield collaboration Gangway!: http://t.co/aMiG5qvH # NoirWhale–An analysis of noir elements in Donald Westlake's The Comedy is Finished: http://t.co/uNU4SiNl # Charles Kelly, biographer of Dan Marlowe, has a fantastic piece at the LA Review of books on Marlowe's last years: http://t.co/La3A0nTr # […]

Win Ilex Gift classic comics Journals, Postcard Books, Little Books, and Magnet Set on Existential Ennui

Here’s one for those of a comics bent: I’ve just posted a giveaway on Existential Ennui to win all of the items seen above, courtesy of Ilex Gift, the gift wing of Ilex Press, the publisher I make a (meager) living at by day. Up for grabs are SIX Little Books—Vintage Romance, […]