A few things I’ve neglected to tell you about

I’ve had a very hectic time since Independence Day, and as a consequence, dropped the ball on a few items of importance. Here’s my makeup post.

To Twitter followers of the site–sorry about the avalanche of posts in the past 24 hours or so. The main purpose of the Twitter account is to serve […]

Review: Gone ’til November by Wallace Stroby

The two protagonists in Gone ’til November are survivors.

In small-town Florida, Deputy Sara Cross, despite making just about every wrong decision imaginable when it comes to her love life, is an absolute fighter when it comes to her cancer-stricken six-year-old son, Danny.

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, over-the-hill original gangsta Morgan is feeling every […]

Problem with U of C’s “The Man With the Getaway Face”

Reader (and crime novelist) Wallace Stroby alerts us to this problem with the University of Chicago’s reprint of The Man With the Getaway Face.

Has anyone else noticed that the University of Chicago edition of MAN WITH THE GETAWAY FACE – in addition to having a lot of typos – […]

Wallace Stroby looks at the film version of The Outfit

Noir of the Week has a real treat–an essay on the film adaptation of The Outfit by crime novelist (and friend of this site) Wallace Stroby.

There’s a lot of Parker in [Robert Duvall’s Earl] Macklin, and [John] Flynn’s screenplay often approximates Westlake’s staccato, adverb-free prose. During […]

A look at Payback – Straight Up

I’m busy as all get-out these days–out-of-town guests, wedding (not mine), tax season, job, and job-hunting because I fear mine may be going the way of the dodo (job offers in Austin welcome). So I have been unable to find much time to add a lot of the great content I have […]

Wallace Stroby’s Westlake Obituary

Crime novelist Wallace Stroby sends along his farewell to Donald Westlake:

While reading a draft of my first novel, THE BARBED-WIRE KISS, [agent Knox] Burger called me out of the blue to criticize my tendency to write overly terse, in a manner he found inappropriate for the story. […]