Donald E. Westlake

WAS DONALD E. WESTLAKE A SCIENCE FICTION WRITER?Everyone knows him as the mystery writer who published books like The Hook (2000), Bad News 2001, and Put a Lid on It (2002) under his own name, Donald E. Westlake, and of course that he was also Richard Stark and a number of other favorite authors. But a science fiction writer? -- Really? -- You bet he was, early on in his career. (He even wrote one SF novel -- Anarchaos, in 1966, as "Curt Clark.")He also wrote quite a bit of short SF, like this weird little SF mystery that first graced the pages of Amazing in 1963.

What will a group of monks do when their two-century-old monastery in New York City is threatened with demolition to make room for a new high-rise? Anything they have to. "Thou Shalt Not Steal" is only the first of the Commandments to be broken as the saintly face off against the unscrupulous over that most sacred of relics, a Park Avenue address. Returning to bookstores for the first time in three decades, BROTHERS KEEPERS offers not only a master class in comedy from one of the most beloved mystery writers of all time but also a surprisingly heartfelt meditation on loss, temptation, and how we treat our fellow man.

JAILED FOR A JOKE It isn't easy going to jail for being a practical joker. Of course, this particular joke left 20 cars wrecked on the highway and two politicians' careers in tatters - so jail is where Harold Kunt landed. Now he's just trying to keep a low profile in the Big House. He wants no part of his fellow inmates' plan to use an escape tunnel to rob two banks. But it's too late: he's in it up to his neck. And that neck may just wind up in a noose... HELP I AM BEING HELD PRISONER is Donald E. Westlake at his funniest and his most ingenious, a rediscovered crime classic from the MWA Grand Master returning to stores for the first time in three decades.

Over the course of a fifty-year career, Donald Westlake published nearly one hundred books, including not one - but two - long-running series, starring the hard-hitting Parker and the hapless John Dortmunder. In the six years since his death, Westlake's reputation has only grown, with fans continuing to marvel at his tightly constructed plots, no-nonsense prose, and keen, even unsettling, insights into human behavior. With The Getaway Car, we get our first glimpse at another side of Westlake the writer: what he did when he wasn't busy making stuff up. And it's fascinating. Setting previously published pieces, many little-seen, alongside never-before-published material found in Westlake's working files, the book offers a clear picture of the man behind the books - including his background, experience, and thoughts on his own work and that of his peers, mentors, and influences. The book opens with revealing (and funny) fragments from an unpublished autobiography, then goes on to offer an extended history of private eye fiction, a conversation among Westlake's numerous pen names, letters to friends and colleagues, interviews, appreciations of fellow writers, and much, much more. There's even a recipe for Sloth a la Dortmunder. Really. Rounded out with a Foreword by Westlake's longtime friend Lawrence Block, The Getaway Car is a fitting capstone to a storied career, and a wonderful opportunity to revel anew in the voice and sensibility of a master craftsman.

The year is 1977, and America is finally getting over the nightmares of Watergate and Vietnam. 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. And not the five remaining members of the People's Revolutionary Army, who've decided that kidnapping Koo would be the perfect way to bring their cause back to life.

The year is 1977, and America is finally getting over the nightmares of Watergate and Vietnam. 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. And not the five remaining members of the People's Revolutionary Army, who've decided that kidnapping Koo would be the perfect way to bring their cause back to life.

A kidnapping plan cribbed from a crime novel goes hilariously wrong for gang boss John Dortmunder—from the Edgar Award–winning author of Bank Shot. When his “friend” Andy Kelp has a plan, career criminal John Dortmunder knows that means trouble. Kelp’s schemes, no matter how well intentioned, tend to spiral quickly out of control. But this one, Kelp swears, is airtight. He read it in a book! The novel featured a kidnapping so brilliant there’s no way it wouldn’t work in real life. Though offended that his usual role as heist planner has been usurped, Dortmunder reluctantly agrees to the scheme. Unfortunately, they kidnap a kid smarter than all of them put together. What’s simple on the page turns complex and chaotic—and there’s no reference guide to help Dortmunder through the madness he’s signed on for. “[Westlake’s] most durable character. Whatever can go wrong in the man’s elaborate attempts at larceny invariably does, and in the most amusing and unexpected ways possible.” —Los Angeles Times “Westlake has no peer in the realm of comic mystery novelists.” —San Francisco Chronicle

The year is 1977, and America is finally getting over the nightmares of Watergate and Vietnam. 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. And not the five remaining members of the People's Revolutionary Army, who've decided that kidnapping Koo would be the perfect way to bring their cause back to life.

WAS DONALD E. WESTLAKE A SCIENCE FICTION WRITER?Everyone knows him as the mystery writer who published books like The Hook (2000), Bad News 2001, and Put a Lid on It (2002) under his own name, Donald E. Westlake, and of course that he was also Richard Stark and a number of other favorite authors. But a science fiction writer? -- Really? -- You bet he was, early on in his career. (He even wrote one SF novel -- Anarchaos, in 1966, as "Curt Clark.")He also wrote quite a bit of short SF, like this weird little SF mystery that first graced the pages of Amazing in 1963.It's an engaging little tale, set in a asteroid-belt colony: our hero is an investigator for an interplanetary insurance company, ferreting out the truth behind suspicious (and sometimes, uhm, otherworldly) insurance claims. . . .

"They built a spaceship, is the long and the short of it," Darquelnoy, the alien who'd been on the earth's moon for ages. observing.Ebor, an old friend of his, stopped in astonishment. "No ""Don't tell me no " cried Darquelnoy. "I "saw" it " He was obviously at his wit's end."It's unbelievable," said Ebor."I know," said Darquelnoy. He led the way into his quarters, motioned Ebor to a perch, and rang for his orderly. "It was just a little remote-controlled apparatus, of course," he said. "The fledgling attempt, you know. But it circled this Moon here, busily taking pictures, and went right back to the planet again, giving us all a terrible fright. There hadn't been the slightest indication they were planning anything "that" spectacular.""None?" asked Ebor. "Not a hint?"

Featuring Westlake's hapless hero John Dortmunder, this original compilation of short stories ties in to the author's latest Dortmunder hardcover, The Road to Ruin.

WINNER OF THE EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL* mark n. An easy victim; a ready subject for the practices of a confidence man, thief, beggar, etc.; a sucker. - Dictionary of American Slang, Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1960 That's the long definition of a mark. But there's a shorter one. It goes: * mark n. Fred Fitch What, you ask, is a Fred Fitch? Fred Fitch is the man with the most extensive collection of fake receipts, phony bills of sale, and counterfeit sweepstakes tickets in the Western Hemisphere, and possibly in the entire world. When Barnum said, "There's one born every minute, and two to take him," he didn't know about Fred Fitch; when Fred Fitch was born, there were two million to take him. Every itinerant grifter, hypester, bunk artist, short-conner, amuser, shearer, short-changer, green-goods worker, pennyweighter, ring dropper, and yentzer to hit New York City considers his trip incomplete until he's also hit Fred Fitch. He's sort of the con-man's version of Go: Pass Fred Fitch, collect two hundred dollars, and move on. What happens to Fred Fitch when his long-lost Uncle Matt dies and leaves Fred three hundred thousand dollars shouldn't happen to the ball in a pinball machine. Fred Fitch with three hundred thousand dollars is like a mouse with a sack of catnip: He's likely to attract the wrong kind of attention. Add to this the fact that Uncle Matt was murdered, by person or persons unknown, and that someone now seems determined to murder Fred as well, mix in two daffily charming beauties of totally different types, and you have a perfect setup for the busiest fictional hero since the well-known one-armed paperhanger. As Fred Fitch careers across the New York City landscape-and sometimes skyline-in his meetings with cops, con men, beautiful girls, and (maybe) murderers, he takes on some of the loonier aspects of a Dante without a Virgil. Take one part comedy and one part suspense and shake well--mostly with laughter.

John Dortmunder, thief extraordinaire, wants nothing to do with the Balabomo Emerald. But when the African nation of Talabwo bids handsomely for his services, Dortmunder changes his tune to "Balabomo or bust."Bust seems more likely and Talabwo finances a fiasco. As Dortmunder's gang strikes by car, helicopter and train, one heist after another goes wrong and the green gem keeps slipping away. As events prove, there's one thing Dortmunder can't stand: an emerald with a sense of humor!"Westlake has no peer in the realm of comic mystery novelists." (The San Francisco Chronicle)

The multi-award-winning, widely-acclaimed mystery master Donald E. Westlake delivers a masterpiece with this brilliant, laser-sharp tale of the deadly consequences of corporate downsizing. Burke Devore is a middle-aged manager at a paper company when the cost-cutting ax falls, and he is laid off. Eighteen months later and still unemployed, he puts a new spin on his job search -- with agonizing care, Devore finds the seven men in the surrounding area who could take the job that rightfully should be his, and systematically kills them. Transforming himself from mild-mannered middle manager to ruthless murderer, he discovers skills ne never knew ne had -- and that come to him far too easily.

THE ACTOR: NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING ANDRE HOLLAND, GEMMA CHAN, TRACEY ULLMAN and TOBY JONES Donald E. Westlake's lost masterpiece MEMORY, adapted for the screen as THE ACTOR. "An unsparing look at a man adrift, it's a fitting final dispatch from a master."--Time "Terse and bleak and low-key emotional... indelible."--Entertainment Weekly THE CRIME WAS OVER IN A MINUTE - THE CONSQUENCES LASTED A LIFETIME Hospitalized after a liaison with another man's wife ends in violence, Paul Cole has just one goal: to rebuild his shattered life. But with his memory damaged, the police hounding him, and no way even to get home, Paul's facing steep odds - and a bleak fate if he fails... This final, never-before-published novel by three-time Edgar Award winner Donald E. Westlake is a noir masterpiece, a dark and painful portrait of a man's struggle against merciless forces that threaten to strip him of his very identity.

The Spy in the Elevator, a classical book, has been considered important throughout the human history, and so that this work is never forgotten we at Alpha Editions have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies of their original work and hence the text is clear and readable.