#donald e. westlake

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Forever and a Death - art by Paul Mann (2017)

[withnailrules]

His hands, swinging curve-fingered at his sides, looked like they were molded of brown clay by a sculptor who thought big and liked veins. His hair was brown and dry and dead, blowing around his head like a poor toupee about to fly loose. His face was a chipped chunk of concrete, with eyes of flawed onyx. His mouth was a quick stroke, bloodless. His suit coat fluttered behind him, and his arms swung easily as he walked. The office women looked at him and shivered. They knew he was a bastard, they knew his big hands were born to slap with, they knew his face would never break into a smile when he looked at a woman. They knew what he was, they thanked God for their husbands, and still they shivered. Because they knew how he would fall on a woman in the night. Like a tree.

From Richard Stark's THE HUNTER (1962), the first novel about cold-blooded criminal, Parker

[brokehorrorfan]

The Stepfather will be released on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on September 10 via Scream Factory. The 1987 psychological horror-thriller is loosely based on mass murderer John List.

Joseph Ruben (Sleeping with the Enemy, The Good Son) directs from a script by Donald E. Westlake (The Grifters). Terry O'Quinn, Jill Schoelen, and Shelley Hack star.

The Stepfather has been newly restored in 4K with Dolby Vision and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Dual Mono. Special features are listed below.

Disc 1 - 4K UHD:

Audio commentary by director Joseph Ruben

Audio commentary by actress Jill Schoelen and Beyond the Gates filmmaker Jackson Stewart (new)

Audio commentary by film critic Meagan Navarro (new)

Audio commentary by film critic Kier Gomes (new)

Disc 2 - Blu-ray:

Audio commentary by director Joseph Ruben

Audio commentary by actress Jill Schoelen and Beyond the Gates filmmaker Jackson Stewart (new)

Audio commentary by film critic Meagan Navarro (new)

Audio commentary by film critic Kier Gomes (new)

Interview with actress actress Jill Schoelen (new)

The Stepfather Chronicles - Interviews with director Joseph Ruben, producer Jay Benson, actress Jill Schoelen, author Brian Garfield, and more

The Stepfather, Stepfather II, and Stepfather III trailers

Still gallery

Jerry Blake is a man obsessed with having the perfect American Dream life - including the house with the white picket fence in the suburbs, complete with an adoring wife and loving children. He believes he's found it when he marries Susan Maine and becomes the stepfather to Susan's 16-year-old daughter, Stephanie. But Stephanie gets an uneasy feeling when she is around Jerry with his Father Knows Best attitude - she can see that there is a darker side behind his cheerful exterior. Could she just be going through the typical teenager rebellion against her new stepfather, or could he be the same man who brutally murdered his family just one year earlier?

Pre-order The Stepfather.

[mabith]

You few will just have to put up with this period of Westlake evangelism. I'm in such a mood about these books. But now you get audio AND text! This was originally published in 1983, so answering machines were not common in the home.

“Hello,” said the telephone cheerfully into Dortmunder's ear, “this is Andy Kelp.”

“This is Dort—” Dortmunder started to say, but the telephone was still talking in his ear. It was saying:

“I'm not home right now, but—”

“Andy? Hello?”

“—you can leave a message on this recording machine—”

“It's John, Andy. John Dortmunder.”

“—and I'll call you back just as soon as I can.”

“Andy! Hey! Can you hear me?”

“Leave your message right after you hear the beep. And do have a nice day.”

Dortmunder held both hands cupped around the mouthpiece of the phone and roared down its throat: “HELLO!”

“eeeepp”

Dortmunder recoiled from the phone as though it were just about to explode, which he half expected it would. Holding the receiver at arm's length, he watched it mistrustfully for a few seconds, then slowly brought it closer and bent his ear to the earpiece. Silence. A long, hollow, sort of unreeling kind of silence. Dortmunder listened, and then there was a faint click, and then the silence changed, becoming furry, empty, and pointless. Knowing he was all alone, Dortmunder nevertheless asked, “Hello?” The furry silence went on. Dortmunder hung up the phone, went out to the kitchen, had a glass of milk, and thought it over.

May was out to the movies, so there was no one to discuss this situation with, but on reflection it seemed to Dortmunder pretty clear what had happened. Andy Kelp had got himself a machine to answer the telephone. The question was, why would he do such a thing? Dortmunder cut a slice of Sara Lee cheese danish, chewed it, mulled this question, drank his milk, and at last decided you just could never figure out why Kelp did the things he did. Dortmunder had never talked to a machine before—except for an occasional rude remark at a car that refused to start on a cold morning—but okay; if he was going to continue to know Andy Kelp, he would apparently have to learn to talk to machines. And he might just as well start now.

Leaving the glass in the sink, Dortmunder went back to the living room and dialed Kelp's number again, and this time he didn't start talking until the machine was finished saying, “Hello, this is Andy Kelp. I'm not home right now, but you can leave a message on this recording machine and I'll call you back just as soon as I can. Leave your message right after you hear the beep. And do have a nice day.” eeeepp

“Sorry you aren't there,” Dortmunder said. “This is Dortmunder and I'm—”

But now the machine starting talking again: “Hey!” it said. “Hello!”

Probably a malfunction in the announcement mechanism. Well, it wasn't Dortmunder's problem; he didn't have any goddam gizmo on his telephone. Doggedly ignoring the machine's irruptions, Dortmunder went on with his message: “—off on a little job. I thought you might come with me—”

“Hey, it's me! It's Andy!”

“—but I guess I can do it on my own. Talk to you later.”

As Dortmunder hung up, the phone was saying, rather plaintively, “John? Hello!” Dortmunder went to the hall closet, put on his jacket with the burglar tools all tucked away in the hidden interior pockets, and left the apartment. Ten seconds later, in the empty living room, the phone rang. And rang. And rang...

[joemerl]

"As we struggle with shopping lists and invitations, compounded by December's bad weather, it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation, and people to whom we are worth the same."

— Donald E. Westlake

[swamiswampy]

Here are some books I read "recently". I really enjoyed "The Score" and "Shark Infested Custard". "Lemons Never Lie" was also really good and had some absolutely beautiful writing as some of the scenes were described that I still cannot get over. I liked them so much that I actually bought a second copy of it so I can mount and frame those pages for our wall.

Also, if you like Quentin Tarantino go read "Shark Infested Custard".

[desaparecidos]

The mother of the bride had been determined that her daughter would have a church wedding, and women who successfully name their infant daughters Tiffany do tend to get their own way, so an evening wedding it was.

Donald E. Westlake, Drowned Hopes

[alexhorrorfilms]

Why Me? (Чому я?)

Екранізація однойменного роману Дональда Вестлейка.

У парочки грабіжників практично випадково опинився дорогоцінний камінь, пов'язаний зі стародавнім прокляттям. Зірвавши куш, Гас і Бруно стали мішенями. За ними полює поліція, мафія, агенти ЦРУ, дуже злі турки і божевільні вірменські терористи.

Часом кумедна комедія, але загалом - міцний середняк, який не використав потенціал чудового акторського складу.

[ayanos-pl]

ドナルド・E・ウェストレイク、矢口誠訳『さらば、シェヘラザード』（国書刊行会 2018）締切に追われるポルノ作家が自分のみだらな妄想を書いたら、現実に本人がやったことと間違えられて、どんどん苦境にはまっていく。小説と現実の境目が曖昧になり、フィクションが現実を侵食していくコメディ。

[zippocreed501]

AUTHOR EXTRAORDINAIRE

'For me, the characters are part of the story, and come out of its development. I don't base them on people, or parts of people -the Frankenstein method. I base them on what I've noticed about the human race. I cannot tell you how stories develop. I have an initial idea, and start telling myself the story, day by day.'

'In the most basic way, writers are defined not by the stories they tell, or their politics, or their gender, or their race, but by the words they use. Writing begins with language, and it is in that initial choosing, as one sifts through the wayward lushness of our wonderful mongrel English, that choice of vocabulary and grammar and tone, the selection on the palette, that determines who's sitting at that desk. Language creates the writer's attitude toward the particular story he's decided to tell.'

'I was writing everything. I grew up in Albany, New York, and I was never any farther west than Syracuse, and I wrote Westerns. I wrote tiny little slices of life, sent them off to The Sewanee Review, and they always sent them back. For the first 10 years I was published, I'd say, "I'm a writer disguised as a mystery writer." But then I look back, and well, maybe I'm a mystery writer. You tend to go where you're liked, so when the mysteries were being published, I did more of them.'

'I know people who have suffered writer's block, and I don't think I've ever had it. A friend of mine, for three years he couldn't write. And he said that he thought of stories and he knew the stories, could see the stories completely, but he could never find the door. Somehow that first sentence was never there. And without the door, he couldn't do the story. I've never experienced that. But it's a chilling thought.'

Author Extraordinaire Donald E Westlake

[psycheapuleius]

“The thought I am happy was still invariably followed by the thought I don't deserve to be happy.”

— Donald E. Westlake, A Jade in Aries.

[lapetitemortarts]

Robert McGinnis

Born in 1926 in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised in Wyoming, he is an American artist and illustrator. Known for his more than 1200 Illustrations and over 40 movie posters, including "Breakfast at Tiffanys" (his first movie poster), Barbarella and several James Bond and Matt Helm films. McGinnis became an apprentice at Walt Disney Studios, then studied fine art at Ohio State University. After wartime service in the merchant marine he went into advertising and a chance meeting with Mitchell in 1958 led to his introduction to Dell Publishing where he began a career of a variety of paperback covers for books written by authors such as Donald Westlake (signing as Richard Stark), Edward S. Aarons, Erle Stanley Gardner, Richard S. Prather, Shayne Michael and Carter Brown. In 1985, he was awarded the title of "Romantic Artist of the Year" by Romantic Times magazine. He is a member of the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame.

.......................... Nació en 1926 en Cincinnati, Ohio y se crió en Wyoming, es un artista e ilustrador americano. Conocido por sus más de 1200 Ilustraciones y más de 40 carteles de cine, incluyendo "Desayuno en Tiffanys" (su primer cartel de la película), Barbarella y varias películas de James Bond y Matt Helm. McGinnis se convirtió en un aprendiz en los Estudios Walt Disney, luego estudió Bellas Artes en la Universidad Estatal de Ohio. Después del servicio durante la guerra en la marina mercante entró en la publicidad y un encuentro casual con Mitchell en 1958 le llevó a ser introducido a Dell Publishing donde inició una carrera de una variedad de rústica de cubiertas para libros escritos por autores como Donald Westlake (que firmaba como Richard Stark), Edward S. Aarons, Erle Stanley Gardner, Richard S. Prather, Shayne Michael y Carter Brown. En 1985, fue galardonado con el título de "Artista Romántico del Año" por la revista Romantic Times. Él es miembro de la Sociedad de Ilustradores del Salón de la Fama.

[kethsposy]

I just started rereading an old book by Donald Westlake and cracked up before the first line.

Image description: the title page to Donald E Westlake's book Bank Shot, along with the opposite page, where authors often list their previously published works. He has a list labeled Other Books, which consists of A Tale of Two Cities, The Magnificent Ambersons, So Big, W.C. Fields: His Follies and Fortunes, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, The Merry Devil of Edmonton, An Account of Corsica, The Love Machine, and finally Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature.

All of which are certainly other books, although ones that have nothing to do with him.

[kurtbusiek]

What are some good PI/mystery novels you enjoy that you can recommend?

When I felt in the mood for a comfort read, I’d often turn to Lawrence Block’s Matt Scudder novels or his Bernie Rhodenbarr series -- the Scudders are dark, the Bernies are funny, but a stack of those would keep me reading not just for the plots but to see the leads and the ongoing supporting characters interact and develop over time. Others that work well for me: John Sandford’s Lucas Davenport novels (and his Virgil Flowers novels, which are sort of a second-track for the Davenports, interacting often) have a very satisfying sense of work-related bullshitting -- the mystery always gets addressed, but the crime-solvers have a great sense of co-workers who’ve been together for long enough to comfortably banter back and forth. Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller novels work very well as series reads too -- it’s actually worth reading Connelly in publication order, because even when he starts a different series or does a standalone novel, characters from those books wind up showing up in other series books, so it’s rewarding to take in the whole universe of Connelly crime. [Sandford does this too -- there are a few novels that focus on other characters and then they show up in the Lucasverse, which is enjoyable.] Robert Crais’s Elvis Cole mysteries are not only enjoyable reads, but the characters and mood develop a lot over the series, so they make good multi-book reads, too -- and again, there are characters who start out in their own novels and then feed into the Elvisverse. The standalones that don’t connect tend to be extremely good, as well.

Donald E. Westlake’s Dortmunder series and his Parker series (under the name Richard Stark) are very much not PI novels -- both characters are professional thieves, though Dortmunder’s world is one of comedic disaster and Parker’s is tough and spare and mean, and both are great. There’s even one book (JIMMY THE KID) where the Dortmunder gang decides to follow a crime plan from a Parker novel and the chapters alternate between the tough-guy procedural and the comic everything-goes-wrong. Dick Francis’s racing mysteries rarely have series leads (there are a couple of leads that recur here and there), but the novels all take place in the horseracing world and the leads tend to be similar, so reading through a stack of them can be a lot of fun too. I’m sure there are plenty I’m leaving out -- I like the first 13 or so Spenser novels by Robert B. Parker, but think that after that they largely get less and less interesting, though the banter is always readable. Laura Lippmann’s Tess Monaghan novels have a lot of engaging growth and change to them, too. Chelsea Cain’s Archie Sheridan/Gretchenn Lowell serial-killer novels are unsettling but, again, have change and growth over the series. When I was younger I loved John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee, but I fear those haven’t aged well. Hammett and Chandler are the classics of the form, but the Continental Op doesn’t change or grow, and I never read Chandler’s novels in chronological order. I also remember scarfing down Leslie Charteris’s Saint novels and Manning Coles’s Tommy Hambledon, but haven’t read either for years. I’m still sure I’m forgetting series I love, but that ought to be a respectable list. As for where to start in all these series, I’d say start at the beginning for most of them. Maybe start four or five books in with Lucas Davenport, because he got more interesting as he went. The same might be true for Elvis Cole, and with Robert B. Parker I’d say start with MORTAL STAKES. If you like them you’ll eventually want to read the early ones, and they’re not bad, it’s just that the series kinda rev up a few novels in as the writers find their footing.

[mabith]

Drowned Hopes by Donald E. Westlake - excerpt

When Andy Kelp walked into the OJ Bar & Grill on Amsterdam Avenue at six in the evening, the regulars were discussing the proposition that the new big buildings that had been stuck up over on Broadway, one block to the west, were actually spaceships designed and owned by aliens. “It's for a zoo,” one regular was suggesting.

“No no no,” a second regular said, “that isn't what I mean.” So he was apparently the one who'd raised the suggestion in the first place. “What I meant is for the aliens to come here.”

A third regular frowned at that. “Aliens come here? When?”

“Now,” the second regular told him. “They're here already.”

The third regular looked around the joint and saw Kelp trying to attract the attention of Rollo the bartender, who was methodically rinsing seven hundred million glasses and was off in a world of his own. The regular frowned at Kelp, who frowned back. The regular returned to his friends. “I don't see no aliens,” he said.

“Yuppies,” the second regular told him. “Where'd you think they came from? Earth?”

“Yuppies?” The third regular was a massive frowner. “How do you figure that?”

“I still say,” said the first regular, “it's for a zoo.”

“You need a zoo,” the second regular told him. “Turn yourself in.” To the third regular he said, “It's the yuppies, all right. Here they are all of a sudden all over the place, every one of them the same. Can actual adult human beings live indefinitely on ice cream and cookies? No. And did you ever see what they drink?”

“Foamy stuff,” the third regular said thoughtfully. “and green stuff. And green foamy stuff.”

“Exactly,” the second regular said. “And you notice their shoes?”

The first regular said, dangerously, “Whadaya mean, turn myself in?”

“Not in here,” Rollo said absently. He seemed to look at Kelp, who waved at him, but apparently Rollo's eyes were not at the moment linked up with his brain; he went on with his glass-rinsing.

Meanwhile, the second regular had ignored the first regular's interruption, and was saying, “All yuppies, male and female, they all wear those same weird shoes. You know why?”

“Fashion,” the third regular said.

“To a zoo, you mean?” demanded the first regular. “Turn myself in at a zoo? Is that what you mean?”

“Fashion?” echoed the second regular. “How can it be fashion to wear a suit and at the same time those big clunky weird canvas sneakers? How does it work out to be fashion for a woman to put on all kindsa makeup, and fix her hair, and put on a dress and earrings and stuff around her neck, and then put on those sneakers?”

“So what's your reading on this?” the third regular asked, as the first regular, zoo partisan, stepped slowly and purposefully off his stool and removed his coat.

“Their feet are different,” the second regular explained. “On accounta they're aliens. Human feet won't fit into those shoes.”

The first regular took a nineteenth-century pugilistic stance and said, “Put up your dukes.”

“Not in here,” Rollo said calmly, still washing.

“Rollo?” Kelp said, wagging his fingers, but Rollo still wasn't switched to ordinary reception.

Meantime, the other regulars were gazing upon the pugilist with surprised interest. “And what,” the second regular asked, “is this all about?”

“You said it isn't a zoo,” the pugilist told him, “you got me to answer to. You make cracks about me and zoos, we'll see what happens next.”

“Well, wait a minute,” the third regular said. “You got a zoo theory?”

“I have,” the pugilist told him while maintaining his fists-up, wrists-bent, elbows-crooked stance, one foot in front of the other.

“Well, let it fly,” the third regular invited him. “Everybody gets to say their theory.”

“Naturally,” the second regular said. He'd been gazing at those upraised fists with interest but no particular concern.

The pugilist lowered his fists minimally. “Naturally?”

“Rollo,” said Kelp.

“You got an idea that's better than yuppies,” the second regular told the pugilist, “let's have it.”

The ex-pugilist lowered his arms. “It is yuppies,” he said. “Only it's different.”

The other regulars gave him all their attention.

“Okay,” the zoo man said, looking a little self-conscious at being given the respectful hearing he'd been demanding, “the thing is this: you're right about those new buildings being spaceships.”

“Thank you,” the second regular said with dignity.

“But they're like roach motels,” the ex-pugilist said. “They attract yuppies. Little tiny rooms, loft beds, no moldings; it's what they like. See, the aliens, they got zoos all over the universe, all kindsa creatures, but they never had human beings before, because there weren't any human beings that could live under zoo conditions. But yuppies do it naturally!”

“Rollo!” insisted Kelp.

“So, what,” asked the third regular, “is your reading of the situation?”

“Once all the buildings are completely rented out,” the ex-pugilist told them, “they take off, like ant farms, they deliver yuppies all over the universe to all the different zoos.”

“I don't buy it,” the second regular said. “I still buy mine. The yuppies are the aliens. You can tell by their feet.”

“You know, but wait a minute now,” the third regular said. “Botha these theories end at the same place. And I like the place. At the end, the new buildings and the yuppies are both gone.”

With a surprised look, the second regular said, “That's true, isn't it?”

“Spaceship buildings,” agreed the ex-pugilist, “fulla yuppies, gone.”

This idea was so pleasing to everyone that conversation stopped briefly so they could all contemplate this future world—soon, Lord—when the yuppies and their warrens would all be away in some other corner of the universe.

[speakingparts]

cantwait!!!!! ❤️⃛῍̻̩✧(´͈ ૢᐜ `͈ૢ)

Official teaser poster for Park Chan-wook's upcoming black comedy thriller film 어쩔수가없다‘

'Set to begin shooting this Saturday, August 17, Park will be adapting Donald E. Westlake’s 1997 novel The Ax, which the legendary Costa-Gavras first adapted in 2005. The black comedy thriller follows a man laid off from the paper company he worked at for 25 years. Some time later and still jobless, he hits on a solution: to genuinely eliminate his competition. Adapted by Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyung-mi (Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, The Truth Beneath), Don McKellar (LAST NIGHT, The Sympathizer), Lee Ja-hye (Decision to Leave, The Handmaiden), the cast includes Lee Byung-hun (A Bittersweet Life, Joint Security Area, I Saw the Devil) Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, Cha Seung-won, and Yoo Yeon-seok.'

source