Re: RARA-AVIS: Early Westlake

blumenidiot (blumenidiot@email.msn.com)
Tue, 12 Jan 1999 22:31:20 -0600 I didn't mean say I disliked the Dortmunders, just that I found some of his
light mysterieries and capers like Dancing Aztecs, Two Much or Somebody Owes
me Money more enjoyable. I thought his getting into a very formulaic light
Parker-like series has limited him. I don't like such action-stopping
happening as the necessary meeting of the principals in the back of the
bar. It's there because all the books have had them, and he can gag it up
with the two patrons. Curiously, I thought a late book in the series,
Drowned Hopes, with its inclusion of Gores' DKA series' characters was the
best. It has the usual complications but also has more character
development. BTW Gores' Dan Kearney was also in the Parker book, Plunder
Squad.
Mark Blumenthal

>I have to defend Westlake's Dortmunder series. These novels are comic
>gems. It's hard to believe how easily the man moves between the
>ultrahardboiled and the pure comic, a sign of his versatility and
>talent. Anyway, I have been a sucker for Dortmunder since I discovered
>the hilarious _The Hot Rock_, where a train is driven through a loony
>bin and the bad guys land on a helicopter on the roof of a police
>station in NYC. Great stuff!
>
>Regards,
>
>mt
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