RIP Donald Westlake
Jan. 1st, 2009 08:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sdelmonteMy favorite crime writer has left this world. Donald E. Westlake, creator of the witty Dortmunder comic caper series and (under his pen name Richard Stark) the brutal but gripping Parker crime series, passed away last night of an apparent heart attack at the age of 75.
A lot of you have never read his work. You should. He was a sleek stylist, a trenchant observer of the follies of life, a cunning plotter of crimes and (sometimes) of the search for justice. He was a favorite of Stephen King (who drew inspiration from Westlake's Richard Stark alter ego in writing The Dark Half and Terry Pratchett. I stumbled on his work over 15 years ago, when I found Kahawa, set in Idi Amin's Uganda, in the library. I haven't stopped trying to find his books ever since.
He will be missed. No doubt the gang at OJ's Bar and Grill (where Dortmunder often made his plans) raise one last glass to their creator.
A lot of you have never read his work. You should. He was a sleek stylist, a trenchant observer of the follies of life, a cunning plotter of crimes and (sometimes) of the search for justice. He was a favorite of Stephen King (who drew inspiration from Westlake's Richard Stark alter ego in writing The Dark Half and Terry Pratchett. I stumbled on his work over 15 years ago, when I found Kahawa, set in Idi Amin's Uganda, in the library. I haven't stopped trying to find his books ever since.
He will be missed. No doubt the gang at OJ's Bar and Grill (where Dortmunder often made his plans) raise one last glass to their creator.
