Maxim Jakubowski on Donald Westlake

After a long delay, I hope to reset the site with a new host very soon. Meanwhile, here’s an interview I did with Maxim Jakubowski while on a recent trip through London. Until 2009, Maxim was the owner of the Murder One Bookshop on Charring Cross Road in London. The store had to close due to the pressures of big Read More …

Toronto Double Feature

If you happen to live in Toronto, you can catch the two previous film adaptations of Richard Stark’s The Hunter at the A.V. Club next Thursday: REMAKE/REMODEL: This week also sees the launch of an intriguing new program at the TUC. The brainchild of critic and AV Club Toronto editor John Semley, Remake/Remodel is a double bill of films that have a Read More …

Meanwhile, on Twitter…

@ExtAngel Glenn Kenny Goddamnit. I should never go to the gym while I’m in the MIDDLE of a Richard Stark novel. 14 hours ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®   @WDGagliani W.D. Gagliani Openings: John Dortmunder was a man on whom the sun shone only when he needed darkness. / Donald Westlake, Bad News, 2001 ((I can relate!)) 16 Nov via Read More …

Her Favorite Author

By Daniela Gitlin on her blog   Westlake wrote quirky, smart stories about quirky, smart people living full lives outside the law. Sure, they go down quick and easy as escapist trash. But to think they are trash would be a mistake, like falling for Columbo’s dull bulb act. Single-handed creator of the comedic caper and noir crime fiction, Westlake Read More …

Not For Sale

From Seacoast Online – Portsmouth, NH   Even with more than 3,000 titles in Mainely Murders and 10,000 in their ever-expanding collection, Keeney and Whetstone admit there are books they will never sell.   “I collect Richard Stark, which is another name for Donald Westlake. He was among the first of the good and bad guys. He’s a robber and Read More …

Forgotten Books: The Jugger by Richard Stark

by Ed Gorman (on his blog)   How’s this for an opener? I’m about to review the worst book Donald E. Westlake ever wrote. Don’t take my word for it. Here’s Westlake himself speaking.   “I spoiled a book by having him do something he wouldn’t do. The sixth book in the series is called The Jugger, and that book Read More …

Darwyn Cooke Talks About Parker

    by Josie Campbell, Staff Writer for Comic Book Resources   At the 2011 Long Beach Comic Con, artist Darwyn Cooke and IDW Publishing Special Projects Editor Scott Dunbier joined forces on the Darwyn Cooke panel to talk about Cooke’s ongoing IDW work adapting author Richard Stark AKA Donald Westlake’s “Parker” novels into graphic novel form. Immediately opening the Read More …

Palm Beach Peccadillos

It’s no secret by now that Taylor Hackford has directed the forthcoming Parker, based on Richard Stark’s Flashfire, with Jason Statham in the starring role. Among Parker fans, pretty much everything is already known about the casting, making and eventual distribution of this movie. What amuses me is how Palm Beach, Florida, played its part in both the book and Read More …