I love the entire ensemble in the Dortmunder series — the crooks, their girlfriends, even their insufferable fence and the regulars at the O.J. (especially the regulars, maybe). But mixed in with a feast of Dortmunders (I own or will soon own most of them) there has to be an occasional Parker break, or I start to twitch. After all, Parker was my first love. I can’t fathom how any one author could keep inventing stories the way Westlake did. Well, I guess he really couldn’t since he kept having to invent Richard Stark and other authors, too, to write his books. Were a heaven, he would be in it, now, writing as yet unheard ghost stories. But no, he will be with us always.
I love the entire ensemble in the Dortmunder series — the crooks, their girlfriends, even their insufferable fence and the regulars at the O.J. (especially the regulars, maybe). But mixed in with a feast of Dortmunders (I own or will soon own most of them) there has to be an occasional Parker break, or I start to twitch. After all, Parker was my first love. I can’t fathom how any one author could keep inventing stories the way Westlake did. Well, I guess he really couldn’t since he kept having to invent Richard Stark and other authors, too, to write his books. Were a heaven, he would be in it, now, writing as yet unheard ghost stories. But no, he will be with us always.