Crooks and Their Crooked Underhanded Ways
In the mystery genre, few writers excel at creating likable crooks and imaginative crimes like Donald E. Westlake (1933-2008). Over his career, Westlake offered a who’s who of recognizable characters (including John Dortmunder), award winning titles (including the Edgar Award winning God Save the Mark), and films (including The Stepfather).
Though he began as a hard boiled mystery writer (and maintained this terse style under his infamous pseudonym Richard Stark), Westlake’s forte was in creating sympathetic crooks, following them through the involved planning process behind their heists, and then adding heaps of unforeseen trouble.
The Dortmunder stories provide the finest examples of Westlake’s craft. Each novel offers a stand-alone tale, creative heists, and a cast of lovable criminals and their underhanded foils. Starting with 1970′s madcap The Hot Rock–wherein mastermind John Dortmunder orchestrates five different crimes to steal one gem–the series developed through 14 novels, concluding with 2009′s Get Real, where Dortmunder’s crew stage a robbery around a robbery themed television show.
A crafty sense of humor informed Westlake’s best works, making his cast of thieves, femmes-not-quite-fatales, and everyday shnooks characters worth empathizing with. Westlake’s influence is found in such crime/mystery writers as Dennis Lehane, Lawrence Block, and Stephen King.