Donald Westlake was a remarkably prolific American crime writer who published nearly 100 books, sometimes writing three novels a year under a variety of pen names. As Richard Stark he wrote the Parker novels, beginning with The Hunter in 1962, which became the hard-hitting movie Point Blank. This wonderful collection of his non-fiction, including some unpublished pieces, offers (says Levi Stahl) “the closest look we’ve had yet at the mind of Donald E Westlake”. In a fragment of autobiography written when he was 70 (Westlake died in 2008), he admits that the first word he ever read was “police” and that the central obsession of his life was story. But this born crime writer began his career writing erotica with his friend Lawrence Block, who confesses in the foreword that it was “as much fun as I’ve ever had at a typewriter”. This book doesn’t disappoint, either: Westlake was a hugely entertaining and witty writer. Whether he is writing a letter to his editor or about the history of his genre, he remains true to his definition of what makes a great writer: “passion, plus craft”.
• The Getaway Car is published by Chicago.
