Lemons Never Lie by Richard Stark
There are so many twists, turns, starts and stops in Lemons Never Lie by Donald E. Westlake as Richard Stark that the novel becomes a kind of a crime picaresque filled with mugs, thugs, killers, victims and Parker's redoutable thespian friend, Alan Grofiled. There's also a lot of notably brutal violence.
The book begins with Grofield visiting Vegas to partake of a robbery that will give him the money to survive one more season in his summer theater. Grofield, in case you didn't know, is a "purist" when it comes to acting, his chosen profession. No movies or television for him. Stage only. But it takes his other profession, robbery, to support his theater. Only his long-supportive wife understands how hard he works at both careers.
A man named Myers has set up a robbery plan and has called in amateurs to help him. With the exception of a man named Caithcart and a dangerous man named Dan Leach, the group is a zero. As is Myers. Now Myers, who speaks with a boarding school accent, is one of the great villains in Westlake's world. He is a true sociopathic murderer; a serial killer of a kind. Grofield and Leach decide against working with him.
This is the set-up. There's an early twist that lets us know just how nasty Myers is. And then the various adventures start. Grofield resembles his friend (and fellow robber) Parker only occasionally. For instance, he loves chit-chat, feels sorry even for a guy who tries to kill him and lets another live that (as reader) you know should be killed on the spot, slowly and joyously.
There's also a lot of witty humor. Grofield gets into the damnedest conversations with people. Once in a while you may even forget you're reading a crime novel. Westlake has a great time riffing on all the cliche exchanges you read in most crime fiction. At a couple of point Grofield starts sounding like a TV shrink.
Lemons Never Lie is Westlake at his very best. While there's a screwball comedy-feel to some of the misadventures, the unrelenting violence reminds readers that the Richard Stark is the master of the hardboiled. The masterful plotting, the wry way the genre cliches are turned inside out, and the earnestness and humanity of Alan Grofield make this a pleasure from page one to the unexpected ending
Ed Gorman is the author of the Dev Conrad series of mysteries. The newest one FLASHPOINT.
A Lost Lady, Willa Cather
I love all of Willa Cather's books, but this is my favorite. It is short enough to read in an hour or two but deep enough to stay with you forever. Like Wharton's HOUSE OF MIRTH, this is a story of a woman who is simply unable to survive on her own in the world and makes poor decisions because of that.
When our protagonist meets Marion Forrester, she is years younger than her prominent husband. They live in Sweet Water, a town expected to thrive due to the railway. A young neighbor, Niel Herbert, become infatuated with her and she allows his infatuation. But before very long, the fate of Mrs. Forrester turns sour and young Niel is simply too inexperienced to see her clearly and believes the worst of her. Because he never understood her situation, he is unsypathetic to her fall from grace. Years later, he is finally able to understand her.
A beautifully written book and portrait of a complex character.
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Curt Evans, HIDE MY EYES, Marjorie Allingham
Randy Johnson, HIDDEN BLOOD, W.C. Tuttle
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Evan Lewis, DARK HEART OF TIME, Philip Jose Farmer
Steve Lewis/Frances Nevins, EIGHT FACES AT THREE, Craig Rice
Ed Lynskey, DR.NO,, Ian Fleming
Todd Mason
Neer, STAR TREK: PRIME DIRECTIVE, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
J.F. Norris, THE DETECTIVE NOVELS OF HARRIETTE ASHBROOK
J. Kingston Pierce, ALISTAIR MACLEAN
Graham Powell, RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY, John Mortimer
James Reasoner, SIN IN THEIR BLOOD, Ed Lacy
Ron Scheer, GUNSIGHTS, Elmore Leonard
Kerrie Smith, MISS MARPLE SHORT STORIES, Agatha Christie; MASTER OF THE MOOR, Ruth Rendell
Kevin Tipple, PARIAH, Dave Zeltersman
TomCat, SHE DIED A LADY, Carter Dickson (John Dickson Carr)
Prashant Trikannad, SOMEONE IS KILLING THE GREAT CHEFS OF EUROPE, Nan and Ivan Lyons
James Winter, ROSE MADDER, Stephen King
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9 comments:
Lemons never lie is a really awful title for a book it seems to me. Sounds like it's a good one, though.
"Lemons" is the only one of Stark's Grofield books that's really set in the Parker universe. The others start out there, but they're really comic adventures as much as crime novels.
There really are some great exchanges in Lemons. When Grofield, not a violent man, buys a gun from another criminal, he explains, "I have to drum someone out of the corps."
Patti - Thanks as ever for including my post. Some great links here!
Ed Lynskey has a forgotten book today, Patti.
Mine's up now:
The Detective Novels of Harriette Ashbrook
Patti, thanks for including my post too.
Why did I think Westlake wrote humorous books? This sure doesn't sound humorous at all!
He writes darker books under the name of Stark.
Or, sadly, wrote his more relentless and less sardonic ones as Stark (and his goofy ANARCHAOS as "Curt Clark" and a very curt clerk he was there).
Thanks for leaving a space for me, so that I could post some more reprinted reviews piled high...but Bill's good review of HELL CARTOGRAPHERS not only made me want to dust off mine but also reminded me how little I'd done to eulogize Frederik Pohl...and still how little I've done yet. Oddly, my parents crept into those reviews, too. How 'bout that.
HELL'S CARTOGRAPHERS and anthologies from IF, TRIQUARTERLY and Missionary Work to challenge the reader...
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