Donald Edwin Westlake passed on the last day of 2008, aged 75, leaving behind a huge hole in the hearts of his fans but also a literary legacy that's impressive in quantity as much as in quality.

Together with his many alter-egos and literary personalities, Richard Stark, Tucker Coe, Samuel Holt and quite a few others, Donald (that's the real name, btw :-)) created such characters as hard as nails robber Parker, professional actor and part-time thief (or is it the other way round? :-)) Alan Grofield and, especially, what is probably his most beloved creation, John Archibald Dortmunder, genius mastermind thief slightly down on luck...

From hard-boiled to comic capers, one constant of Westlake's work is that he doesn't tell stories about honest, decent cops trying to protect society from miscreants, as in your "regular" crime story, his, and ours, point of view is that of the miscreants themselves, plain, decent thieves and robbers trying to make a dishonest buck while avoiding the attention of the above honest, decent cops, pretty much just like any plain, decent job... er... :-)

However, Westlake's comic capers are the main focus of this group, the adventures of Dortmunder and his bumbling but unexpectedly competent crew, and the many other crazy stories of "perfect" heists...

As MAD magazine would have put it, welcome to...

THE LIGHTER SIDE OF CRIME

http://www.donaldwestlake.com/

N.B. - Languages: English/Italiano