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Donald E. Westlake Books In Order

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Publication Order of Phil Crawford Books

Backstage Love (1959)Description / Buy at Amazon
What Girls Will Do (1962)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Parker Books

as Richard Stark
Payback / Point Blank / The Hunter (1962)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Steel Hit / The Man With The Getaway Face (1963)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Outfit (1963)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Mourner (1963)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Score / Killtown (1963)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Jugger (1965)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Seventh / The Split (1966)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Handle / Run Lethal (1966)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Rare Coin Score (1967)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Green Eagle Score (1967)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Black Ice Score (1968)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Sour Lemon Score (1969)Description / Buy at Amazon
Slayground (1971)Description / Buy at Amazon
Deadly Edge (1971)Description / Buy at Amazon
Plunder Squad (1972)Description / Buy at Amazon
Butcher's Moon (1974)Description / Buy at Amazon
Comeback (1997)Description / Buy at Amazon
Backflash (1998)Description / Buy at Amazon
Flashfire / Parker (2000)Description / Buy at Amazon
Firebreak (2001)Description / Buy at Amazon
Breakout (2002)Description / Buy at Amazon
Nobody Runs Forever (2004)Description / Buy at Amazon
Ask The Parrot (2006)Description / Buy at Amazon
Dirty Money (2008)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Mitch Tobin Books

as Tucker Coe
Kinds of Love, Kinds of Death (1966)Description / Buy at Amazon
Murder Among Children (1967)Description / Buy at Amazon
Wax Apple (1970)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Jade In Aries (1970)Description / Buy at Amazon
Don't Lie To Me (1972)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Alan Grofield Books

as Richard Stark

Publication Order of Dortmunder Books

Publication Order of Sam Holt Books

One Of Us Is Wrong (1986)Description / Buy at Amazon
I Know A Trick Worth Two Of That (1986)Description / Buy at Amazon
What I Tell You Three Times Is False (1987)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Fourth Dimension Is Death (1989)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Sara & Jack Books

Trust Me On This (1988)Description / Buy at Amazon
Baby, Would I Lie? (1994)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Sally (1959)Description / Buy at Amazon
Man Hungry (1959)Description / Buy at Amazon
All My Lovers (1959)Description / Buy at Amazon
SO WILLING. (1960)Description / Buy at Amazon
All about Annette (1960)Description / Buy at Amazon
Virgin's Summer (1960)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Wife Next Door (1960)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Mercenaries/The Cutie (1960)Description / Buy at Amazon
Passion's Playthings (1961)Description / Buy at Amazon
Call Me Sinner (1961)Description / Buy at Amazon
Campus Doll (1961)Description / Buy at Amazon
Brother and Sister (1961)Description / Buy at Amazon
Killing Time (1961)Description / Buy at Amazon
Young and Innocent (1961)Description / Buy at Amazon
361 (1962)Description / Buy at Amazon
Strange affair. (1962)Description / Buy at Amazon
Killy (1963)Description / Buy at Amazon
Campus Lovers (1963)Description / Buy at Amazon
Pity Him Afterwards (1964)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Fugitive Pigeon (1965)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Busy Body (1966)Description / Buy at Amazon
Spy in the Ointment (1966)Description / Buy at Amazon
God Save the Mark (1967)Description / Buy at Amazon
Anarchaos (1967)Description / Buy at Amazon
Philip (1967)Description / Buy at Amazon
Who stole Sassi Manoon? (1968)Description / Buy at Amazon
Up Your Banners (1969)Description / Buy at Amazon
Somebody Owes Me Money (1969)Description / Buy at Amazon
Adios Scheherazade (1970)Description / Buy at Amazon
Comfort Station (1970)Description / Buy at Amazon
Ex Officio (1970)Description / Buy at Amazon
I Gave at the Office (1971)Description / Buy at Amazon
Cops and Robbers (1972)Description / Buy at Amazon
Gangway! (With: Brian Garfield) (1973)Description / Buy at Amazon
Help, I Am Being Held Prisoner (1974)Description / Buy at Amazon
Brothers Keepers (1975)Description / Buy at Amazon
Two Much (1975)Description / Buy at Amazon
Dancing Aztecs (1976)Description / Buy at Amazon
Castle in the Air (1980)Description / Buy at Amazon
Kahawa (1981)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Likely Story (1984)Description / Buy at Amazon
High Adventure (1985)Description / Buy at Amazon
Humans (1992)Description / Buy at Amazon
Smoke (1995)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Ax (1997)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Hook (2000)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Scared Stiff (2001)Description / Buy at Amazon
Put a Lid on It (2002)Description / Buy at Amazon
Money for Nothing (2003)Description / Buy at Amazon
Memory / The Actor (2010)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Comedy is Finished (2012)Description / Buy at Amazon
Forever and a Death (2017)Description / Buy at Amazon
Call Me a Cab (2022)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Too Many Crooks (1989)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Curious Facts Preceding My Execution (1968)Description / Buy at Amazon
Enough (1977)Description / Buy at Amazon
Transylvania Station (With: Abby Westlake) (1987)Description / Buy at Amazon
Tomorrow's Crimes (1989)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Good Story and Other Stories (1999)Description / Buy at Amazon
Meteor Strike (2012)Description / Buy at Amazon
Double Feature (2020)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

The Getaway Car (2014)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Transgressions Books

Transgressions (By: Stephen King,Lawrence Block,Anne Perry,Jeffery Deaver,Sharyn McCrumb,Ed McBain,Bonnie Jeanne Perry,Joyce Carol Oates,Walter Mosley,John Farris) (2005)Description / Buy at Amazon
Transgressions, Vol. 2 (By: Stephen King,Lawrence Block,Ed McBain,John Farris) (2006)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Parker Graphic Novels Books

with Darwyn Cooke, as Richard Stark

Publication Order of Anthologies

Simply The Best Mysteries, Edgar Award Winners And Front Runners(1970)Description / Buy at Amazon
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow...(1974)Description / Buy at Amazon
Tales to Send Chills Down Your Spine(1979)Description / Buy at Amazon
Alfred Hitchcock's A Choice of Evils(1983)Description / Buy at Amazon
Fifty Best Mysteries(1993)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Plot Thickens(1997)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Mysterious Press Anniversary Anthology: Celebrating 25 Years(2001)Description / Buy at Amazon
Brooklyn Noir 2(2005)Description / Buy at Amazon
Price of Desire(2005)Description / Buy at Amazon

Donald Edwin Westlake was a noteworthy American author of the science fiction and crime genre. Being born in the year 1933, Westlake died in the year 2008 at the age of 75 after writing hundreds of novels and nonfiction books. Although the crime and science fiction genres were his specialty, he used to write in other genres as well. Westlake has been awarded the Edgar Award three times in his career. He was also one of the three writers to have won this award in three different categories. He was also bestowed with the highest honor of a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in the year 1993. Donald Westalke was born in the Brooklyn, New York and was raised in Albany. He was very fond of writing as a teenager and used to pen down anything that would come to his mind. But his dream of becoming an author was not achieved easily.

Donald Westlake had to face rejections more than 200 times in the beginning. It was after all those struggles that he sold his first story in the year 1954. Westlake joined the Champlain College of Plattsburgh in New York and continued to write and sell several short stories. He later attended the Harpur College in Binghamton and served in the United States Air Force for a period of two years after getting graduated. He became a full time writer after leaving the air force while still searching for a job in a literacy agency. With the hope of getting a job, Westlake moved to New York City in the year 1959. He wrote his first novel under his own name with the title ‘The Mercenaries’. This novel was published in the year 1960. In his career of 48 years as a full time writer, Westlake has written his novels under numerous pseudonyms. He has published his novels and short stories under his own name along with several pseudonyms including Richard Stark, Alan Marshall, James Blue, Ben Christopher, Andrew Shaw, Samuel Holt, Judson Jack Carmichael and a few others as well. Westlake has married three times and his latest marriage was with Abigail Adams, who is a writer of the nonfiction genre. He moved to Ancram along with his newly wedded wife in the year 1990.

Westlake suffered a heart attack in December 2008 and breathed his last breath. He was on a New Year vacation with his wife in Mexico. After his death, Abby Adams has opened Westlake Garden in the memory of Donald Westlake, which is allowed for public viewing during summers. Most of the novels written by Westlake have been set up in New York City. He was well known for his writing style and lively dialogues. Westlake has penned a number of famous characters with lively characteristics. Parker, a hard-boiled criminal and John Dortmunder, a fun flip-side of Parker are a couple of famous characters who feature in most of his novels. Several novels of Westlake have been adapted into motion pictures. Point Blank, Payback, Parker, Bank Shot, etc. are a few well known films adapted from Westlakes novels. Donald Westlake was also a screenwriter, having written the screenplay of films like The Grifters and The Stepfather. He even wrote a teleplay named Fatal Confession. His treatment written for the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies was adapted by many screenwriters for their movies. The following is a description of the first couple of books written by Westlake:

The first crime thriller written by Donald Westlake was ‘The Hunter’ which he wrote in the year 1962. Westlake used the pen name Richard Stark for this novel. The Hunter is a genuine crime thriller revolving around the life of the fictional character named Parker. Parker is a criminal by profession and specializes in armed robbery. He follows a pattern of committing a lucrative heist and enjoys a luxurious life along with his wife Lynn for a few months. He used to continue with his heist of crimes in order to prolong his luxurious life. He gets double crossed on one such heist by Mal Resnick, who convinces Lynn to shoot Parker while in Bed and enjoy the luxurious with him. Parker survives the attack, but gets imprisoned. Lynn moves ahead in life along with Mal. Parker escapes the prison using an identity theft and tracks down Lynn, who is left alone by Mal. She regrets her decision of betraying Parker and commits suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills. Parker goes on the trail of Mal Resnick to avenge the his losses. He tracks down Mal and causes monetary losses to him by acquiring full knowledge about his business. He also kills his aids in the process. Finally, Parker decides to have a plastic surgery and change his appearance so as to enjoy the rest of his days peacefully in Florida. The novel was published by ‘Perma Books’ and later served as the basis of the crime thriller movies Point Blank starring Lee Marvin and released in the year 1967 as well as Payback starring Mel Gibson and released in the year 1999. Initially, Westlake wrote the novel as a stand-alone crime novel, but when the publishers asked him to rewrite the end of the novel, Westlake went on to write 23 more novels over the period of 46 years. The novel got re-issued in 2008 by the University of Chicago Press.

The next novel written by Donald Westlake under the pen name of Richard Stark and featuring Parker was named ‘The Man with the Getaway Face’ and was published in the year 1963. The novel was titled ‘The Steel Hit’ in the US. The plot of the second novel continues from the end of the second novel. Parker has surgically altered his appearance and escaped with Mal Resnick’s money. Soon he becomes desperate for money after spending all that he had and decides to join his old associates Handy McKay and Skimm. The group decides to loot and armored car in New Jersey. Parker and Handy realize that Alma, Skimm’s girlfriend is going to betray them. Moreover, one of the employees of Dr. Adler blackmails Parker to reveal his true identity to his enemies. Dr. Adler is the one who had performed the plastic surgery to alter Parker’s appearance. Soon Dr. Adler gets murdered and Parker gets the blame of murdering him. This leaves him in a web of treachery and unpleasant events. He has to again strive hard get himself cleared of all the blame. The novel takes interesting turns to show the ups and downs of Parker’s life. It depicts Parker’s clever mind to get out of every situation. This novel was also re-issued by the Chicago University Press in the year 2008. The cartoonist Darwyn Cooke adapted the novel into a short pamphlet in 2010. The adaptation served as the first chapter of Darwyn’s graphic novel adaptation and was released in the following year.

Book Series In Order » Authors » Donald E. Westlake

3 Responses to “Donald E. Westlake”

  1. Linda Brazelton: 1 year ago

    Thank you for offering the Book Series in Order. I’m homebound and depend on the library delivery service and the Phoenix online service (Kindle) to keep me supplied with books. When I start with a new author, I like to start at the beginning of his or her career.

    When I finished the Reacher series, I went to you to find out if the author had other books written in other names.

    Years ago my husband and I enjoyed the Donald Westlake Dortmunder series, and I am going to reread them. With the tremendous amount of books released every year, frequently neither the library nor the online carry print copies of older books.

    Thank you for offering me a way to research new books and books I’ve loved in the past. The biographies are enjoyable, giving me additional insight.

    Thanks to the pandemic, more and more people are turning to books for enjoyment and enlightenment.
    I wish you well and hope for substantial profits for you in the future.

    Reply
    • Graeme: 1 year ago

      Thank you so much for taking the time to write that I truly appreciate it Linda! Cheers 🙂

      Reply
  2. Jane Carter: 2 years ago

    Under an English Heaven
    This is a book that I saw when vacationing on the island of Anguilla. It was not our book, so I never got a chance to read the entire book.
    Its sort of fiction, but based on some fact, from what I remember. I will buy it, as I want to read the entire book. Ive friends who live on this island.
    Heres a review:
    “A non-fiction account of the 1969 British invasion of Anguilla written by a British novelist in 1972.
    soualibra | Dec 18, 2020 |
    Donald E. Westlake was better known as a crime writer, both humorous (the Dortmunder series) and serious (the Parker series) but here delivers the true story of the supposed revolt of Anguilla against the St Kitts and Nevis government (of which Anguilla was a part of) as high farce.

    Obviously “Under an English heaven” is dated but still worth a read as it shows the “invasion” of Anguilla by British Royal Marines, where the Marines found the locals singing “God Save the Queen” and had no intention of rebelling against the British.

    Reply

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