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Sin Hellcat: Collection of Classic Erotica - Book 22
This is the third novel Donald E. Westlake and I did in collaboration, SIN HELLCAT, and I think it may have been the best of the three—but we didn't get to put a joint byline on it. Well, we did—but someone at Nightstand felt free to change it, dropping Alan Marshall from the "by Alan Marshall and Andrew Shaw" byline we'd supplied. Much the same thing happened to CIRCLE OF SINNERS, my collaboration for Nightstand with Hal Dresner; "By Andrew Shaw and Don Holliday" is what we tagged it, and this time it was Andrew Shaw who got bumped.
Well, it's corrected now. SIN HELLCAT, like its fellows, has both names on the cover. And our names, not the ones we donned for our work in the world of paperback erotica.
When the two of us were starting out as writers, we both served an apprenticeship writing erotic novels for Harry Shorten at Midwood Books and Bill Hamling at Nightstand. (I was Sheldon Lord for Midwood and Andrew Shaw for Nightstand, while Don was Alan Marshall for both publishers. Note though that the presence of either name upon a book is no guarantee that one of us wrote it. Both of us made arrangements whereby lesser writers would submit works under our names—and I know it's hard to believe that any writers were less than we were back then, but it's true.)
Well. We'd become friends in the summer of 1959, while we were living a few blocks away from each other in midtown Manhattan. I was at the Hotel Rio, on West 47th between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, and Don was a block south and several blocks west of me. Then I moved back to my parents' house in Buffalo, and Don and his wife and kid moved to Canarsie, and we wrote letters back and forth.
And at one point we decided it might be fun to do a novel together. Not by thinking it out and talking through it and, you know, collaborating in a serious artistic manner. Our method was simpler. One of us would write a chapter, and then the other would write a chapter to come after it, and back and forth, like that, until we had a book.
It worked, and by God it was fun. The first of our efforts was A GIRL CALLED HONEY, and it started when I wrote a chapter and sent it to Don. And so on, and we stopped when we had a book and sent it to Henry Morrison who sent it to Harry Shorten. We put both our names on the book, our pen names that is to say, and that's how Harry published it: by Sheldon Lord and Alan Marshall. And he included our dedication: "To Don Westlake and Larry Block, who introduced us."
It was so much fun that we did it again. This time Don wrote the first chapter, and I wrote the second. Was I still in Buffalo, and did we still send the chapters through the mail? Damned if I can remember. I think I may have been in New York by then, living with my first wife on West 69th Street. But maybe not, and what does it matter? We finished the book, we sent it in, Midwood published it, and we shared the advance, which was probably $600 for A GIRL CALLED HONEY, but may have escalated to $750 by the time we did SO WILLING. So each of us wound up with either $300 or $375 for our trouble, and that's not a lot of money nowadays, and it wasn't a lot of money in 1960 either, but neither was it a lot of trouble.
Damn, those were good days.
Never mind. Here's SIN HELLCAT—and if reading it brings you a small fraction of the fun we had writing it, you'll be back right away to scoop up A GIRL CALLED HONEY and SO WILLING.
This ebook edition of SIN HELLCAT contains as a bonus the opening chapter of Book #23 in the Collection of Classic Erotica, SO WILLING.
Well, it's corrected now. SIN HELLCAT, like its fellows, has both names on the cover. And our names, not the ones we donned for our work in the world of paperback erotica.
When the two of us were starting out as writers, we both served an apprenticeship writing erotic novels for Harry Shorten at Midwood Books and Bill Hamling at Nightstand. (I was Sheldon Lord for Midwood and Andrew Shaw for Nightstand, while Don was Alan Marshall for both publishers. Note though that the presence of either name upon a book is no guarantee that one of us wrote it. Both of us made arrangements whereby lesser writers would submit works under our names—and I know it's hard to believe that any writers were less than we were back then, but it's true.)
Well. We'd become friends in the summer of 1959, while we were living a few blocks away from each other in midtown Manhattan. I was at the Hotel Rio, on West 47th between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, and Don was a block south and several blocks west of me. Then I moved back to my parents' house in Buffalo, and Don and his wife and kid moved to Canarsie, and we wrote letters back and forth.
And at one point we decided it might be fun to do a novel together. Not by thinking it out and talking through it and, you know, collaborating in a serious artistic manner. Our method was simpler. One of us would write a chapter, and then the other would write a chapter to come after it, and back and forth, like that, until we had a book.
It worked, and by God it was fun. The first of our efforts was A GIRL CALLED HONEY, and it started when I wrote a chapter and sent it to Don. And so on, and we stopped when we had a book and sent it to Henry Morrison who sent it to Harry Shorten. We put both our names on the book, our pen names that is to say, and that's how Harry published it: by Sheldon Lord and Alan Marshall. And he included our dedication: "To Don Westlake and Larry Block, who introduced us."
It was so much fun that we did it again. This time Don wrote the first chapter, and I wrote the second. Was I still in Buffalo, and did we still send the chapters through the mail? Damned if I can remember. I think I may have been in New York by then, living with my first wife on West 69th Street. But maybe not, and what does it matter? We finished the book, we sent it in, Midwood published it, and we shared the advance, which was probably $600 for A GIRL CALLED HONEY, but may have escalated to $750 by the time we did SO WILLING. So each of us wound up with either $300 or $375 for our trouble, and that's not a lot of money nowadays, and it wasn't a lot of money in 1960 either, but neither was it a lot of trouble.
Damn, those were good days.
Never mind. Here's SIN HELLCAT—and if reading it brings you a small fraction of the fun we had writing it, you'll be back right away to scoop up A GIRL CALLED HONEY and SO WILLING.
This ebook edition of SIN HELLCAT contains as a bonus the opening chapter of Book #23 in the Collection of Classic Erotica, SO WILLING.
184 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1962
8 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Block
757 books3,009 followersLawrence Block has been writing crime, mystery, and suspense fiction for more than half a century. He has published in excess (oh, wretched excess!) of 100 books, and no end of short stories.
Born in Buffalo, N.Y., LB attended Antioch College, but left before completing his studies; school authorities advised him that they felt he’d be happier elsewhere, and he thought this was remarkably perceptive of them.
His earliest work, published pseudonymously in the late 1950s, was mostly in the field of midcentury erotica, an apprenticeship he shared with Donald E. Westlake and Robert Silverberg. The first time Lawrence Block’s name appeared in print was when his short story “You Can’t Lose” was published in the February 1958 issue of Manhunt. The first book published under his own name was Mona (1961); it was reissued several times over the years, once as Sweet Slow Death. In 2005 it became the first offering from Hard Case Crime, and bore for the first time LB’s original title, Grifter’s Game.
LB is best known for his series characters, including cop-turned-private investigator Matthew Scudder, gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanner, and introspective assassin Keller.
Because one name is never enough, LB has also published under pseudonyms including Jill Emerson, John Warren Wells, Lesley Evans, and Anne Campbell Clarke.
LB’s magazine appearances include American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, Linn’s Stamp News, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and The New York Times. His monthly instructional column ran in Writer’s Digest for 14 years, and led to a string of books for writers, including the classics Telling Lies for Fun & Profit and The Liar’s Bible. He has also written episodic television (Tilt!) and the Wong Kar-wai film, My Blueberry Nights.
Several of LB’s books have been filmed. The latest, A Walk Among the Tombstones, stars Liam Neeson as Matthew Scudder and is scheduled for release in September, 2014.
LB is a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America, and a past president of MWA and the Private Eye Writers of America. He has won the Edgar and Shamus awards four times each, and the Japanese Maltese Falcon award twice, as well as the Nero Wolfe and Philip Marlowe awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Diamond Dagger for Life Achievement from the Crime Writers Association (UK). He’s also been honored with the Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award from Mystery Ink magazine and the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer for Lifetime Achievement in the short story. In France, he has been proclaimed a Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice been awarded the Societe 813 trophy. He has been a guest of honor at Bouchercon and at book fairs and mystery festivals in France, Germany, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan. As if that were not enough, he was also presented with the key to the city of Muncie, Indiana. (But as soon as he left, they changed the locks.)
LB and his wife Lynne are enthusiastic New Yorkers and relentless world travelers; the two are members of the Travelers Century Club, and have visited around 160 countries.
He is a modest and humble fellow, although you would never guess as much from this biographical note.
Born in Buffalo, N.Y., LB attended Antioch College, but left before completing his studies; school authorities advised him that they felt he’d be happier elsewhere, and he thought this was remarkably perceptive of them.
His earliest work, published pseudonymously in the late 1950s, was mostly in the field of midcentury erotica, an apprenticeship he shared with Donald E. Westlake and Robert Silverberg. The first time Lawrence Block’s name appeared in print was when his short story “You Can’t Lose” was published in the February 1958 issue of Manhunt. The first book published under his own name was Mona (1961); it was reissued several times over the years, once as Sweet Slow Death. In 2005 it became the first offering from Hard Case Crime, and bore for the first time LB’s original title, Grifter’s Game.
LB is best known for his series characters, including cop-turned-private investigator Matthew Scudder, gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanner, and introspective assassin Keller.
Because one name is never enough, LB has also published under pseudonyms including Jill Emerson, John Warren Wells, Lesley Evans, and Anne Campbell Clarke.
LB’s magazine appearances include American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, Linn’s Stamp News, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and The New York Times. His monthly instructional column ran in Writer’s Digest for 14 years, and led to a string of books for writers, including the classics Telling Lies for Fun & Profit and The Liar’s Bible. He has also written episodic television (Tilt!) and the Wong Kar-wai film, My Blueberry Nights.
Several of LB’s books have been filmed. The latest, A Walk Among the Tombstones, stars Liam Neeson as Matthew Scudder and is scheduled for release in September, 2014.
LB is a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America, and a past president of MWA and the Private Eye Writers of America. He has won the Edgar and Shamus awards four times each, and the Japanese Maltese Falcon award twice, as well as the Nero Wolfe and Philip Marlowe awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Diamond Dagger for Life Achievement from the Crime Writers Association (UK). He’s also been honored with the Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award from Mystery Ink magazine and the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer for Lifetime Achievement in the short story. In France, he has been proclaimed a Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice been awarded the Societe 813 trophy. He has been a guest of honor at Bouchercon and at book fairs and mystery festivals in France, Germany, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan. As if that were not enough, he was also presented with the key to the city of Muncie, Indiana. (But as soon as he left, they changed the locks.)
LB and his wife Lynne are enthusiastic New Yorkers and relentless world travelers; the two are members of the Travelers Century Club, and have visited around 160 countries.
He is a modest and humble fellow, although you would never guess as much from this biographical note.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 29, 2020
Sin Hellcat was originally published in 1961 under the pseudonym Andrew Shaw. Unfortunately, the kindle version has the boring Open Road Media plain black cover rather than the racy softcore cover of the original dime store paperback which featured a nude redhead guzzling a bottle of champagne and included the tag line: "life was one lust-filled orgy for this Sin Hellcat." That's not really what the book's about but it's an eye catching title. The basic story is that a guy (Harvey Christopher) is trapped in a boring marriage to frigid wife Helen and decides to look up his old college sweetheart (Jodi) who is now working as a prostitute and she gets him involved in international smuggling.
Harvey reminisces about college days with Jodi at the reservoir, in her dorm room, and wherever. He also reminisces about how he landed his first job in advertising by meeting a guy in a bar and how he schemed and worked his way up. His story of his frigid honeymoon is absolutely hilarious. But now he's reconnected with Jodi: Jodi's large soulful eyes were even deeper now and "her body had filled out very nicely." She has "honey-blonde hair" and is extremely distracting in a green sheath dress. And Harvey can't get enough of her. Good thing too because he has agreed to travel with her to South America traveling as man and wife to smuggle a valuable item out of the country.
It's a fun story, well-told and worth reading. As Block brags in an afterword, it's impossible to tell who wrote which chapter, Block or Westlake.
Harvey reminisces about college days with Jodi at the reservoir, in her dorm room, and wherever. He also reminisces about how he landed his first job in advertising by meeting a guy in a bar and how he schemed and worked his way up. His story of his frigid honeymoon is absolutely hilarious. But now he's reconnected with Jodi: Jodi's large soulful eyes were even deeper now and "her body had filled out very nicely." She has "honey-blonde hair" and is extremely distracting in a green sheath dress. And Harvey can't get enough of her. Good thing too because he has agreed to travel with her to South America traveling as man and wife to smuggle a valuable item out of the country.
It's a fun story, well-told and worth reading. As Block brags in an afterword, it's impossible to tell who wrote which chapter, Block or Westlake.
January 28, 2020
From the Paperback Warrior Blog:
Sin Hellcat by Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake
Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake are two of the most beloved writers in crime fiction. However, most fans are unaware that they co-authored three books together when they were young men starting their writing careers in New York City. The trio of paperbacks fell broadly into the category of “sleaze fiction,” and the best of these collaborations is said to be “Sin Hellcat,” a 1961 Nightstand paperback written under the name Andrew Shaw that’s currently available as a paperback reprint and cheap eBook.
Harvey is living a mundane, split-level suburban existence with his frigid wife and a job as a mid-level Manhattan advertising executive. He likes to remember his college years when he was a sexual, albeit inexperienced, young lover with his girlfriend, Jodi. The novel’s opening act treats the reader to generous flashbacks from Harvey’s college years when he and Jodi were first exploring one another sexually and later when he was trying to get laid at the ad agency as a mailroom clerk. These are the sexy - but never overly graphic - scenes that comprise the first half of the book in a rare example of actual genre fiction character development.
In present day, Harvey reconnects with Jodi who is now a high-end prostitute - a plot twist disclosed in the novel’s opening paragraph (which, honestly, sorta took the oomph out of what would have been an interesting twist). After spending the night at Jodi’s place, Harvey is awakened by a goon with a camera and a blackmail proposition. I won’t give it away, but I was happy to read that Block and Westlake chose to add some intrigue and muscle to the sexy mix with a plot involving international smuggling of sorts.
As a huge fan of both Block and Westlake, I had fun reading this early collaboration by them before they made it big. There were sections of the novel where I recognized each of their narrative voices in their tadpole states. Most of the paperback toggles between flashbacks from Harvey’s checkered past to the current, genuinely intriguing situation with Jodi on an international mission.
Is “Sin Hellcat” a lost masterpiece? No. But it’s way better than a 1961 sleaze paperback deserves to be. There’s enough titillation to keep the dudes flipping the pages, and enough edgy, adventurous content to add some substance to the work. Meanwhile, the writing style(s) is pretty excellent and genuinely funny and insightful at times. It’s not top-tier Block or Westlake, but it was a nice way to kill a few hours. Recommended.
Sin Hellcat by Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake
Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake are two of the most beloved writers in crime fiction. However, most fans are unaware that they co-authored three books together when they were young men starting their writing careers in New York City. The trio of paperbacks fell broadly into the category of “sleaze fiction,” and the best of these collaborations is said to be “Sin Hellcat,” a 1961 Nightstand paperback written under the name Andrew Shaw that’s currently available as a paperback reprint and cheap eBook.
Harvey is living a mundane, split-level suburban existence with his frigid wife and a job as a mid-level Manhattan advertising executive. He likes to remember his college years when he was a sexual, albeit inexperienced, young lover with his girlfriend, Jodi. The novel’s opening act treats the reader to generous flashbacks from Harvey’s college years when he and Jodi were first exploring one another sexually and later when he was trying to get laid at the ad agency as a mailroom clerk. These are the sexy - but never overly graphic - scenes that comprise the first half of the book in a rare example of actual genre fiction character development.
In present day, Harvey reconnects with Jodi who is now a high-end prostitute - a plot twist disclosed in the novel’s opening paragraph (which, honestly, sorta took the oomph out of what would have been an interesting twist). After spending the night at Jodi’s place, Harvey is awakened by a goon with a camera and a blackmail proposition. I won’t give it away, but I was happy to read that Block and Westlake chose to add some intrigue and muscle to the sexy mix with a plot involving international smuggling of sorts.
As a huge fan of both Block and Westlake, I had fun reading this early collaboration by them before they made it big. There were sections of the novel where I recognized each of their narrative voices in their tadpole states. Most of the paperback toggles between flashbacks from Harvey’s checkered past to the current, genuinely intriguing situation with Jodi on an international mission.
Is “Sin Hellcat” a lost masterpiece? No. But it’s way better than a 1961 sleaze paperback deserves to be. There’s enough titillation to keep the dudes flipping the pages, and enough edgy, adventurous content to add some substance to the work. Meanwhile, the writing style(s) is pretty excellent and genuinely funny and insightful at times. It’s not top-tier Block or Westlake, but it was a nice way to kill a few hours. Recommended.
October 15, 2016
This is a fun book. I'm surprised it's rated so low but I assume if a reader is expecting erotica, this book will fall short by today's standards. But where this book really shines how it allows to reader to watch how Block and Westlake take turns (they alternate writing chapters) one-upping each other and attempting to write each other into a corner. This book, while not Shakespeare, is very enjoyable and, believe it or not, allows the authors the ability to display a glimpse of their crime thriller roots.
June 23, 2017
Long before they became two of America’s most celebrated and popular fiction authors, Donald Westlake and Lawrence Block were struggling writers of short stories and trashy pseudonymous sex novels. They struck a friendship in these niche backwaters of the New York publishing world in the late 1950’s which ultimately lasted until Don’s passing over half a century later. (Larry is thankfully still with us and continuing to craft award-winning fiction.)
Their only professional collaboration consisted of three paperback originals written under assumed names—their so-called “Hellcats and Honeygirls” trilogy:
A Girl Called Honey (1960) by “Sheldon Lord and Alan Marshall”
So Willing (1960) by “Sheldon Lord and Alan Marshall”
Sin Hellcat (1962) by “Andrew Shaw”
This third volume is the best of the three. So Willing and A Girl Called Honey were marked by chapter by chapter one-upmanship wherein one author would create tricky cliffhangers for the other to get out of, or maybe randomly kill off the other’s point of view character.
Sin Hellcat reads as a more cohesive whole. The prose is much funnier throughout. Flashbacks build on each other and give texture to the characters. On the other hand, the plot is still thin, and this time the sex quotient is increased to ridiculous levels, so I am not going to call this great literature. However, there are a few sublime moments—a hilariously awkward honeymoon encounter that turns into a tragic scene of rape; a prostitute crying over an abortion ten years previous—when the story gives glimpses into the authors’ developing skills and maturity.
Their only professional collaboration consisted of three paperback originals written under assumed names—their so-called “Hellcats and Honeygirls” trilogy:
A Girl Called Honey (1960) by “Sheldon Lord and Alan Marshall”
So Willing (1960) by “Sheldon Lord and Alan Marshall”
Sin Hellcat (1962) by “Andrew Shaw”
This third volume is the best of the three. So Willing and A Girl Called Honey were marked by chapter by chapter one-upmanship wherein one author would create tricky cliffhangers for the other to get out of, or maybe randomly kill off the other’s point of view character.
Sin Hellcat reads as a more cohesive whole. The prose is much funnier throughout. Flashbacks build on each other and give texture to the characters. On the other hand, the plot is still thin, and this time the sex quotient is increased to ridiculous levels, so I am not going to call this great literature. However, there are a few sublime moments—a hilariously awkward honeymoon encounter that turns into a tragic scene of rape; a prostitute crying over an abortion ten years previous—when the story gives glimpses into the authors’ developing skills and maturity.
May 18, 2018
Three stars because this book is an early collaboration between two great writers (Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake) who were relatively unknown at the time. I haven't read a lot of Westlake myself, but I do know my Block. And Block's exposition comes through here. However, the book felt a bit misleading to me. I assumed the title "Sin Hellcat" referred to the naked woman drinking booze on the cover. Maybe it did, but the bulk of the book focused on one Harvey Christopher who bedded more women than Lot had daughters in a cave. Harvey was a neat character, but I wanted to know more about Jodi who was the sin-hellcat in question. While the book concluded okay, Jodi was little more than a cipher. We only get to know slightly more about her than the other women riding the Harvey train. But then, this is an old erotica meant to please more than entertain. Yet even back then Block and Westlake make me want to know more about a woman who was just there to look pretty. The good thing is both went on to write a hell of a lot more, and better, stuff. Read this to examine the early writing style and see some funny clichés that may have slipped by a couple of editors.
February 26, 2022
If you can get through the first half and the (un)erotica of the early 60's the plot that develops over the second half is actually quite decent... in fact, if that was the complete focus of the book it could've been really good.
February 13, 2018
Newly discovered author for me. I love that gritty noir feel. More-so in other stories than this one. If you read this, keep in mind, this was the 60's. Besides, I'm on HIS side.
Read
November 25, 2021Hmm. Couldn't get into it, but it was engaging. I gotten into 26% percent. Mental stress around the holidays is wild.
April 4, 2017
2017 Popsugar reading challenge: A book with multiple authors
August 15, 2014
Sin Hellcat. What a title. I would love this to be the name of a band, came see Sin Hellcat!!!! The ultimate Electric Glockenspiel Band!!! But the book, this was Sleazy. Good sleazy but sleazy none the less. It had a lot of sex and a half baked plot about a Mad Men type jerk and his old flame who is now a prostitute who get involved in a weird smuggling scheme. There is very good writing in this, of course beceause it is Block and Westlake. Good writers doing sleaze when they started out. I had a great time with it, though the narrator is a miserable person
July 2, 2021
This was a collaboration between Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake and they alternated chapters and did a remarkable job matching styles so that it reads seamlessly. So it is interesting from that perspective. But not much of a novel. It is mostly a lot of tongue-in-cheek writerly pyrotechnics, a lot of spinning of wheels to fill pages in between the sex scenes, of which there are plenty, described in censorship era figures of speech.
December 5, 2019
What starts out as clever and entertaining soon becomes tiresome. I abandoned it halfway through.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews