The Fourth Dimension Is Death

Sam Holt #4

by Donald E. Westlake

He's got buckets of money and two gorgeous girlfriends, but actor Sam Holt nevertheless deserves a little sympathy. He's no longer playing Packard, the TV-detective who made him famous, but he can't drum up another gig. And now some joker who looks like Holt is playing Packard in commercials for a chain of cut-rate grocery stores. No wonder Holt's a little peeved.

Peevishness slides into paranoia when the joker gets his head bashed in just steps from Holt's front door. Holt may never have been a real private-eye, but with bad guys gunning for him, he's got to channel Packard and ride to his own rescue.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Donald E. Westlake (1933-2008) was one of the most prolific and talented authors of American crime fiction. He began his career in the late 1950's, churning out novels for pulp houses—often writing as many as four novels a year under various pseudonyms such as Richard Stark—but soon began publishing under his own name. His most well-known characters were John Dortmunder, an unlucky thief, and Parker, a ruthless criminal. His writing earned him three Edgar Awards: the 1968 Best Novel award for God Save the Mark; the 1990 Best Short Story award for "Too Many Crooks"; and the 1991 Best Motion Picture Screenplay award for The Grifters. In addition, Westlake also earned a Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1993.

Westlake's cinematic prose and brisk dialogue made his novels attractive to Hollywood, and several motion pictures were made from his books, with stars such as Lee Marvin and Mel Gibson. Westlake wrote several screenplays himself, receiving an Academy Award nomination for his adaptation of The Grifters, Jim Thompson's noir classic.

Some of the pseudonyms he used include
•   Richard Stark
•   Timothy J. Culver
•   Tucker Coe
•   Curt Clark
•   J. Morgan Cunningham
•   Judson Jack Carmichael
•   D.E. Westlake
•   Donald I. Vestlejk
•   Don Westlake

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An actor, who starred in a detective show and is now typecast, is having a legal issue. It seems an actor who looks like him is starring in commercial parodies. The company that owns the character is suing.

When the two meet, they get into scuffles.

Then the lookalike winds up dead right outside the actor's apartment. Guess who is the primary suspect?

Then the lookalike's mother sues him for the death in civil court.

While it seems something more like Lee Goldberg would write than Westlake, is does pre-figure the OJ Simpson and following celebrity trials, and a number of other situations that occurred shortly after. Is Westlake the Jules Verne of mystery?

[Spiros · Rating 3 out of 5]

Donald Westlake decided that he wanted to see if he could be loved for himself, and not as "Donald E. Westlake" or "Richard Stark": and so the author and character of "Samuel Holt" was born. He signed a "shorter-than-normal advance for a four-book contract", with the understanding that his incognito was to be rigidly preserved, wrote the first three books of what was to be a six book series, and watched as the publisher's marketing department blew the secret when the first book hit the shelves. At which point he rather lost enthusiasm for the whole project, but did manage to write the fourth book.
And do you know what? However much he had lost interest, he somehow managed to produce what to my mind is the best book out of the four. This one feels much less gimmicky than the previous entries, while losing none of its humor. I kind of wish he had gotten around to writing "You Have Five Seconds to Live" and "Now I Am Six and Clever as Clever"; I feel that Sam Holt deserved it (who knows, by the end he might have been allowed to land a role as an actor).

[Donald · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I'm a big fan of Westlake, and I thought I'd give this Sam Holt fellow a try. It was decent enough, but just a little too hoity toity for me. Holt is rich, good looking, and well off. He's not Parker or Grofield or even Dortmunder, the tough, gritty, sometimes hard luck fellows of his other novels. For whatever reason, that just rubbed me the wrong way. But it was a likeable read, and I would probably read the other three, though I wouldn't go seek them out.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An actor doing illegal impersonations of Holt's Sam Packard character is murdered. Then the friend of the victim's girl friend is killed and a manufactured clue implicating Holt is left behind. Holt must solve the two murders before his reputation is smeared and his fortune looted.

[Janet]

I prefer Westlake's rumpled crooks. This different series is has a very rich Mary Sue as the main character (rich, tall, handsome, smart, talented).

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting twist with the civil suit, great for the beginning of a series.