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Sam Holt #3
What I Tell You Three Times Is False
Sam Holt played TV-detective Jack Packard for five years, and he doesn't want to do it again. Not in a movie, not in dinner theater, not even in a commercial for the American Cancer Society. But his tough-minded girlfriend (It s not about you) has carried the day, and now he s stuck on an isolated island, hunting clues to a cancer cure alongside Charlie Chan, Miss Marple, and Sherlock Holmes. The script says they're doomed to failure (translation: Donate money to cancer research).
And when a genuine murder crops up, their sleuthing isn't likely to be much more successful; after all, these folks are not famous detectives, they just play 'em on TV. But with the cops cut off by a storm and a killer stalking the island, Holt and Co. must play detective for real.
And when a genuine murder crops up, their sleuthing isn't likely to be much more successful; after all, these folks are not famous detectives, they just play 'em on TV. But with the cops cut off by a storm and a killer stalking the island, Holt and Co. must play detective for real.
242 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1987
About the author
Donald E. Westlake
390 books1,007 followersDonald 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
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
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 3, 2018
—What I Tell You Three Times Is False—
By p. 29 on Chapter 5 goes into Sonny Trager’s architects’ refinements on the Caribbean island within the British Commonwealth on the palatial manse, “Some that space had housed Trager’s cocaine-refining plant, now dismantled. Sophisticated generating equipment installed inside the mountain used the constant movement of the sea to create and store electricity. A well more than a hundred feet deep brought up water.”
So’s Danny and Mort showbiz types, “in traditional dinner-party style, had separated couples.” p. 31 foreshadowing like McCloskey piloting earlier. The has-been actor begun, “to suspect that the California white wine we were having with our chicken breasts and asparagus tips (from the freezer) was not the only alcohol Daphne had taken on board since our arrival here. So [,] liquor was fueling her, and isolation was fueling her,” p. 33 Samuel Holt hits nail on head. These bullshitting allegories are hilarity some might say on p. 39-46 really writer wrote each character with distinctive voice masterfully.
O, Munro’s island inly the Caribbean like the island of Doctor Munro, nice literary reference p. 82. The description of coca being broken down is good, “From there we went to the upper part of the cocaine refinery. I say upper part because the refinery was an open windowless stone space two stories high; at this upper level, we entered from the arched central hall onto a metal balcony from which sluices ran down to the vats below. Cocaine begins as a gluey white paste squeezed and crushed from the coca plant, then reduced in refineries like this one—though most of them, I think, are less elaborate than this—to the white powder its fans know. Some of the more vital elements of this operation had been either removed or smashed by the federal agents when they took over the house, but much of the machinery remained, so when we peered down from the balcony at the main plant below, what we saw looked like a mad cross between a moonshiner’s still on a grand scale and Frankenstein’s laboratory brought up-to-date with lavish grant money.” p.109. So’s p. 144 Bly wonders, “what’s going to happen next,” is obvious someone else is going to bite the big one or, botched hit, force of nature earthquake; Category 4-Aletta steamy; or cocaine cowboys return; h’m, that’s all.
Fred wizened Oriental mystic is counterpart to Crosby blunt negro New Yorker with jazzy tale, “I am a pure product of nepotism—got my first part playing my father’s son in a Good Earth rip [-] off for Republic Pictures. I was four. My father didn’t think the name Li sounded Oriental enough, it was too much like that Civil War general, so his professional name was Malcom Wu.” p. 145.
Descriptor on p. 169 is visceral. The actors and, actresses disassociate themselves from their cinematographic characters or, not. Some play it to the bone like Clement on Sherlock Holmes. Singular character mention on p. 196 anonymized to not break spell vagaries, “I’ve been rooting for —,” he said. “..., a drunk, already had trouble with the law, probably a little crazy before he ever got here.”
“Sherlock Holmes,” I pointed out, “took cocaine, as we would now say, recreationally.” p. 217 gem of quote. Well, with website www.felonyandmayhem.com what might one imagine?
fine (̅_̅_̅(̅(̅_̅_̅_̅_̅_̅̅()ڪ fine 🚬
By p. 29 on Chapter 5 goes into Sonny Trager’s architects’ refinements on the Caribbean island within the British Commonwealth on the palatial manse, “Some that space had housed Trager’s cocaine-refining plant, now dismantled. Sophisticated generating equipment installed inside the mountain used the constant movement of the sea to create and store electricity. A well more than a hundred feet deep brought up water.”
So’s Danny and Mort showbiz types, “in traditional dinner-party style, had separated couples.” p. 31 foreshadowing like McCloskey piloting earlier. The has-been actor begun, “to suspect that the California white wine we were having with our chicken breasts and asparagus tips (from the freezer) was not the only alcohol Daphne had taken on board since our arrival here. So [,] liquor was fueling her, and isolation was fueling her,” p. 33 Samuel Holt hits nail on head. These bullshitting allegories are hilarity some might say on p. 39-46 really writer wrote each character with distinctive voice masterfully.
O, Munro’s island inly the Caribbean like the island of Doctor Munro, nice literary reference p. 82. The description of coca being broken down is good, “From there we went to the upper part of the cocaine refinery. I say upper part because the refinery was an open windowless stone space two stories high; at this upper level, we entered from the arched central hall onto a metal balcony from which sluices ran down to the vats below. Cocaine begins as a gluey white paste squeezed and crushed from the coca plant, then reduced in refineries like this one—though most of them, I think, are less elaborate than this—to the white powder its fans know. Some of the more vital elements of this operation had been either removed or smashed by the federal agents when they took over the house, but much of the machinery remained, so when we peered down from the balcony at the main plant below, what we saw looked like a mad cross between a moonshiner’s still on a grand scale and Frankenstein’s laboratory brought up-to-date with lavish grant money.” p.109. So’s p. 144 Bly wonders, “what’s going to happen next,” is obvious someone else is going to bite the big one or, botched hit, force of nature earthquake; Category 4-Aletta steamy; or cocaine cowboys return; h’m, that’s all.
Fred wizened Oriental mystic is counterpart to Crosby blunt negro New Yorker with jazzy tale, “I am a pure product of nepotism—got my first part playing my father’s son in a Good Earth rip [-] off for Republic Pictures. I was four. My father didn’t think the name Li sounded Oriental enough, it was too much like that Civil War general, so his professional name was Malcom Wu.” p. 145.
Descriptor on p. 169 is visceral. The actors and, actresses disassociate themselves from their cinematographic characters or, not. Some play it to the bone like Clement on Sherlock Holmes. Singular character mention on p. 196 anonymized to not break spell vagaries, “I’ve been rooting for —,” he said. “..., a drunk, already had trouble with the law, probably a little crazy before he ever got here.”
“Sherlock Holmes,” I pointed out, “took cocaine, as we would now say, recreationally.” p. 217 gem of quote. Well, with website www.felonyandmayhem.com what might one imagine?
fine (̅_̅_̅(̅(̅_̅_̅_̅_̅_̅̅()ڪ fine 🚬
March 21, 2025
This is the third and (I think) final novel in Donald E. Westlake's series of mysteries featuring and narrated by actor Sam Holt, who played a sort of Magnum PI character on TV and now is both rich and typecast. I liked it better than the last one, although once again I picked the murderer early on in the book despite Westlake's best efforts at tossing in red herrings.
The set-up is a wonder. A group of people fly to an isolated island in the Caribbean to film a commercial for the American Cancer Society. The actors are all people like Holt who are known for playing detectives -- there's a Sherlock Holmes, a Miss Marple and a Charlie Chan.
The guy playing Charlie is the funniest and most self-deprecating of the bunch. During a short side-discussion about Westerns, he reveals that his father made a good living playing cooks in old Westerns and he himself made his debut as the son of a fry cook in one. He later played a Japanese prison camp warden in a World War II picture because non-Asians can't tell Japanese and Chinese people apart.
A hurricane traps them all there, especially after the plane that brought them crashes into the sea in full view of everyone. So they're cooped up in this weird castle originally built a gangster who's now incarcerated and soon people start dying.
Right from the start, I knew who was likely to be the killer, and when the denouement arrived it was exactly what I suspected. But I still enjoyed the ride, especially thanks to Holt's West Coast girlfriend Bly, who at one point talks about the role of deconstruction in fiction and how the characters in a story know they're in a story.
The set-up is a wonder. A group of people fly to an isolated island in the Caribbean to film a commercial for the American Cancer Society. The actors are all people like Holt who are known for playing detectives -- there's a Sherlock Holmes, a Miss Marple and a Charlie Chan.
The guy playing Charlie is the funniest and most self-deprecating of the bunch. During a short side-discussion about Westerns, he reveals that his father made a good living playing cooks in old Westerns and he himself made his debut as the son of a fry cook in one. He later played a Japanese prison camp warden in a World War II picture because non-Asians can't tell Japanese and Chinese people apart.
A hurricane traps them all there, especially after the plane that brought them crashes into the sea in full view of everyone. So they're cooped up in this weird castle originally built a gangster who's now incarcerated and soon people start dying.
Right from the start, I knew who was likely to be the killer, and when the denouement arrived it was exactly what I suspected. But I still enjoyed the ride, especially thanks to Holt's West Coast girlfriend Bly, who at one point talks about the role of deconstruction in fiction and how the characters in a story know they're in a story.
May 11, 2017
Better to read Agatha Christie's and Then There Were None
January 7, 2026
The third in the series he wrote under the name “Sam Holt” in the late 1980’s. The three I have read so far would all make terrific limited series; this one in particular reminds me of Knives Out.
August 26, 2016
Třetí kniha z Westlakeovy "tajné" série je asi nejlepší - což ovšem pořád neznamená, že by se vyrovnala knihám, které psal Westlake jak pod svým jménem, tak pod jménem Stark. Hlavním problém je v tom, že Westlakeovi parketa klasických detektivek prostě nesedne. U něj je vždycky zábavnější to kolem, než samotný příběh.
Přesto je tohle nejčtivější knihou z řady. Hlavně proto, že přináší zajímavou rozehrávku: Do vily na opuštěném ostrově přilétají se svou společností čtyři herci úspěšně dlouhý čas představující slavné detektivy: Sherlocka Holmese, slečnu Marplovou, Charlie Chena a Sama Packarda (postava hlavního hrdiny téhle série). Mají tu natočit klip pro charitu na léčbu rakoviny. Jenže než stihnout natáčet, vypukne bouře, vila je odříznuta od světa a dojde k první vraždě. A pak další. A další. A pseudodetektivové musí začít pátrat.
Tohle už má (na rozdíl do minulé knihy) nějakou atmosféru a i trochu napětí. Ale sama zápletka není tak dobrá a tak od strany padesát je poměrně jasný pachatel i motiv. A odhalení je, podobně jako u minulé knihy, postaveno na "podřeknutí". Což je dost laciný trik.
Není to zlý, Westlake je i coby Sam Holt dobrý vypravěč (i když se tady hodně krotí), ale myslím, že kdyby se nevědělo, kdo je ve skutečnosti autorem, tak by série dost rychle zapadla. Takže možná to prozrazení bylo to nejlepší, co mohl jeho agent udělat.
Přesto je tohle nejčtivější knihou z řady. Hlavně proto, že přináší zajímavou rozehrávku: Do vily na opuštěném ostrově přilétají se svou společností čtyři herci úspěšně dlouhý čas představující slavné detektivy: Sherlocka Holmese, slečnu Marplovou, Charlie Chena a Sama Packarda (postava hlavního hrdiny téhle série). Mají tu natočit klip pro charitu na léčbu rakoviny. Jenže než stihnout natáčet, vypukne bouře, vila je odříznuta od světa a dojde k první vraždě. A pak další. A další. A pseudodetektivové musí začít pátrat.
Tohle už má (na rozdíl do minulé knihy) nějakou atmosféru a i trochu napětí. Ale sama zápletka není tak dobrá a tak od strany padesát je poměrně jasný pachatel i motiv. A odhalení je, podobně jako u minulé knihy, postaveno na "podřeknutí". Což je dost laciný trik.
Není to zlý, Westlake je i coby Sam Holt dobrý vypravěč (i když se tady hodně krotí), ale myslím, že kdyby se nevědělo, kdo je ve skutečnosti autorem, tak by série dost rychle zapadla. Takže možná to prozrazení bylo to nejlepší, co mohl jeho agent udělat.
April 20, 2009
It seemed like such a cute concept. Four fictional detectives looking for the cure for cancer, in a Public Service Ad, in a mansion on an isolated island. Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Charlie Chan, and Jack Packard. The actors and their mates, the director, and camera people were flown in just ahead of a "tropical storm with aspirations." They are greeted by the two owners and their cook.
That's when things started to go bad. The pilot of the plane trying to take off in the storm crashes into the ocean.
Then there's a suicide that they quickly realize is murder. Then the director disappears. One of the wives is poisoned, but hangs on by a thread.
Stuck inside the house because of the storm, one of the party is stalking the others. Now the play detectives, one of them possibly the murderer, have to function as real detectives if they are to survive.
That's when things started to go bad. The pilot of the plane trying to take off in the storm crashes into the ocean.
Then there's a suicide that they quickly realize is murder. Then the director disappears. One of the wives is poisoned, but hangs on by a thread.
Stuck inside the house because of the storm, one of the party is stalking the others. Now the play detectives, one of them possibly the murderer, have to function as real detectives if they are to survive.
February 27, 2014
A quaint murder mystery written by and featuring TV detective Sam Holt (in reality crime writer Donald Westlake, known for a long career of noir fiction and crime thriller movies written by him or based on his work). There's no incredible surprises here or examples of literary excellence, but the characters are fun and the story serves equal parts homage and parody of the mystery genre, a mix that works very well under the thin premise of TV detectives hanging out on an isolated island. A recommended read for a rainy day.
June 17, 2011
A classic of the ' And Then There Were None' type with ten people isolated on an island by a severe storm and they begin to be killed one by one after ther communication is cut off. There is an ersatz Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan Miss Jane Marple as well as an American PI Jack Packard on site with a twist at the end. This was fun to read.
May 8, 2014
In which Samuel Holt jumps the shark. By this time, Westlake had been outed as "Samuel Holt", so this has the feel of an end of the school year escapade. Highly melodramatic setting, with elements of Grand Guignol, this story resembles nothing so much as "Murder By Death". Still a lot of fun, but obviously the game was up.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews