A Good Story and Other Stories

by Donald E. Westlake

Presents a collection of mystery and detective stories, including "Sinner or Saint," "Good Night, Good Night," "Sniff," and "Take It Away"

Genres: Short Stories, Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Humor

259 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

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

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

BOOK 155 - Mid-20th Century North American Crime Readathon - Round 6
"Good Night, Good Night" is the story reviewed here.
HOOK - 3 stars: "Pain", a single word is the opening sentance/paragraph. Okay, I'll go with that, I'm curious.
PACE - 3 stars: For a short, just right.
PLOT - 4: Four acquaintances of Don Denton, TV show host, have a key to his apartment. The all hate him. One of them unlocks his front door, shot him, then left. A nice twist adds a fourth star to the plot.
CHARACTERS - 4: Don Denton likes to head home after his show's taping for the day and watch himself, alone, every night. Nancy, Don's wife, wants a divorce. Herb Martin, show writer, is a blacklisted communist and Don has threatened to fire him. Morey Stoneman, Don's business manager, books bad acts for a kickback. Don knows it and expects kickbacks. Eddie Blake is Don's sidekick on the show but Eddie wants the starring role. Four people, 4 keys, 4 motives to get rid of Don. Good cast, and motivations for all is clear.
ATMOSPHERE - 2: Almost nothing. Don does have a chair at home with a built-in swivel top for writing and even drawers for filing, that's interesting: Don has a massive ego and he enjoys looking at himself on the television, take notes about himself, and file away his greatness. But we get nothing about the inner workings of the show itself, so it's a miss for me.
SUMMARY - 3.2, a good short from the author.
"God Save the Mark" - 1967 - 3.0
"Never Shake a Family Tree" - 1961 - 3.6
"Journey to Death" - 1959 - 3.4
"Good Night, Good Night" - 1960 - 3.2
Donald E. Westlake average rating - 3.30

[Andy Mascola · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of eighteen pieces of short fiction from Westlake’s career published between 1958 and 1997. Lots of crime and murder. Sometimes humorous. Many of the tales have a Twilight Zone-like twist at the end. It was good.

[Dominick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a decent if unexceptional collection. Most of the stories tend to the humorous, which Westlake is good at, and indeed they tend to be amusing, albeit generally not riotous. There are a few more serious ones, and a bit of SF, but they are as a rule all fairly formulaic. I had read several before in different collections, so my sense of their predictability may be based in that familiarity as much as inherent, but then, there were also several I hadn't read before, which seemed no less easy to predict. So, you, know, entertaining, but hardly a game-changer for the genre. Plus, it's pretty poorly edited; I couldn't believe how many typos I tripped over.

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

*Sinner of saint
One on a desert island
You put on weight
*The curious facts preceding my execution
Good night, good night
The risk profession
Never shake a family tree --3
The mother of invention is worth a pound of cure
*Sniff
Devilishly
The sweetest man in the world
A good story
Breathe deep
*Love in the lean years
*Last-minute shopping
*The burglar and the whatsit
Skeeks
*Take it away
***
After I'm gone
Art & craft
Ask a silly question
Domestic intrigue
A midsummer daydream
This is death --3
Too many crooks

[Kevin Connery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collection of short stories. Many were new to me; some were in other collections, but it’s clear Westlake’s short stories were stronger than his novels--and I’m a big fan of the novels. Highly recommended.