ABANDONED. Possible Donald Westlake novel where man is being framed for a murder.

[Linda]

I read this story in the early 1980s. An actor wakes up from a night of partying and finds a dead woman in his apartment. I don't think the actor is Alan Grofield, because I don't think the actor is a criminal, but I am not sure. He runs away, somehow hooks up with a starlet and they escape to the man's family house in the countryside. The starlet is so fascinated with the actor's mother because she has wrinkles. In Hollywood, no one has wrinkles, and the girl is disgusted by the real face. That is all I remember, but I am looking for the story because of that scene. I'm pretty sure the story was funny, which makes me think it was written as Donald Westlake, and not Richard Stark. Any help would be appreciated.

[Linda]

Mine is the only one on this entire list that hasn't had some comment. Am I in the wrong place? Are people seeing it? Is there just too little information?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

You're in the right place - but no one has recognized it yet. Only 10 people besides you have read the thread.

You also gave a lot of good information.

We encourage people to be patient. Sometimes it takes a long time to solve a thread. Other times people are lucky and someone recognizes their book immediately.

This is definitely a short story, and not a novel or novella?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

What time period is the story set in?

[Andy]

I can see it, but I don't have any suggestions. Westlake did have a series of novels with an actor who is a detective https://randall120.wordpress.com/2009... but I don't think any of these are the one you're looking for.

[Linda]

Thanks Lobstergirl. It is a novel, not a short story. And the setting was contemporary, but from the 70s or early 80s, I think.

It is really not much to go by. It is funny the weird little tidbits of a story that you remember, isn't it?

[Linda]

Thank you Andy. I have read one of the Sam Holt novels, and don't think it was him, but you know, I am not sure. I will get the three that I haven't read and check them out. Even if not the one I am looking for, they sound good and worth the read.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

A guess, Double Exposure?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Something in the Michael Spraggue series by Linda Barnes?

Or something in the Charles Paris mysteries by Simon Brett?

[Linda]

Thanks again, Lobstergirl. It definitely wasn't by a woman. I will look at the Simon Brett books closer. I have some recollection of the parent's house being in Ireland, but that didn't jibe with the Donald Westlake connection in my mind, so I didn't add it to the description. Perhaps it was by a Brit named Brett. In any case, one of the interesting things about this group is that people highlight stories that may not be the story one is looking for, but are good to check out nonetheless.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Linda, are you still looking for this or did you find it?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

No response, moving to Abandoned.