Mystery Books

Mystery Movies

  • Flightplan (Widescreen Edition)

    Academy Award(R) winner Jodie Foster (Best Actress, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, 1991) gives an outstanding performance in the heart-

  • Orphan

    The tragic loss of their unborn child has devastated Kate and John, taking a toll on both their marriage and Kate's fragile psyche

  • A Beautiful Mind

    Winner of 4 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, A Beautiful Mind is directed by Academy Award winner Ron Howard and produced b

  • Solaris

    Superstar George Clooney turns in a stellar performance in this "brilliant sci-fi movie" (New York Daily News) from Academy Award

  • Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)

    During the presidential election of 1988, a teenager named Donnie Darko sleepwalks out of his house one night, and sees a giant, d

  • More...

Mystery Authors

Donald Westlake biography

 

 

Donald Westlake

Richard Stark

(1933 - 2008)

Donald Edwin Westlake (July 12, 1933 – December 31, 2008) was an American writer, with over a hundred novels and non-fiction books to his credit. He specialized in crime fiction, especially comic capers, with an occasional foray into science fiction or other genres. He was a three-time Edgar Award winner, one of only two writers (the other is Joe Gores) to win Edgars in three different categories (1968, Best Novel, God Save the Mark; 1990, Best Short Story, "Too Many Crooks"; 1991, Best Motion Picture Screenplay, The Grifters). In 1993, the Mystery Writers of America named Westlake a Grand Master, the highest honor bestowed by the society.

Donald Westlake was known for the great ingenuity of his plots and the audacity of his gimmicks. His writing and dialogue are lively. His main characters are fully rounded, believable, and clever. Westlake's most famous characters include the hard-boiled criminal Parker (appearing in fiction under the Richard Stark pseudonym) and Parker's comic flip-side John Dortmunder, the hard-luck criminal genius who began as Parker getting caught in a comic situation in the 1970 novel The Hot Rock. Most of Donald Westlake's novels are set in New York City. In each of the Dortmunder novels, there is typically a detailed foray somewhere through the city. He wrote just two non-fiction books:[3] Under an English Heaven, regarding the unlikely 1967 Anguillan "revolution", and a biography of Elizabeth Taylor.

Information source: wikipedia