Between 1960 and 1969, Donald Westlake wrote forty-seven novels; sometimes up to eight a year. It was also during this time that his best known alter-egos emerged. Richard Stark wrote cold, blunt, hard-boiled crime fiction; Tucker Coe wrote overtly emotional mystery novels about an open-wound of an ex-cop. At first glance, these two major highlights of Westlake's '60s output couldn't be more different – and yet, in many ways, they are mirror images of each other. Although widely debated in the case of Richard Stark’s infamous cold-blooded protagonist, the stories told by Coe and Stark are still those of men gradually opening up to the world around them, and being transformed through their relationships with other men.
New article comparing The Handle (1966) and Murder Among Children (1967) is now up on my substack and on Tough Business, our Richard Stark's Parker website!
