Books: The Scared Stiff by Judson Jack Carmichael (2003)

“The high life for Barry and Lola Lee is not without its share of risk as they run one scam after another to finance it and barely stay ahead of their creditors. In a bind, Barry hatches a scheme that will take him to Lola’s South American homeland, Guerrera, where he will stage his accidental death and collect megabucks on his life insurance. The death itself—a spectacular swan dive off a cliff in a rental car, with a restaurant full of witnesses—goes off without a hitch, thanks to the participation of Lola’s brother and other relatives, but in the days afterward, with Barry holding new papers as Lola’s brother and in seclusion until the insurance settlement (and lonely, lusting after the wife of Lola’s black-market cousin), greed turns out not to be the Lees’ trait exclusively. Tipped off by a cousin, the vivacious Luz, that his life is in danger from yet another branch of the family, Barry accepts her offer of sanctuary—even though sexy-looking Luz leaves him with his tongue hanging. When the hideaway is compromised, though, Barry has to assume a third (or is it fourth?) identity and take a room at an exclusive resort catering to foreigners. There, he comes face to face with the insurance examiner sent to investigate his case, who doesn’t recognize him but tells him that the jig is nearly up. With Lola looking at jail time if the examiner succeeds, desperate times call for desperate measures—and Lola’s murder-minded cousins show up.”

Judson Jack Carmichael is none other than Donald E. Westlake, and according to the Westlake Review site, this pseudonym came about in the late 1990s, after he had released The Ax (a hard noir thriller I’ve yet to read, one with no humor and also the return of his other pen name, Richard Stark after a twenty plus year hiatus). His publishers felt this comic insurance scam novel could not come after those two hard core novels. 

It was a little comic insurance fraud novel, closest in spirit to books I’d written in the seventies.  I finished it, and gave it to my editor and my agent, and the gloom could be heard to descend. (It sounds like a grounded blimp losing air.)

Gently I was told that this could not possibly be the book that would follow The Ax, nor could it be the book that followed the return of Richard Stark.  I did see that.

Unfortunately, I did.  I saw what they meant, and I had to agree.  I had a certain responsibility now.  The book I published after The Ax and Stark redux could not just be any book.  I had newer readers now, who would come to that book with a certain level of expectation.  They wouldn’t necessarily need The Ax again, they could certainly understand that I also had my comic moments, but there was a level of emotional truth that really should be present in whatever book was published next.  -from an unpublished article found in his files; now collected in The Getaway Car.

The funny part is how anyone could’ve thought this was not a Westlake novel. Unlike some of his Stark books, of the many other nom de plume’s he has released books under since the late 1950s, it’s very clear this book was written in the tone of his many comic caper novels of the 1970s. The Parker novels published under his Richard Stark name always seemed to carry a different voice than his comic tales released under his name. It was like they were to different men. But any reviewer could tell that the book was written by Westlake (it was released through Carroll & Graf, and they tried to tantalize new readers by saying this was a famous writer going incognito), but the Westlake Review added that they could find no reviews that seemed to indicate anyone caught on that Carmichael was Westlake.

Still, there is nothing really new here, just a rearranging of various material he had been doing for decades. Plus it was another adventure set outside his beloved New York, and I think this why –despite some his publishers’ dismay- this book saw the light of day in 2003. It’s not a bad book by far, but it’s also a reminder of why authors do release books under pen names –because publishers’ like their authors to stay in one lane.

Books: The Saturday Night Ghost Club By Craig Davidson (2019)

“Growing up in 1980s Niagara Falls--a seedy but magical, slightly haunted place--Jake Baker spends most of his time with his uncle Calvin, a kind but eccentric enthusiast of occult artifacts and conspiracy theories. The summer Jake turns twelve, he befriends a pair of siblings new to town, and so Calvin decides to initiate them all into the "Saturday Night Ghost Club." But as the summer goes on, what begins as a seemingly lighthearted project may ultimately uncover more than any of its members had imagined.”

At its heart, this coming-of-age tale reminds me much of Stephen King -which the author acknowledges in his afterword –but also included other great writers of the era for young adults, John Bellairs, Wilson Rawls, and Judy Blume, for their influences cover the pages of this short novel (or, maybe, a novella). It’s told in a flashback format, with now neurosurgeon Jake talking about his twelfth summer, when new friends entered his life, where the school bully hung around, and an eccentric uncle who seemly is lost, but unaware of that fact.

For those born in the 70s, but came of age in the 80’s, there is a lot to connections that may trigger memories. Much like Stranger Things, which tapped into an era of great movies, TV shows, and spooky novels, The Saturday Night Ghost Club captures the era in great detail; especially if you were one of those kids that did not fit in with everyone else the nerds, the misfits, the lonely.

The book is sort of magical, bittersweet, with just enough creepy to keep you going (and one cannot escape the notion that this book resembles King’s The Body in structure). Davidson’s prose digs deep and while you can sort of see the ending, it does not ruin what is an undiscovered gem of novel (released in 2019!!!) that gets lost at the bookstore or library. A book that deserves a bit more attention, to be enjoyed by today’s kids as much as their parents who grew up in one of the best decades, before the 1990s ruined it all. 

Davidson has also written five novels under the name of Patrick Lestewka, and five horror novels under the name Nick Cutter.

Book: Gangway By Donald E. Westlake and Brian Garfield (1973)

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times–1874–when Gabe Beauchamps, former Hell’s Kitchen gangster was ‘helped’ to leave New York by ‘Boss’ Twill. His destination, chosen by Twill, is San Francisco where he arrives penniless, seasick and almost friendless. Apart from Vangie, a ravishing female pickpocket, the only part of San Francisco that impresses Gabe is the Mint with its heavily guarded gold shipments. With Vangie’s reluctant help Gabe assembles a team of unlikely but unscrupulous associates to carry out the Great Mint Robbery.”

When it was released, the authors describe their book as the world’s first comedy-romance-suspense-pirate-western- adventure novel. Donald Westlake –even way back then- had established himself as the master of comedy thrillers. This was the only collaboration between him and Brian Garfield (writer of the original novel Death Wish, which became a huge movie franchise during the 1970s. In some respect, while Garfield’s book became more famous than anything Westlake ever wrote, in the end, it's why today in 2023, Death Wish is only really remembered because of the Charles Bronson movies; it had a terrific screenplay - at least for the first one, anyways).

Anyways, as well, in an interview, Garfield talked about this partnership: 

“Don Westlake had a blinding-fast mind. He always seemed to have on the tip of his tongue the sort of wonderful witty rejoinders that occur to most of us a day or two too late. In 1970 we got the idea that it would be amusing to try combining our strengths in a Western comedy novel. We wrote Gangway!, and it turned out to be quite funny, I think. Henry sold it and it did fairly well. But our ambitions to sell it as a basis for a movie didn’t work out. And we’d done it in a silly way—each of us would write a draft, then turn it over to the other, who’d rewrite the whole thing and give it back. It was about four times as much work as either of us would have put in individually on a book. So we didn’t try that again. But it was fun, and we got to know each other’s working styles.”

 

With that in mind, even hardcore Westlake followers could not tell who wrote what:

“You can make educated guesses, but here’s the thing–each man was well-familiar with the work of the other, and Garfield in particular was very influenced by Westlake, so even if you see something that strikes you as very much a Westlake plot twist, or a Westlake character, or a Westlake gag–could just be Garfield channeling Westlake. Less likely it would be the other way around, since Garfield’s style was still evolving at this point, but Westlake would have tried to make his stuff match-up with Garfield’s, and might have deferred to him more since Garfield knew this genre (and the geographic region it’s set in) so much better.” –The Westlake Reader.

 

So yes, it’s a comic caper novel, with a flawed hero (who gets seasick very easily). It’s very much a proto John Dortmunder novel – it’s possible he was writing The Hot Rock at the same time this was being worked on. As noted Garfield mentioned they started talking about this around 1970, with The Hot Rock being released in 1972. It’s actually not bad book; it’s enjoyable light reading, at best and approached with limited expectations because while Westlake was prolific, not everything he released was genius level of most of his other work.  There is also a sense that here at least (especially when Westlake steps out of his beloved New York, he seems a bit lost) that collaboration here, while fun, also show the limitations of it –that maybe  two heads were not necessarily better than one.