Double Feature

November 15, 2019
Hard Case revives a pair of movie-related novellas originally published under the cryptic title Enough in 1977. A Travesty, the first and longer of these stories, opens with movie reviewer Carey Thorpe standing over the dead body of actress Laura Penney, the lover with whom his quarrel had suddenly and fatally escalated. Even though her death was technically an accident, Carey, who doesn't want anyone connecting him with it, immediately begins concealing all indications that he was ever in her apartment. It's all for naught: Soon he finds himself blackmailed by private detective John Edgarson and having to commit another felony to satisfy his demands. From that point on, his dilemma rapidly spirals into one of the comic nightmares in which Westlake (Brothers Keepers, 1975/2019, etc.) specialized: Moments in which he's threatened with exposure alternate with long intervals in which NYPD DS Al Bray and especially DS Fred Staples, who've decided that he's innocent, take Carey under their wings, marveling at his ability to solve murders committed by other people; then he caps his transgressions by taking Staples' wife, Patricia, to bed. The second novella, Ordo, couldn't be more different. The naval mates of Ordo Tupikos, a deeply ordinary San Diego sailor, tell him that Estelle Anlic, the woman whose marriage to him was annulled years ago when the courts, egged on by her mother, discovered that she was underage, has transformed herself into movie star Dawn Devayne. Against all odds, he manages to reintroduce himself to Estelle, or Dawn, but although her agent plays it as a storybook reunion, Orry just can't find Estelle in Dawn, who's changed a lot more than he has, and the tale ends on a note of sad resignation. Neither story is anywhere near Westlake's best work, but they still make a terrific tragicomic pair.

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December 2, 2019
In this pairing of Hollywood-themed short novels from 1977, MWA Grandmaster Westlake (1933–2008) effortlessly demonstrates that what’s old is new again. In Travesty, New York movie critic Carey Thorpe drops cinematic allusions left and right as he tries to dodge a murder rap. He did hit Laura Penny, one of his girlfriends, but didn’t plan on her head smashing against the coffee table—and even as he cooks up an alibi, a PI shows up who knows he was in her apartment. With all the clues and misdirection, the narrative is a huge treat for mystery fans, especially when Carey begins going out to crime scenes with the investigating officers and uses his observational abilities to crack the cases. (Westlake even includes a locked room murder.) Ordo, the second half of the double feature, poignantly sketches in what happens when the sailor Ordo Tupikos discovers that his former teen bride has become the sex symbol movie star Dawn Devayne. Why did he stay the same? Travesty is the perfect starting place for readers new to Westlake.

November 15, 2019
Hard Case Crime's project of reprinting the best of Westlake's lesser-known early work continues with these two novellas. Originally published in 1977 under the title Enough, the two have nothing in common except that both are set in the film world. Offering neither crime nor comedy, "Ordo" is a melancholy but oddly compelling anti-romance about a navy man who discovers years after the fact that his first wife has transformed herself into a Hollywood sex symbol. The more typically Westlake story is the delicious black comedy "A Travesty," which stars cynical film critic Carey Thorpe, who accidentally kills his girlfriend and then watches, almost bemused, as his efforts to cover his tracks require more murders. Ah, but here's the wrinkle: Carey discovers a knack for solving crimes (except those he commits) and quickly proves indispensable to the cops, who are smitten with their investigative wunderkind. Antihero Carey is a cad as well as (eventually) a serial killer, but we chuckle in spite of ourselves when we hear lines like "If you're going to commit a murder . . . one thing you should definitely not do afterward is have sex with the investigating officer's wife."(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)