From: "James Reasoner" wrote,
>
> But my favorite book of this type is still Marlowe's
_The Name of the Game
> is Death_.
>
I'm sure at one time we mentioned that Westlake's original
manuscript had Parker dying at the end of the book. His
editor told him thought the character could be used for a
series and asked Westlake if he could let him live. Westlake
had no objections and slightly rewrote the book. Westlake's
early __The Mercenaries__ and __Killing Time__ would roughly
fit in this category though the latter is closer to __Red
Harvest__. It may be wrong artistically, but Westlake, like
Marlowe, also found it's more profitable and probably easier
to have your protagonist live so you have a continuing
character
I think Westlake once said if he had known Parker were going
to be featured in a series he would have given him a
redeeming quality or two. I think that lack of appeal, making
Parker seem like an unstoppable elemental force is what made
the series so popular. That's why I don't like the efforts to
somewhat humanize him in the later novels, especially
Backflash Mark .
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