----- Original Message ----- From: "James Reasoner" <
james53@flash.net>
>Didn't Westlake also
> write a book about real criminals using a fictional
crime as the basis for
a
> caper? And to make the joke more convoluted, the
fictional crime was from
a
> Richard Stark book?
I haven't read it, but I believe you're describing "Jimmy the
Kid".
> I think one of Ed Gorman's articles about Gold Medal
mentions that a
Lionel
> White book was the first Gold Medal he ever bought.
And the old man
running
> the candy store where Ed bought it said something
like "Pretty racy stuff
> for a kid, ain't it?"
I once found a second hand bookshop where I was able to buy
Gold Medals (a rarity, in this country). It was run by an
American. Extremely helpful, very friendly, etc (he knew how
much they were worth, too, sadly). He kept his GMs behind the
counter, and when I suggested he might put them on display he
claimed he couldn't do that, he was running a family
bookshop.
> Not to disagree with Westlake about White's style,
but I enjoy a book that
> gets on with what it's doing.
I find it hard to be objective about Lionel White. "The Money
Trap" was the first book of it's type I ever read. But White
does use words loosely. Westlake knows how to write (there's
an excellent scene in "Killy" where he analyses a piece of
hack journalism) and rarely writes a bad sentence. White's
frequent redundant adverbs (deeply hated, softly murmured,
etc) probably drove poor old Donald to distraction.
Al
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