I'm a fan of Westlake's early hardboiled novels, of which 361 is the third. His first, which I read as Mercenaries, has recently been reprinted by Hard Case as The Cutie. Killing Time is in the Red Harvest vein. I haven't read Killy, but Pity Him Afterwards is also good. After that, Westlake seemed to split his more hardboiled work off into his pseudonyms, starting with Richard Stark, followed by Tucker Coe, and use his real name mostly for his humorous work.
By the way, there's a nice bibliography on Westlake's own site (http://www.donaldwestlake.com/wks_biblio.html), although, as he implies, it's not entirely complete; I know of at least one pseudonym that is not represented, Jack Judson Carmichael.
Mark
> To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
> From: ejmd__@ntlworld.com
> Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2009 11:34:28 +0100
> Subject: RARA-AVIS: Re: Hard Case Crime
>
> I should've realised I would've got recommendations than I could keep up
> with, but thanks for the responses.
>
> I think, having sifted through the replies, I'll give Westlake's /361/ a
> go. It's not something I would have thought of trying, but Dave
> Zeltserman and Mark Sullivan have recommended it, so I'll add it to my
> mental to-get list of HCC titles, along with Woolrich's /Fright/, which
> has a great HCC cover. Jon Bassoff, Ron C. and others mentioned both Day
> Keene's /Home is the Sailor/ and Russel Hill's /Robbie's Wife /so I'll
> be trying to sneak them into the house too, probably as a second batch.
>
> I can't remember reading any Max Alan Collins but I'm sure I have as I
> also associate Collins with what Jeff Vorzimmer succinctly described as
> "comic-bookish" (although I do read comics--and I prefer that term to
> "graphic novels"). I think at the moment, having not long ago read
> Charles William's /Mix Yourself A Redhead/ (you can see how I spent the
> summer!) I'm looking for "older" titles, or reprints thereof, rather
> than contemporary HB or noir.
>
> I'm currently reading Brewer's /13 French Street/; I'm quite keen to get
> to /The Murderer Vine/, so I'll probably do that before going back to
> Brewer's /The Red Scarf.
> /
> Thanks for all the replies: I'll report back later--I hope I don't have
> to wait until the Christmas holidays before I can get stuck in to a few
> more paperbacks.
>
> ED
>
>
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