Double Feature by Donald E. Westlake features the novella A Travesty and a short story titled Ordo. Double Feature was originally published in 1977 as Enough. A Travesty was adapted into the TV movie A Slight Case of Murder with William H. Macy. Both the novella and the short Story feature non PC language so caveat emptor. This is published by Hard Case Crime
A Travesty, the novella in Double Feature is Donald E. Westlake having fun with a solid story, a great main character, and the reader. Film critic Carey Thorpe accidentally kills Laura Penney, one of his two girlfriends. A private detective named Edgarson blackmails him for an incriminating photo and his testimony. Thorpe pays off the private detective but gets even almost immediately.
One of the two detectives on the Laura Penney case befriends Thorpe. Somehow, Thorpe gets invited to their next murder scene and solves the crime. This makes Thorpe the detectives’ lucky charm and he gets invited to more crime scenes to solve more improbable crimes for the cops.
Meanwhile, Thorpe has to keep the detectives and his second girlfriend in the dark as to his killing Laura Penney.
In the end there are 6 dead bodies before the rather fun and clever finale. The novella in Double Feature aka Enough is Donald E. Westlake, of Dortmunder fame, at his cleverest and funniest.
Ordo is a short story about a sailor who discovers his first wife is now a famous movie star. It is Donald E Westlake musing on the notion of identity: how one person can become a totally different one while a second person can stay the exact same. It is a quite interesting and fun read.
Double Feature
Donald E. Westlake
Hard Case Crime 2020
Related posts
- Hard Case Crime is a new imprint for fans of the mystery novel.
- Little Girl Lost is the first of two (so far) mystery novels featuring private detective John Blake. This being a Hard Case Crime novel, Little Girl Lost is everything you expect from a hard boiled detective novel with a great story to back it up. John Blake learns childhood sweetheart…
- Broad believed to be dead avenges herself and kicks ass on every page. My favorite Hard Case Crime mystery.
- Lemons Never Lie by Richard Stark aka Donald E. Westlake is the fourth of four mystery novel featuring Allen Grofield. It is a solid addition to the Hard Case Crime imprimatur. It is a complex but not convoluted thriller featuring a story like you have never read before. This is…
- Hard Case Crime celebrates its fiftieth book with Fifty to One by author / publisher Charles Ardai. Fifty to One follows the recipe of the standard hard boiled detective novel with the exception that the detective is a doll named Trixie. To mark the fifty Hard Case Crime books, each…