Tomorrow's Crimes

by Donald E. Westlake

Donald E. Westlake has been rightly acclaimed as the “master of the comic caper” (New York Times) for his witty and ingenious caper novels. His hard-boiled character Parker, created under the pseudonym Richard Stark, has been called “a brilliant invention” by the New York Review of Books. But the multi-talented Westlake also found success as an author of criminous science fiction. His best work in this field has been collected in Tomorrow’s Crimes.

The cornerstone of the collection is the 1967 novel Anarchaos. Start to say “anarchy” and midway switch and say “chaos” to utter the name of this planet colonized by humans, and revolving around a red sun the natives call Hell. Anarchaos is a planet where lawlessness is the only rule, where each man protects himself as best he can, and where the weak are soon dead. Rolf Malone’s brother had died already; Malone had come to Anarchaos to find his killer…knowing that he faced an entire planet of enemies.

Anarchaos and many more intriguing tales make up this volume of science fiction and fantasy—with crime thrown in to spice the plots—from an honored and award-winning author.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Crime, Fiction

263 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Donald E. Westlake (1933-2008) was one of the most prolific and talented authors of American crime fiction. He began his career in the late 1950's, churning out novels for pulp houses—often writing as many as four novels a year under various pseudonyms such as Richard Stark—but soon began publishing under his own name. His most well-known characters were John Dortmunder, an unlucky thief, and Parker, a ruthless criminal. His writing earned him three Edgar Awards: the 1968 Best Novel award for God Save the Mark; the 1990 Best Short Story award for "Too Many Crooks"; and the 1991 Best Motion Picture Screenplay award for The Grifters. In addition, Westlake also earned a Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1993.

Westlake's cinematic prose and brisk dialogue made his novels attractive to Hollywood, and several motion pictures were made from his books, with stars such as Lee Marvin and Mel Gibson. Westlake wrote several screenplays himself, receiving an Academy Award nomination for his adaptation of The Grifters, Jim Thompson's noir classic.

Some of the pseudonyms he used include
•   Richard Stark
•   Timothy J. Culver
•   Tucker Coe
•   Curt Clark
•   J. Morgan Cunningham
•   Judson Jack Carmichael
•   D.E. Westlake
•   Donald I. Vestlejk
•   Don Westlake

Reviews

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

An apparently rare collection of science fiction and light fantasy stories with a crime/noir twist from Donald Westlake, creator of Parker and Dortmunder, that shows a lot of promise in a genre somewhat beyond his comfort zone.

Whilst the title "Tomorrow's Crimes" brings to mind Blade Runner and other sci-fi noir, the subtitle "Anarchaos and Other Stories of Fantastic Suspense" really tells the tale of what's contained within these pages. Anarchaos is a sci-fi noirvella about a colony planet permanently sunbaked on one side due to the planet not rotating, a planet ripe for noir storytelling due to the lack of laws enforced. What follows offers some staples from the western and noir genre, a lone man set on revenge in a wasteland environment that is peopled by denizens as inhospitable as the terrain. It's at once interesting to witness such a barbaric world and a wholly absurd situation. Taking up the bulk of the page count it could have done with some more work to feel plausible and perhaps some fleshing out to novel length.

The first half is also a mixed bag of stories, the highlight possibly being the tale of Nackles, an anti-Santa who comes up out of the ground to abduct the children on Santa's naughty list! Yes, a truly disturbing idea for a story that is also quite good fun. Giving it a run for its money is The Risk Profession which I had read previously in a different collection, a fascinating little story of an insurance claims investigator sent to a mining planet which shares some of the same frontier noir tropes as Anarchaos.

Suffers from the same issues as most short story collections, namely the content is usually hit and miss with too many of those "joke" short stories written entirely for a lame punchline as well as not really being up to promise of the title but is still an interesting collection for fans of such a distinguished crime author.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a spotty collection of short stories and a short novel by one of my favorite authors of crime fiction.
The short stories were much better than the short novel, Anarchaos, which rapidly became difficult to believe. It was hard to empathize with the main character, or see how he could really survive the events of the story, and the resolution made it even more difficult to empathize.
The short stories, on the other hand, were really good. My favorite of the bunch was "Nackles," a Christmas horror story about what the opposite of Santa Claus must be. Other noteworthy pieces included "The Girl of My Dreams," which really should have been turned into a Twilight Zone episode or something, and "The Risk Profession," which was a traditional "insurance investigator solves crime" story, only taking place in the asteroid belt.
Overall, the short stories deserved about 3 1/2 stars and the short novel about 2 1/2 stars, so averaging 3.

[BonnieBew Rutledge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of sci-fi/fantasy-themed stories are a mixed bag, but there are two standouts that I love so much I had to give it five stars. Nackles, the mythology of an anti-Santa, is one of my favorite short stories ever. Period. It has the intimations of dread and horror and the setup of a scene that reminds me of the best Stephen King horror novels, minus the extra 600 pages of filler and Blue Oyster Cult lyrics. Anarchaos is a novella that makes up a large portion of this collection. It had a gritty, space cowboy feel for me. Well worth the read.

[Dylan Perry]

I tried. Four times, I picked this book up, and put back down a few days later. I would skip a story when it didn't grab me (which I do a lot with short story collections), I would put it down and read something else and come back. I trudged through the first two stories. I've heard a lot of love for Westlake, but this didn't do it for me. So on to the Abandoned shelf it goes.

[Josh Hatfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the normal Westlake fare, but pretty good. The better stories are almost likeVonnegut or Bradbury.

[Trevor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the smaller short stories were pretty good. Anarchaos made up half the book started out well but fizzled out by the end.

[Bluebender · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this hardcover edition in book market this summer for 3 euro, never heard of it, turn out to be a decent and enjoyable collection of 10 short stories, the opener "The Girl of My Dreams" and the longest and closing tale "Anarchaos" stand out among the others, some interesting parts, some weirdness, overall a good reading.

[Robb Geweniger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection of one of my favorite authors early short stories.
I especially liked the last story in the collection, "Anarchaos," about a civilization that shouldn't exist, even though it may seem to some like it is a fantastic idea, it's only path is one toward elimination or total destruction.

[Glenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although the short stories from various eras were clever and concise, the main novel portion was a messy boring jumble of disjointed episodes. Part revenge novel, part mystery, but disappointing and humorless, and without any of Westlake's usual flair.

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent read, but not up to par for Westlake. Science fiction is not his milieu.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

short stories in a sci fi mode.
i like the anti hero dudes.