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Sam Holt #1
One Of Us Is Wrong
Actor Sam Holt has packed in Packard, the TV detective he played for several years to much acclaim and lots and lots of money. But success has had its downside: Holt is so closely identified with Packard that he can't get hired to play anyone else.
Suddenly, though, someone seems to have a new role for Holt: the role of Dead Body. Years of having watched stunt-drivers do their stuff help Holt avoid becoming a grease-spot on the San Diego Freeway, but his Volvo will never play the violin again. And if Holt can't figure out where the screenwriters are going with this one, he's not going to get a chance for a second take.
Suddenly, though, someone seems to have a new role for Holt: the role of Dead Body. Years of having watched stunt-drivers do their stuff help Holt avoid becoming a grease-spot on the San Diego Freeway, but his Volvo will never play the violin again. And if Holt can't figure out where the screenwriters are going with this one, he's not going to get a chance for a second take.
258 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
2 people are currently reading
121 people want to read
About the author
Donald E. Westlake
434 books967 followersDonald 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
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
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 27, 2024
Sillier than the usual Westlake crime thriller romp.
Strange doings in Hollywood at a newly constructed mosque up in those hills of Beverly. Or rather in the adjoining backyard of a screenwriter friend of the protagonist and our narrator Sam Holt (cerebral-but-capable-of-action hero in a TV series) - an actor and in this case - amateur sleuth.
Consider this Westlake’s opportunity to vent about Hollywood types & lifestyles. There’s no plot. A dead girl found in a friend’s swingers pad… swarthy Arabs trying to kill him on an L.A. Freeway… lengthy descriptions of Los Angeles homes & their decor. A possible fundamentalist Muslim attack on Los Angeles?
Oh… that. The book was published in 1986 by Tor. This is Westlake’s airing of a few pre-9/11 anxieties between alternately mocking his more lucrative side-gig as sometime screenwriter and script doctor and Hollywood “types”.
You gotta hand it to Ol’ Donald Westlake on the threat of religious fundamentalist terrorism angle, though.
Westlake always was ahead of the curve when it came to pop culture.
Strange doings in Hollywood at a newly constructed mosque up in those hills of Beverly. Or rather in the adjoining backyard of a screenwriter friend of the protagonist and our narrator Sam Holt (cerebral-but-capable-of-action hero in a TV series) - an actor and in this case - amateur sleuth.
Consider this Westlake’s opportunity to vent about Hollywood types & lifestyles. There’s no plot. A dead girl found in a friend’s swingers pad… swarthy Arabs trying to kill him on an L.A. Freeway… lengthy descriptions of Los Angeles homes & their decor. A possible fundamentalist Muslim attack on Los Angeles?
Oh… that. The book was published in 1986 by Tor. This is Westlake’s airing of a few pre-9/11 anxieties between alternately mocking his more lucrative side-gig as sometime screenwriter and script doctor and Hollywood “types”.
You gotta hand it to Ol’ Donald Westlake on the threat of religious fundamentalist terrorism angle, though.
Westlake always was ahead of the curve when it came to pop culture.
April 9, 2018
Samuel Holt is an actor and former small-town police officer. His role as private investigator Jack Packard in the hugely popular TV series has made him fairly wealthy, and although it’s no longer being produced, the show is still paying residuals while it’s in syndication. Trouble is, he can’t seem to get another acting job that isn’t for a private detective role. So, he takes his accountant’s advice to go investigate a potential investment opportunity. But on the way to the property, four “swarthy men in two Imapalas tried to murder me.” And we’re off …
Westlake/Holt’s crime capers are not great literature but they are loads of fun to read. Fast-paced, likeable characters, some funny dialogue, a great sidekick (I need a “Robinson” in my life!), leggy ladies, handsome leading man, car chases, guns, and crazy coincidences.
In the early- to mid-1980s Donald Westlake began to wonder “Could I do it again today?” He had great success as a writer of crime fiction, particularly with his comic crime capers starring John Dortmunder. So, he entered into a contract with his publisher to use a protected penname – Samuel Holt. No one but he, the publisher and his agent would know the author’s real identity. On the release date, Westlake was surprised to see a display of the Samuel Holt books in the window of his local bookstore, along with a sign proclaiming that Holt was, in fact, Westlake. The publisher had let their sales force in on the secret; and encouraged them to spread the word. There goes that experiment.
Fortunately, we still have the four Holt books that Westlake had contracted for.
Westlake/Holt’s crime capers are not great literature but they are loads of fun to read. Fast-paced, likeable characters, some funny dialogue, a great sidekick (I need a “Robinson” in my life!), leggy ladies, handsome leading man, car chases, guns, and crazy coincidences.
In the early- to mid-1980s Donald Westlake began to wonder “Could I do it again today?” He had great success as a writer of crime fiction, particularly with his comic crime capers starring John Dortmunder. So, he entered into a contract with his publisher to use a protected penname – Samuel Holt. No one but he, the publisher and his agent would know the author’s real identity. On the release date, Westlake was surprised to see a display of the Samuel Holt books in the window of his local bookstore, along with a sign proclaiming that Holt was, in fact, Westlake. The publisher had let their sales force in on the secret; and encouraged them to spread the word. There goes that experiment.
Fortunately, we still have the four Holt books that Westlake had contracted for.
July 16, 2018
Donald Westlake wrote this under a pseudonym, and it's a cleverly constructed plot with a likeable hero. Sam Holt spent 5 years as a popular TV detective who finds himself caught up in a real life mystery when two cars try to run him off the road. He must discover what he knows that is dangerous enough to be deadly. And when he finds himself in a tight spot, he must use his wits to find a way out. He finds that even when you do your own stunts as an actor, fighting for your life is a different thing entirely.
April 10, 2009
First book in the series. Sam Holt, reluctantly retired actor, is minding his own business on a California highway when two Impalas, two middle Eastern looking men in each, do their best to knock his Volvo into trucks, guard rails, off the road.
He then remembers a black mail tape a writer friend showed him several months that has to be the cause. he reluctantly gets pulled into an insane plot involving the idiot friend and terrorists.
He then remembers a black mail tape a writer friend showed him several months that has to be the cause. he reluctantly gets pulled into an insane plot involving the idiot friend and terrorists.
May 8, 2014
It's pretty meta: Samuel Holt is really Donald E. Westlake. Samuel Holt's protagonist is Sam Holt, who was born Holton Hickey, who played a character on television named Jack Packard, in which identity Sam Holt/Holton Hickey has been inexorably entangled in the public's mind, so that Holt has become virtually unemployable except as Packard. This gave Westlake an entirely new narrative voice, which he ran with nicely.
November 17, 2009
Holt is a pseudonym for Donald Westlake who is so funny but can be so dark (writing as Richard Stark). This is medium dark with an inside glimpse of Hollywood. Good stuff.
July 2, 2022
I have long been a Donald Westlake fan but had never read any of the novels under his Samuel Holt and Richard Stark pseudonyms. Sam Holt had been the star of a hit TV mystery series called PACKARD. His agent wants him to recreate the character for a dinner theater tour. Although still making money from reruns, Sam wants something else. Then his life gets complicated when two cars try to box him in on the freeway. Soon it becomes obvious that someone wants to kill him, but why? Then he finds himself caught between two rival Islam factions, one of which is building an impressive mosque. Are the attacks connected to this? This is an acceptable mystery novel, but it has none of the sidesplitting humor that I've always found in Westlake's other novels. I doubt I will pursue Sam Holt's other adventures.
August 20, 2020
To say that this book is “A fast-paced blood-and-blunder thriller” (as stated on the cover) is a bit of a stretch. The Bourne Trilogy books by Robert Ludlum are “fast-paced” thrillers. If you can get past the cover drawing that’s as cheesy as the Harlequin Book covers, this is very simply an easy read with a good plot - which I could see being one of the scripts to Sam Holt’s “Packard” TV series. When you need to take a break from those true “fast-paced blood-and-blunder thrillers”, I would recommend relaxing with this book.
September 4, 2022
A typically great Don Westlake premise: Sam Holt is a retired TV actor, best known for playing a rumpled detective. Abruptly, he is pulled into the center of a real-life crime that may or may not involve some of his old Hollywood chums. The rest of the book is breezy and absorbing, if not quite as witty or as masterful as top-tier Westlake.
June 22, 2023
This is the first in the Sam whole series of books that were written by Donald Weslake. I enjoyed the beginning of the book in the middle of it, but it eventually sort of drag towards the end, and the ending was very disappointing. I am hoping that the other books in the series are better.
April 18, 2024
Read this mostly in one sitting. It’s fun but not too silly, a balance only a great like Donald Westlake can strike so well. Plot was a bit much and that’s why I docked a star. But I liked it and would read another in the series.
January 9, 2012
1986. Donald Westlake writing as Sam Holt, a protected pen-name.
For five years, Holt, a former police detective, stars in a TV series about a criminology professor and sometime private eye. After the series is cancelled, new roles are hard to find. Holt's too identified with his successful TV character. We've all had that problem, right?
Holt is almost murdered one day while driving on the San Diego Freeway. One thing leads to another and the actor playing the private eye is soon using his policing skills and notoriety to find out who tried to kill him and why.
Of course he's loaded: big house, bicoastal-life style, celebrity status, lotsa friends in the biz. All these elements converge in a fast-paced thriller that feels more like TV show than book rack potboiler. There were times I raced ahead just to keep going to the decent ending but all in all a fun quick read.
As a character, Holt is eighties sass from when he was spawned. Bad guys are dark and swarthy. Women are savvy and willing. The solution to the mystery hides in plain sight - is that a spoiler? - nah. There's so much in plain sight that you'll still have to figure it out.
For five years, Holt, a former police detective, stars in a TV series about a criminology professor and sometime private eye. After the series is cancelled, new roles are hard to find. Holt's too identified with his successful TV character. We've all had that problem, right?
Holt is almost murdered one day while driving on the San Diego Freeway. One thing leads to another and the actor playing the private eye is soon using his policing skills and notoriety to find out who tried to kill him and why.
Of course he's loaded: big house, bicoastal-life style, celebrity status, lotsa friends in the biz. All these elements converge in a fast-paced thriller that feels more like TV show than book rack potboiler. There were times I raced ahead just to keep going to the decent ending but all in all a fun quick read.
As a character, Holt is eighties sass from when he was spawned. Bad guys are dark and swarthy. Women are savvy and willing. The solution to the mystery hides in plain sight - is that a spoiler? - nah. There's so much in plain sight that you'll still have to figure it out.
January 31, 2013
Wish that Donald Westlake's cover hadn't been blown, so he could have kept writing these. The first entry introduces actor turned amateur sleuth Samuel Holt, who narrates the tale with good humor and finesse. The plot is revealed through his POV, and takes some good turns. Westlake's voice here strikes a good balance, feeling more personal than Dortmunder while retaining Parker's pugnacity.
Want to read
September 14, 2009AKA: Alan Marshall, Alan Marsh, James Blue, Ben Christopher, Edwin West, John B. Allan, Curt Clark, Tucker Coe, P.N. Castor, Timothy J. Culver, J. Morgan Cunningham, Samuel Holt, Judson Jack Carmichael, Richard Stark, Donald E. Westlake
April 13, 2011
This was an older book I picked up somewhere, but it was really good! I enjoyed it.
January 6, 2015
Despite the '80s technology, felt very modern.
May 28, 2012
Not quite as "hard boiled" as some of Westlake's other stuff, but still a fun, light read.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews