Killy

by Donald E. Westlake

Killy is a first-rate detective story about the solving of several murders, but it is even more a novel about how a young man still filled with illusions can be turned into the inevitable path of the ruthless seeking for power.

Genres: Crime, Mystery

204 pages, paperback

First published January 1, 1963

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

[David]

Crappy.

[Ed]

A 1963 crime novel from the late author Donald E. Westlake. Only prolific Westlake's fourth novel under his own name. The novel is written in the first person by Paul Standish, a young intern working for a national machinists union, assigned to assist Walter Killy in unionizing a shoe company in upstate NY. Complications ensue and Paul rapidly matures under the tutelage of KIlly, and bids well to surpass him. Better writing is yet to come from the author, but this was a fast, enjoyable read.

Paul Standish a university student is on a six months work experience as part of his economics degree. He is placed with AAMST a nationwide manufacturing union where he is to be the assistant to Walter Killy. The company has just received a letter from a disgruntled employee of McIntyre Shoe Co. which is the major employer in the small town of Wittburg who indicated the workers are looking to switch unions. Killy figures this will be a walk in the park so takes Paul along to show him how it is done. The town of Wittburg however is run by the manager of the shoe manufacturing plant Mr. Fleisch. He has the corrupt police force in his wallet as well as his daughter Sondra being the journalist for the town's paper. It isn't long before Paul and Killy are arrested and being charged with Hamilton's murder whose body has been found shot to death in the factory parking lot.

[Eduardo Ramos]

Best Westlake I read so far. As a whodunit is light, although with a few ingenious final twists, but, as other early Westlakes I read, interesting mostly for its portrayal of mid XX Century USA, the setting and plot device - Union muscle trying to "organize" a factory in DC confronted with a case of embezzlment leading to murder - refreshingly unusual for this kind of crime fiction. Westlake´s writing grows in depth and versatility: the title refers to a sidecick of the protagonist´s who appears in the beginning and the end but is absent in the middle, a sort of post-modernist avant-la-lettre "haunting device"., and the first person account´s smart-alecky pitiless self-analysis a pulp echo of Dostoevski or Sartre. Finally, alongside (successful) attempts at rethorical fourish, the occasional expletive sprouts, validating Phillip Larkin´s Annus Mirabilis verdict (Killy was published in 1963)

[Deb W]

Maybe it's just dated, and Mr. Westlake's style doesn't have the pace that today's mysteries do, or maybe he wrote to a more masculine audience, but there was no hook for me. I wasn't interested in how unions worked in the 60s, I was there and was raised in a union state. So -- meh. It goes back unfinished.

[Vladimir Putin]

No sad no bad days in LA
Watch the truth hit the surface
Look up at the stars in the starstream
I made half a ticket in my first year
Pray all the evil eyes in my life go blind
Eye for an eye we live or die by
You get my point

[Sylvie]

Du bon Westlake, bien cynique!

[Deb]

Boring...

[Denise M.]

AKA: 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

[Book Concierge]

3.5 stars - Westlake takes on union organizers, a femme fatale, and (of course) multiple double crosses. I particularly like how his young, naive hero changes with experience. The psychology of the characters is as interesting as the "murder mystery."