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The Mercenaries
Originally published in 1960 as The Mercenaries.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
46 people are currently reading
831 people want to read
About the author
Donald E. Westlake
434 books959 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
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 168 reviews
April 6, 2024
From 1960
The "cutie" on this cover is not the type of "cutie" the book deals with. There are two definitions of the word "cutie." One is, yes, a Pretty Lady (as shown here).
The other, slang, definition is Someone Who Tries to Outsmart Their Opponent. This kind of (male) Cutie is the sort in this book.
The "cutie" on this cover is not the type of "cutie" the book deals with. There are two definitions of the word "cutie." One is, yes, a Pretty Lady (as shown here).
The other, slang, definition is Someone Who Tries to Outsmart Their Opponent. This kind of (male) Cutie is the sort in this book.
February 1, 2020
Wow- what an ending!
What a story!
One of Westlake's better crime thrillers.
Clay is the right hand man of a crime boss ...the head of one of New York's most powerful "organizations".
Clay does whatever his boss, Ed Ganolese tells him to, but Clay's most valuable to Ganolese for his resourcefulness.
Clay knows what needs to be done before being ordered to do it.
Whatever "it" is.
Whatever's best for the "organization".
Mostly Clay's job involves suggesting resolutions to assorted minor issues that face Ganolese. Underlings who are having domestic issues. Finding out what a disgruntled associate needs and how best to placate him without having to resort to killing him.
Oh yeah- Clay sometimes has to kill someone.
Usually it's his job to go out and hire a reliable trigger-man to remove some small bit of trouble, but on rare occasions, Ganolese wants the job kept close to home.
That's when Clay has to kill a guy. Very rarely but it's happened a few times.
Clay doesn't like killing people but he's able to keep himself removed from being overly emotional about it. It's just a job. And it pays very well.
The story starts when a heroin addict shows up at Clay's apartment in a major panic. The junkie's named Billy-Billy Cantell. He's in a panic because he was on the nod, passed out in an alley and when he'd come to he was in an unfamiliar apartment and across the room there was a woman he'd never seen before with her throat slashed.
This scares Billy-Billy so badly, he runs out of the room without his cap.
Inside the cap is Billy-Billy's name and address.
This is a major annoyance to Clay.
Ordinarily, he'd just drop the junkie off in a Jersey swamp dead from lead poisoning.
One of the organizations' criminal enterprises is the importation and distribution of heroin.
Billy-Billy is a street level dope distributor for the organization. Clay knows that for some reason or other, Billy-Billy is special to Ed Ganolese. So he has to phone Ganolese to find out how to handle the situation.
Ed Ganolese tells Clay to drive Billy-Billy up to New England until the situation cools down.
Clay gets ready to drive Billy-Billy up north when there comes a pounding at his door. It's three cops looking for Billy-Billy.
"That was awfully quick," Clay thinks.
Clay hides the junkie in a cubbyhole beneath his hi-fi set-up and deals with the cops who for some reason think Clay might know where their suspected murderer might be. Eventually Clay convinces the cops that he doesn't know jack about a junkie suspected of murder.
When Clay goes to the cubbyhole to let Billy-Billy know the coast is clear he's surprised to discover that the little junkie has climbed out of a window leading to the fire escape.
Billy-Billy has vanished and Ganolese orders Clay to find him.
If the cops find Billy-Billy before Clay, chances are pretty good that denied access to junk and his works for 24 hours the little junkie'll tell everything he knows about everyone he knows.
This is terrific stuff.
Who really murdered the woman -who turns out to be a wanna-be Broadway star and why?
She's left a few broken hearts in her passing and has an interesting back-story, it turns out.
Why'd the cops show up so fast at Clay's pad looking for the suspect?
And why Clay's pad?
Where'd the little junkie, Billy-Billy, get off to?
And who's the guy with the pistol who shows up at Clay's, shooting through the door, trying to kill him?
One of the best entries in the Hard Case Crime series.
Rarely can you go wrong with a Donald Westlake thriller.
Highest Recommendation!
Five Stars
What a story!
One of Westlake's better crime thrillers.
Clay is the right hand man of a crime boss ...the head of one of New York's most powerful "organizations".
Clay does whatever his boss, Ed Ganolese tells him to, but Clay's most valuable to Ganolese for his resourcefulness.
Clay knows what needs to be done before being ordered to do it.
Whatever "it" is.
Whatever's best for the "organization".
Mostly Clay's job involves suggesting resolutions to assorted minor issues that face Ganolese. Underlings who are having domestic issues. Finding out what a disgruntled associate needs and how best to placate him without having to resort to killing him.
Oh yeah- Clay sometimes has to kill someone.
Usually it's his job to go out and hire a reliable trigger-man to remove some small bit of trouble, but on rare occasions, Ganolese wants the job kept close to home.
That's when Clay has to kill a guy. Very rarely but it's happened a few times.
Clay doesn't like killing people but he's able to keep himself removed from being overly emotional about it. It's just a job. And it pays very well.
The story starts when a heroin addict shows up at Clay's apartment in a major panic. The junkie's named Billy-Billy Cantell. He's in a panic because he was on the nod, passed out in an alley and when he'd come to he was in an unfamiliar apartment and across the room there was a woman he'd never seen before with her throat slashed.
This scares Billy-Billy so badly, he runs out of the room without his cap.
Inside the cap is Billy-Billy's name and address.
This is a major annoyance to Clay.
Ordinarily, he'd just drop the junkie off in a Jersey swamp dead from lead poisoning.
One of the organizations' criminal enterprises is the importation and distribution of heroin.
Billy-Billy is a street level dope distributor for the organization. Clay knows that for some reason or other, Billy-Billy is special to Ed Ganolese. So he has to phone Ganolese to find out how to handle the situation.
Ed Ganolese tells Clay to drive Billy-Billy up to New England until the situation cools down.
Clay gets ready to drive Billy-Billy up north when there comes a pounding at his door. It's three cops looking for Billy-Billy.
"That was awfully quick," Clay thinks.
Clay hides the junkie in a cubbyhole beneath his hi-fi set-up and deals with the cops who for some reason think Clay might know where their suspected murderer might be. Eventually Clay convinces the cops that he doesn't know jack about a junkie suspected of murder.
When Clay goes to the cubbyhole to let Billy-Billy know the coast is clear he's surprised to discover that the little junkie has climbed out of a window leading to the fire escape.
Billy-Billy has vanished and Ganolese orders Clay to find him.
If the cops find Billy-Billy before Clay, chances are pretty good that denied access to junk and his works for 24 hours the little junkie'll tell everything he knows about everyone he knows.
This is terrific stuff.
Who really murdered the woman -who turns out to be a wanna-be Broadway star and why?
She's left a few broken hearts in her passing and has an interesting back-story, it turns out.
Why'd the cops show up so fast at Clay's pad looking for the suspect?
And why Clay's pad?
Where'd the little junkie, Billy-Billy, get off to?
And who's the guy with the pistol who shows up at Clay's, shooting through the door, trying to kill him?
One of the best entries in the Hard Case Crime series.
Rarely can you go wrong with a Donald Westlake thriller.
Highest Recommendation!
Five Stars
January 30, 2025
Allegedly "The Cutie" was the first novel penned under Westlake's own name. This 1960 novel was followed by dozens and dozens of additional novels and today Westlake is a household name, at least if
the household includes a mystery fan. Although it was originally published in 1960, it does not feel old or dated and, unless you think about the absence of cell phones and computers, you don't realize
when reading it that it is not taking place in the current day. That's quite interesting because many of the novels written contemporaneously with this one by other writers are great reads, but do feel dated.
Clay works for "The Organization." He is a mobster's right-hand man and, in that capacity, Clay is a hitman and fixer. The story opens with Clay in his nice apartment and a beautiful woman, Ella, in his arms. It
is the middle of the night and someone's at the door at a quite inopportune moment. A mild-mannered junkie named Billy-Billy Cantrell is there. Billy-Billy, who speaks with a stutter (thus his name)
passed out in an alley somewhere and woke up in an apartment with a dead woman in it. Billy-Billy skedaddled out of there just before the
police arrived, but left his hat and fingerprints behind.
So why not leave a strung-out junkie who might be a murderer to his own devices? One, Clay doesn't believe mild-mannered Billy-Billy who doesn't carry a weapon and couldn't hurt a fly could do it. Two, Billy-
Billy is part of the organization and Ed, Clay's boss, has to protect Billy-Billy at all costs because someone higher up wants Billy-Billy protected. Clay is convinced that somehow Billy-Billy is being framed.
Naturally, the police are one step behind Billy-Billy and arrive at Clay's apartment before Clay can come up with a plan. Billy-Billy disappears and Clay has to find him before the entire NYPD does. Why the entire
NYPD? Well, it seems that it wasn't just some dame that got killed. It was Mavis St. Paul, who was the mistress of the number one most connected politico in town. As the bodies start piling up, Clay has to
figure out how to solve this mess before Billy-Billy is picked up and the entire Organization goes under.
What's great about this book is that it is not just a mystery story and not just a mobster story. Clay has his own issues and the book explores those issues as the story rockets along. Clay is loyal to Ed and to the Organization and wants no other life. He has no moral
qualms about what he does. But, what about his girlfriend Ella. How does he integrate her into his life and not have to lead a double life? The story juxtaposes his normal relationship with Ella against the crazy life he leads.
the household includes a mystery fan. Although it was originally published in 1960, it does not feel old or dated and, unless you think about the absence of cell phones and computers, you don't realize
when reading it that it is not taking place in the current day. That's quite interesting because many of the novels written contemporaneously with this one by other writers are great reads, but do feel dated.
Clay works for "The Organization." He is a mobster's right-hand man and, in that capacity, Clay is a hitman and fixer. The story opens with Clay in his nice apartment and a beautiful woman, Ella, in his arms. It
is the middle of the night and someone's at the door at a quite inopportune moment. A mild-mannered junkie named Billy-Billy Cantrell is there. Billy-Billy, who speaks with a stutter (thus his name)
passed out in an alley somewhere and woke up in an apartment with a dead woman in it. Billy-Billy skedaddled out of there just before the
police arrived, but left his hat and fingerprints behind.
So why not leave a strung-out junkie who might be a murderer to his own devices? One, Clay doesn't believe mild-mannered Billy-Billy who doesn't carry a weapon and couldn't hurt a fly could do it. Two, Billy-
Billy is part of the organization and Ed, Clay's boss, has to protect Billy-Billy at all costs because someone higher up wants Billy-Billy protected. Clay is convinced that somehow Billy-Billy is being framed.
Naturally, the police are one step behind Billy-Billy and arrive at Clay's apartment before Clay can come up with a plan. Billy-Billy disappears and Clay has to find him before the entire NYPD does. Why the entire
NYPD? Well, it seems that it wasn't just some dame that got killed. It was Mavis St. Paul, who was the mistress of the number one most connected politico in town. As the bodies start piling up, Clay has to
figure out how to solve this mess before Billy-Billy is picked up and the entire Organization goes under.
What's great about this book is that it is not just a mystery story and not just a mobster story. Clay has his own issues and the book explores those issues as the story rockets along. Clay is loyal to Ed and to the Organization and wants no other life. He has no moral
qualms about what he does. But, what about his girlfriend Ella. How does he integrate her into his life and not have to lead a double life? The story juxtaposes his normal relationship with Ella against the crazy life he leads.
November 14, 2011
I find the cover of this book a bit misleading. Blame it on the title though.
One, (me and um, Karen, who made a joke at my expense about the type of book I was reading) might think that the title refers to an attractive woman, like the one who is being signified by the cover artwork. Like, hey this is a book about an attractive woman who causes some kind of problem, sort of like a typical James M. Cain novel. Actually the title refers to someone who is doing something 'clever' but in a way that some might find to be annoying. Like setting up a mob-tied junkie to take a murder beef in order to a) get away with a crime and b) to cause trouble for the people the junkie knows. The 'sexy' lady is just a pulp-fiction trope.
Instead of thinking about the novel much I went to the OED to see if this mid-century use of the word cutie was standard, or if the way it gets used in some crime novels of this time period was a deviation from a certain form of an attractive person, and it was only a slang use that sort of came and went with the heydays of hard boiled crime novels.
So what does the OED say about cutie?
A cute person; esp. an attractive young woman. (In quot. 1768 the sense is ‘a superficially clever person’.)
1768 in A. Hare Georgian Theatre in Wessex (1958) iv. 72 Let shallow Cuties, who, in Love with Sound, Care not a Pin if Action's never found. 1917 D. G. Phillips S. Lenox II. viii. 204 It was the bartender. ‘Evening, cutie,’ he said. ‘What'll you have?’ ‘Some rye whiskey,’ replied Susan. 1923 R. D. Paine Comr. Rolling Ocean viii. 130 Her friends thought she was a cutey for turning the trick. 1927 ‘J. Barbican’ Confess. Rum-Runner xiv. 149 He goes about with a high-stepping cutie who's ace-high on the face and figure. 1927 Daily Express 5 Dec. 13 His sweetheart, a ‘cabaret cutie’. 1945 W. Plomer Dorking Thigh 20 Just like a young cutie Between the wars.
And for cute, this is the second definition for the adjective form of the word:
2.2 (orig. U.S. colloq. and Schoolboy slang.) Used of things in same way as cunning a. 6. Now in general colloq. use, applied to people as well as things, with the sense ‘attractive, pretty, charming’; also, ‘attractive in a mannered way’.
I don't know exactly what this tells me, just that the word seems to be mixed up with attractiveness, shallowness and cunning for most of it's usage history. I'd be a bit more curious to know how the word has fared in everyday American usage, like did people really use the term in the derogatory manner of hard boiled crime novels at some point, or was this in itself a cute affectation of gruff sounding writers? If it was a normal usage, was it also still a fairly positive thing to say about someone for attractiveness? Or did it hold the dual meanings for awhile, like a verbal backhand? Of course, the word still has both connotations, but I think the dominant one is for attractiveness without any hidden derogatoriness. The cunning aspect of the word still gets used from time to time, but when you hear the word cute (or at least when I do) a certain image pops to mind that has nothing to do with cunningness, but brings to mind a particular type of woman. This immediate image that the word brings to mind is subverted by what the title signifies in the novel itself. Many French thinkers have had fascinations with mystery and crime novels and this subversion of semiotic signs probably could be something that some Frano-phile who jizzs over the thought of Barthes could write an excruciating and maddening chapter of a book about. If I were still in grad school 1.0 I could see using these very trite and pretty uninteresting thoughts about the use of the word, the title, author intentions, reader expectation and interpretation to be shape a very cute paper that I might think is very clever, but which anyone with their head not shoved up their ass would find yawn inducing. I may have been able to parlay these thoughts into a tiresome conversation with some cute girl who would only be half listening and waiting to interject some of her own thoughts about Nietzschean balderdash or Derrida's deference and how it relates to post-third wave feminist pornography and NGO's or something similar to that, which I would be half listening to, feigning a level of interest similar to the feigned interest she had in what I was saying while awaiting my own turn to ramble on about the kind of things that grad students in love with theory and their own cleverness ramble on about to the only people in the world who are willing to listen to them without rolling their eyes, telling them they are full of shit or attempting to punch them in the nose for being insufferable bores.
But what about the book?
It was good, it was Donald Westlake and he writes very readable novels and he generally rises above the standard fare for the crime genre and he does so here, too.
One, (me and um, Karen, who made a joke at my expense about the type of book I was reading) might think that the title refers to an attractive woman, like the one who is being signified by the cover artwork. Like, hey this is a book about an attractive woman who causes some kind of problem, sort of like a typical James M. Cain novel. Actually the title refers to someone who is doing something 'clever' but in a way that some might find to be annoying. Like setting up a mob-tied junkie to take a murder beef in order to a) get away with a crime and b) to cause trouble for the people the junkie knows. The 'sexy' lady is just a pulp-fiction trope.
Instead of thinking about the novel much I went to the OED to see if this mid-century use of the word cutie was standard, or if the way it gets used in some crime novels of this time period was a deviation from a certain form of an attractive person, and it was only a slang use that sort of came and went with the heydays of hard boiled crime novels.
So what does the OED say about cutie?
A cute person; esp. an attractive young woman. (In quot. 1768 the sense is ‘a superficially clever person’.)
1768 in A. Hare Georgian Theatre in Wessex (1958) iv. 72 Let shallow Cuties, who, in Love with Sound, Care not a Pin if Action's never found. 1917 D. G. Phillips S. Lenox II. viii. 204 It was the bartender. ‘Evening, cutie,’ he said. ‘What'll you have?’ ‘Some rye whiskey,’ replied Susan. 1923 R. D. Paine Comr. Rolling Ocean viii. 130 Her friends thought she was a cutey for turning the trick. 1927 ‘J. Barbican’ Confess. Rum-Runner xiv. 149 He goes about with a high-stepping cutie who's ace-high on the face and figure. 1927 Daily Express 5 Dec. 13 His sweetheart, a ‘cabaret cutie’. 1945 W. Plomer Dorking Thigh 20 Just like a young cutie Between the wars.
And for cute, this is the second definition for the adjective form of the word:
2.2 (orig. U.S. colloq. and Schoolboy slang.) Used of things in same way as cunning a. 6. Now in general colloq. use, applied to people as well as things, with the sense ‘attractive, pretty, charming’; also, ‘attractive in a mannered way’.
I don't know exactly what this tells me, just that the word seems to be mixed up with attractiveness, shallowness and cunning for most of it's usage history. I'd be a bit more curious to know how the word has fared in everyday American usage, like did people really use the term in the derogatory manner of hard boiled crime novels at some point, or was this in itself a cute affectation of gruff sounding writers? If it was a normal usage, was it also still a fairly positive thing to say about someone for attractiveness? Or did it hold the dual meanings for awhile, like a verbal backhand? Of course, the word still has both connotations, but I think the dominant one is for attractiveness without any hidden derogatoriness. The cunning aspect of the word still gets used from time to time, but when you hear the word cute (or at least when I do) a certain image pops to mind that has nothing to do with cunningness, but brings to mind a particular type of woman. This immediate image that the word brings to mind is subverted by what the title signifies in the novel itself. Many French thinkers have had fascinations with mystery and crime novels and this subversion of semiotic signs probably could be something that some Frano-phile who jizzs over the thought of Barthes could write an excruciating and maddening chapter of a book about. If I were still in grad school 1.0 I could see using these very trite and pretty uninteresting thoughts about the use of the word, the title, author intentions, reader expectation and interpretation to be shape a very cute paper that I might think is very clever, but which anyone with their head not shoved up their ass would find yawn inducing. I may have been able to parlay these thoughts into a tiresome conversation with some cute girl who would only be half listening and waiting to interject some of her own thoughts about Nietzschean balderdash or Derrida's deference and how it relates to post-third wave feminist pornography and NGO's or something similar to that, which I would be half listening to, feigning a level of interest similar to the feigned interest she had in what I was saying while awaiting my own turn to ramble on about the kind of things that grad students in love with theory and their own cleverness ramble on about to the only people in the world who are willing to listen to them without rolling their eyes, telling them they are full of shit or attempting to punch them in the nose for being insufferable bores.
But what about the book?
It was good, it was Donald Westlake and he writes very readable novels and he generally rises above the standard fare for the crime genre and he does so here, too.
June 4, 2021
"Don't get cute with me!"
The first novel from mystery writer Donald Westlake, Edgar Award Nominee for Best First Novel (1961). Reprinted in the Hard Case Crime series and one of the best in that collection, mainly because the writing even in this first book already confirms he will be a star. The Mercenaries was the publisher’s chosen title, but when Westlake saw the chance to reprint it in the HCC series he gave it his preferred title, The Cutie.
What is a “cutie”? Well, if you look at the cover you’d think it was this woman, but it turns out to be a false lead, as that girl isn’t part of this story. Maybe it was a set-up, a publisher-intended red herring, or maybe the illustrator and publisher never read the book? The cutie of the title is actually just a person who is “getting cute” with the main character, setting him up for a fall.
The book features George Clayton, or Clay, who is a fixer and sometimes hitman for “the organization,” and likes the life he is living. He also has a serious girlfriend named Ella who creates a problem for him that he soliloquizes about in one passage: Can he be a killer and a lover/family man at the same time?
"And I turned everything off. I was a machine. And my arm was the arm of the machine, and the gun was a part of the machine. And when the machine's finger contracted, the machine's gun exploded. And that was what the machine was for."
The plot? Heroin addict Billy-Billy Cantel passed out in an alley somewhere and woke up in an apartment with a dead woman in it. It appears to be a set-up, he explains to Clay, though in time Clay himself seems to be the center of suspicion, and he does his own detective work to clear himself and find the killer, which he does, with a twist in the end that is really great. The dialogue along the way and the plot are well done, but I had a bit of a tough time seeing Clay as both tough guy and detective and joker all at the same time.
I’l rate this four stars, bumped up from 3.5, as it is one of my favorites of the dozen or so Hard Case Crime books they revived, though it is not as good as other, later works from Westlake. I do recommend it.
The first novel from mystery writer Donald Westlake, Edgar Award Nominee for Best First Novel (1961). Reprinted in the Hard Case Crime series and one of the best in that collection, mainly because the writing even in this first book already confirms he will be a star. The Mercenaries was the publisher’s chosen title, but when Westlake saw the chance to reprint it in the HCC series he gave it his preferred title, The Cutie.
What is a “cutie”? Well, if you look at the cover you’d think it was this woman, but it turns out to be a false lead, as that girl isn’t part of this story. Maybe it was a set-up, a publisher-intended red herring, or maybe the illustrator and publisher never read the book? The cutie of the title is actually just a person who is “getting cute” with the main character, setting him up for a fall.
The book features George Clayton, or Clay, who is a fixer and sometimes hitman for “the organization,” and likes the life he is living. He also has a serious girlfriend named Ella who creates a problem for him that he soliloquizes about in one passage: Can he be a killer and a lover/family man at the same time?
"And I turned everything off. I was a machine. And my arm was the arm of the machine, and the gun was a part of the machine. And when the machine's finger contracted, the machine's gun exploded. And that was what the machine was for."
The plot? Heroin addict Billy-Billy Cantel passed out in an alley somewhere and woke up in an apartment with a dead woman in it. It appears to be a set-up, he explains to Clay, though in time Clay himself seems to be the center of suspicion, and he does his own detective work to clear himself and find the killer, which he does, with a twist in the end that is really great. The dialogue along the way and the plot are well done, but I had a bit of a tough time seeing Clay as both tough guy and detective and joker all at the same time.
I’l rate this four stars, bumped up from 3.5, as it is one of my favorites of the dozen or so Hard Case Crime books they revived, though it is not as good as other, later works from Westlake. I do recommend it.
February 4, 2020
Outstanding early crime pulp from Westlake, nominated for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel (1961).
Westlake's talent and writing chops are fully evident in this smart, pulpy murder mystery that takes place in New York's seedy underworld. The character development of the large cast of characters is simply masterful, especially that of the protagonist. Feeling unrelenting pressure on all sides, Westlake lays bare his inner struggles. He is deeply conflicted, torn between preserving his relationship with his girlfriend and potential future wife and his job as the right hand man to the boss of an organized crime syndicate. He's at a loss to justify to her the seeming coolness with which he's able to commit terrible deeds when business calls for them, without getting personal or feeling immoral, and his unwavering loyalty to his boss. And he's unwilling to live a double life, wanting and needing her to accept him for who he is and what he does.
"And I turned everything off. I was a machine. And my arm was the arm of the machine, and the gun was a part of the machine. And when the machine's finger contracted, the machine's gun exploded. And that was what the machine was for."
I always love it when a criminal plays the part of a detective, especially on a murder case. There's something that feels liberating and primal when the shackles of needing to operate within the law can be shed in the pursuit of eye for an eye justice.
Highly recommended to crime fiction fans!
Westlake's talent and writing chops are fully evident in this smart, pulpy murder mystery that takes place in New York's seedy underworld. The character development of the large cast of characters is simply masterful, especially that of the protagonist. Feeling unrelenting pressure on all sides, Westlake lays bare his inner struggles. He is deeply conflicted, torn between preserving his relationship with his girlfriend and potential future wife and his job as the right hand man to the boss of an organized crime syndicate. He's at a loss to justify to her the seeming coolness with which he's able to commit terrible deeds when business calls for them, without getting personal or feeling immoral, and his unwavering loyalty to his boss. And he's unwilling to live a double life, wanting and needing her to accept him for who he is and what he does.
"And I turned everything off. I was a machine. And my arm was the arm of the machine, and the gun was a part of the machine. And when the machine's finger contracted, the machine's gun exploded. And that was what the machine was for."
I always love it when a criminal plays the part of a detective, especially on a murder case. There's something that feels liberating and primal when the shackles of needing to operate within the law can be shed in the pursuit of eye for an eye justice.
Highly recommended to crime fiction fans!
September 10, 2010
Billy-Billy Cantell wakes up from an H bender in a strange apartment next to a blonde that's been stabbed to death with the police outside. He runs to the nearest person that can help him, Clay, a man whose part of the same criminal organization. Clay goes looking for the cutie that set Cantell up. Unfortunately, the same cutie is trying to set Clay up. All the while, Clay struggles with trying to make a life with the woman he's living with. Can she handle being married to someone in the business?
Westlake can craft a tale with more twists than an octopus's tentacles. I only figured out who the killer was about a page before Clay did. Mavis St. Paul really got around.
I'd say this is the best of the Westlake's Hard Case Crime has put out.
Westlake can craft a tale with more twists than an octopus's tentacles. I only figured out who the killer was about a page before Clay did. Mavis St. Paul really got around.
I'd say this is the best of the Westlake's Hard Case Crime has put out.
May 31, 2024
Fun characters and a decent plot but I found it a bit muddy in the middle.
October 23, 2014
3.5 stars, but I rounded up. This is one of the best HCC books that I've read. The flawed hero is very well done as are his circumstances & the mystery. The writing is fast paced with just enough detail to really draw me in, but not so much as to slow the story down. The characters are well drawn & very believable. The ending was excellent. I'll be looking for other books by Westlake to read.
October 11, 2011
Let's get a few things straight. Some things are not noir. Some things are better classified simply as pulp. Or crime.
Or thriller. If we were being true to form, we would be using the term 'hardboiled' when referring to the literature
that closely resembles film noir. Because Noir is a sub-genre of film that refers to a very specific style of post-WWII
film. Somehow, it has become a way to refer to any book that even remotely resembles the detective story prototype.
This just isn't right. I want to be a stickler here. I want to be very specific. I want some Wittgenstein-ian definition.
Hardboiled fiction has punchy dialogue, sometimes jazzy, overt sexuality, ambivalence to violence, severly brutal, a largely cynical
narrator, one or more femme fatale(s), and more often than not, has first-person narration.
And even though this book fits some of the criteria, I'd be hard pressed to call this hardboiled. That isn't a slight against
the book or against Westlake himself. This is a pulp work of the highest order.
Donald Westlake is probably best known for his Dormunder novels. Which were, on the whole, ridiculously mediocre and overly long. He also wrote under the name Richard Stark and created the best hardboiled fiction of his life. In The Cutie, we get some of the same Stark flavors and none of the Dortmunder lackluster. I just wish that Westlake had produced more of these types of books and laid off a little on the Drowned Hopes type novels.
Grade: B
Or thriller. If we were being true to form, we would be using the term 'hardboiled' when referring to the literature
that closely resembles film noir. Because Noir is a sub-genre of film that refers to a very specific style of post-WWII
film. Somehow, it has become a way to refer to any book that even remotely resembles the detective story prototype.
This just isn't right. I want to be a stickler here. I want to be very specific. I want some Wittgenstein-ian definition.
Hardboiled fiction has punchy dialogue, sometimes jazzy, overt sexuality, ambivalence to violence, severly brutal, a largely cynical
narrator, one or more femme fatale(s), and more often than not, has first-person narration.
And even though this book fits some of the criteria, I'd be hard pressed to call this hardboiled. That isn't a slight against
the book or against Westlake himself. This is a pulp work of the highest order.
Donald Westlake is probably best known for his Dormunder novels. Which were, on the whole, ridiculously mediocre and overly long. He also wrote under the name Richard Stark and created the best hardboiled fiction of his life. In The Cutie, we get some of the same Stark flavors and none of the Dortmunder lackluster. I just wish that Westlake had produced more of these types of books and laid off a little on the Drowned Hopes type novels.
Grade: B
October 31, 2014
The Cutie is early Westlake, and the name has been inexplicably changed from The Mercenaries, perhaps as a fig-leaf justification (not that any was needed) for the lovely cover, which unashamedly bears no resemblance to anything in the book, where a red-headed in a short dress notably fails to turn up and start loading a gun while standing athwart an open briefcase stuffed with cash. Never apologise, never explain.
Clay is a highly-placed enforcer for the local crime organisation in New York. One night a strung-out junkie turns up on his doorstep with a story of a murdered woman and a set-up. Clay's first impulse is for the junkie to meet with an accident, but it turns out he has just one influential friend somewhere, so he has to be protected. The police turn up, the junkie vanishes and the cops begin to tear things up, forcing Clay to embark on a hunt for the real murderer, dodging bullets and frame-ups and trying to keep his love-life going.
It's a fast, smooth, easy and satisfying read, though not as singular as books like Killy or 361. There are flashes of wit, but this isn't a comic crime caper, this is a twisted detective story with a criminal playing detective against his natural inclinations and better judgment. I enjoyed it a lot.
Clay is a highly-placed enforcer for the local crime organisation in New York. One night a strung-out junkie turns up on his doorstep with a story of a murdered woman and a set-up. Clay's first impulse is for the junkie to meet with an accident, but it turns out he has just one influential friend somewhere, so he has to be protected. The police turn up, the junkie vanishes and the cops begin to tear things up, forcing Clay to embark on a hunt for the real murderer, dodging bullets and frame-ups and trying to keep his love-life going.
It's a fast, smooth, easy and satisfying read, though not as singular as books like Killy or 361. There are flashes of wit, but this isn't a comic crime caper, this is a twisted detective story with a criminal playing detective against his natural inclinations and better judgment. I enjoyed it a lot.
June 21, 2016
"He needs somebody like me, who can kill when he has to, but who doesn't get to like the taste of blood.
I thought about that, & i wondered if it would ever be possible to explain it all to Ella. How to explain to her that i kill ONLY in cold blood, but that that doesn't make me cold-blooded? That i am emotionless only when emotion is dangerous, & that i am as emotional as the next man under normal circumstances."
Clay works for the 'organization'. When necessary he dispatches individuals who become 'inconvenient' to the organization. Clay likes working for his boss Ed. He likes to feel he is a valued member of the organization & that he is good at his job.
In the early hours, one morning, a junkie fellow employee knocks frantically on his apartment door. The junkie tells Clay he has been framed for the murder of a young woman & begs Clay to put his case to Ed. This Clay does & so begins a mystery which will see more bodies & Clays role switch to one of detective. Clay must solve this mystery for the good of the organization.
This is another excellent stand-alone novel from Donald E. Westlake, written in his inimitable style. Another excellent offering from the Hard Case Crime stable.
Highly recommended.
I thought about that, & i wondered if it would ever be possible to explain it all to Ella. How to explain to her that i kill ONLY in cold blood, but that that doesn't make me cold-blooded? That i am emotionless only when emotion is dangerous, & that i am as emotional as the next man under normal circumstances."
Clay works for the 'organization'. When necessary he dispatches individuals who become 'inconvenient' to the organization. Clay likes working for his boss Ed. He likes to feel he is a valued member of the organization & that he is good at his job.
In the early hours, one morning, a junkie fellow employee knocks frantically on his apartment door. The junkie tells Clay he has been framed for the murder of a young woman & begs Clay to put his case to Ed. This Clay does & so begins a mystery which will see more bodies & Clays role switch to one of detective. Clay must solve this mystery for the good of the organization.
This is another excellent stand-alone novel from Donald E. Westlake, written in his inimitable style. Another excellent offering from the Hard Case Crime stable.
Highly recommended.
January 8, 2020
You just got to love D E Westlake. Master of crime fiction in my opinion. As I have said B4 I don’t know why I never read any of his books, too busy reading a bunch of junk I suppose. I’ll now make an effort to read more of his Hard Case Crime novels, given I get the time. 😂
May 5, 2009
I really liked this one. May be a contender for my favorite HCC title so far. And it also may have my vote for favorite cover.
Mysteries where the criminals are acting as the detectives always appeal to me for some reason so I got a kick out of Clay's efforts to track down 'the cutie' who killed Mavis and framed Billy-Billy.
Kind of like Killing Castro with Block, you can tell that this is a superior writer doing some early work and discovering what works for him. Westlake kept this a hardboiled mystery, but added enough humor to make it fun.
I liked the way he portrayed Clay, also. Most crime stories with a criminal as the hero, or anti-hero, feel the need to make a point about how the main character really hates his job and is only doing it because of some kind of outside circumstances. Westlake makes the point several times that Clay actually enjoys what he does. He likes the nature of the work and the power he wields because of it. The subplot with him trying to deal with his girlfriend is a nice way to show how he really likes his criminal lifestyle.
Mysteries where the criminals are acting as the detectives always appeal to me for some reason so I got a kick out of Clay's efforts to track down 'the cutie' who killed Mavis and framed Billy-Billy.
Kind of like Killing Castro with Block, you can tell that this is a superior writer doing some early work and discovering what works for him. Westlake kept this a hardboiled mystery, but added enough humor to make it fun.
I liked the way he portrayed Clay, also. Most crime stories with a criminal as the hero, or anti-hero, feel the need to make a point about how the main character really hates his job and is only doing it because of some kind of outside circumstances. Westlake makes the point several times that Clay actually enjoys what he does. He likes the nature of the work and the power he wields because of it. The subplot with him trying to deal with his girlfriend is a nice way to show how he really likes his criminal lifestyle.
August 16, 2023
This foray into the mystery sub-genre of hard crime is a one way trip filled with mobsters, double-crosses and questions of how far you're willing to go, a trip well worth the time.
September 19, 2018
Donald Westlake sure does write a good criminal. Here 'Clay' (Born George Clayton) is helping his Syndicate boss unravel a murder that gets laid at his feet, all the while decided whether he really does want to be a Made Man, or if he wants to get married and go respectable.
It was pretty fun following what was really a pretty standard murder mystery, only with the 'detective' being a mafia lieutenant more comfortable as the murderer than the investigator.
The resolution was not the best... the culprit was pretty predictable (though his exact identity was a surprise), and fed into the personal struggles of Clay a little too perfectly. It was also a HUGE leap he made to figure out who did it...either there was some 'off camera' evidence, or Clay gambled his life on a hunch.
While I wouldn't put this one in Parker's class, I could totally see Clay working with Parker on a heist (as long as he doesn't reveal his a Syndicate man, of course).
Also, 'The Mercenaries' is a FAR better title... I get why they changed it and why they went with a cover that fits with the line, but it's WAY out of context (the Cutie referred to the guy setting up the murder 'being cute', not a woman at all), and I honestly have no idea who the girl on the cover is suppose to be... just stock art, I guess.
It was pretty fun following what was really a pretty standard murder mystery, only with the 'detective' being a mafia lieutenant more comfortable as the murderer than the investigator.
The resolution was not the best... the culprit was pretty predictable (though his exact identity was a surprise), and fed into the personal struggles of Clay a little too perfectly. It was also a HUGE leap he made to figure out who did it...either there was some 'off camera' evidence, or Clay gambled his life on a hunch.
While I wouldn't put this one in Parker's class, I could totally see Clay working with Parker on a heist (as long as he doesn't reveal his a Syndicate man, of course).
Also, 'The Mercenaries' is a FAR better title... I get why they changed it and why they went with a cover that fits with the line, but it's WAY out of context (the Cutie referred to the guy setting up the murder 'being cute', not a woman at all), and I honestly have no idea who the girl on the cover is suppose to be... just stock art, I guess.
April 9, 2022
A mob enforcer has to play detective to protect one of his own.
This is an easy read that has a surprisingly deep protagonist and a mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end.
This is an easy read that has a surprisingly deep protagonist and a mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end.
December 13, 2023
Okay but not great Westlake - very early in his career, so cutting him a little slack based on all the goodness that was to follow. Story has a very basic plot which picks up in just the last page or two with a slightly tricky ending, (I did guess the "whodunit" part, but the actual finale did catch me by surprise). Overall, this is "noir light;" neither Dortmunder not Parker but somewhere in between.
As absolutely ever other review notes, the "cutie" of the title isn't some dame, but a gangster who's just gotten a little too "cute" with the syndicate, and so our narrator has to track him down. This book was originally published as The Mercenaries, but The Cutie was always Westlake's preferred title; he finally got to use it with the 2009 "Hard Case Crime" reprint. (I frankly had no idea what "HCC" meant in so many other reviews, but it turns out they're reprinted a lot of long-lost noirs from [I'm guessing] the 40's through the 60's. You can see their whole inventory here - http://www.hardcasecrime.com/books_bi... - which is fun to scroll through if only to enjoy the cover art and such classic titles as Shills Can't Cash Chips, Are Snakes Necessary? and So Nude, So Dead - how could you not want to read them?)
As absolutely ever other review notes, the "cutie" of the title isn't some dame, but a gangster who's just gotten a little too "cute" with the syndicate, and so our narrator has to track him down. This book was originally published as The Mercenaries, but The Cutie was always Westlake's preferred title; he finally got to use it with the 2009 "Hard Case Crime" reprint. (I frankly had no idea what "HCC" meant in so many other reviews, but it turns out they're reprinted a lot of long-lost noirs from [I'm guessing] the 40's through the 60's. You can see their whole inventory here - http://www.hardcasecrime.com/books_bi... - which is fun to scroll through if only to enjoy the cover art and such classic titles as Shills Can't Cash Chips, Are Snakes Necessary? and So Nude, So Dead - how could you not want to read them?)
May 10, 2017
This mob whodunit would probably not have warranted a reprint by Hard Case Crime were it not Donald E. Westlake’s debut (or, more accurately, his debut under his own name). Narrated by George Clayton—known to his associates simply as Clay—The Mercenaries (reprinted by HCC as The Cutie, complete with cover art that has nothing whatsoever to do with the book) finds Westlake inching his way toward the world of Richard Stark and Parker with Clay’s recurring commentary about the necessity of good criminals behaving without emotion. In sum, a competent but not memorable novel of high academic interest to fans of Westlake/Stark.
First reading: 16 November 2014
Second reading: 9 May 2017
First reading: 16 November 2014
Second reading: 9 May 2017
November 26, 2013
Not bad.
Writing was excellent
characters well drawn,
but for a noir story the whole
seemed fifty pages too long.
Too much pontificating in the middle.
Brought the pace to a crawl.
Had me checking the ceiling for spiders.
But for an early effort, the craftsmanship was well done.
Writing was excellent
characters well drawn,
but for a noir story the whole
seemed fifty pages too long.
Too much pontificating in the middle.
Brought the pace to a crawl.
Had me checking the ceiling for spiders.
But for an early effort, the craftsmanship was well done.
July 22, 2021
When noted junkie Billy-Billy Cantell arrives at the door of career criminal Clay alleging he’s being framed for murder, Clay begrudgingly agrees to take him in. After the police arrive and interview Clay on Billy-Billy’s whereabouts, Clay discovers Billy-Billy is nowhere to be found. Clay reaches out to his employer for direction and is told to do everything within his power to keep Billy-Billy safe. Knowing Billy-Billy couldn’t hurt a fly, can Clay track him down and clear his name?
After having finished Adam Higginbotham’s MIDNIGHT IN CHERNOBYL, I was looking for something a little less traumatizing. So, a standalone Hardcase Crime novel that clocked in just over two hundred pages seemed like a good idea.
I don’t want this to sound like I’m slagging the book because I did like it, but Donald Westlake’s The Cutie is the perfect forgettable read. This is like grabbing a burger and fries at your favorite fast food joint. It’s quick, satisfying and tasty. But unlike the assembly line nature of the fast food industry, Westlake is putting in the work of a chef with red herrings, misdirection and twists galore.
Donald Westlake’s THE CUTIE is as hard-boiled as they come.
After having finished Adam Higginbotham’s MIDNIGHT IN CHERNOBYL, I was looking for something a little less traumatizing. So, a standalone Hardcase Crime novel that clocked in just over two hundred pages seemed like a good idea.
I don’t want this to sound like I’m slagging the book because I did like it, but Donald Westlake’s The Cutie is the perfect forgettable read. This is like grabbing a burger and fries at your favorite fast food joint. It’s quick, satisfying and tasty. But unlike the assembly line nature of the fast food industry, Westlake is putting in the work of a chef with red herrings, misdirection and twists galore.
Donald Westlake’s THE CUTIE is as hard-boiled as they come.
May 17, 2020
Solid, gritty, hardboiled noir, from early in Westlake’s writing career.
September 3, 2024
a great display of that noir i like so much. I enjoyed the gritty crime tale very much.
December 31, 2021
The first novel (orig. The Mercenaries ) from one of the best. Mr. Westlake could write a crime novel....
October 7, 2014
Early Westlake but fun as always. I ate up all his descriptions of New York circa 1960. A favorite passage:
I went on in. The living room as long and narrow, painted gray, and was so completely Greenwich Village in style that it looked more like a stage setting than an actual living room. It was one trite, standard bit after another. The piece of gray driftwood on the black, vaguely Japanese coffee table. The modern painting, looking like a broken stained-glass window, centered on one of the long walls. A low bookcase constructed of one by twelve boards separated by unmortared bricks. A cheap record player on an obviously second-hand table, with five or six long-playing record albums lying beside it. Three empty Chianti bottles were tastefully suspended from the wall between the two windows, and the windows themselves were covered with red burlap drapes. A couple of Moselle bottles, festooned with candle drippings, sat around on odd tables, and a hook in the middle of the ceiling showed where the mobile had once been hung, when mobiles were in fashion.
Betty Benson didn’t go with the apartment. She suited her name much better than that. Except for the lack of little white stars in her eyes, she looked like a Jon Whitcomb illustration for the Saturday Evening Post. She was one of those sweet, sincere, All-American-Girl, Junior Prom, brainless types, with fluffy brown hair, a smooth and rather blank face, and a good though not spectacular body. She was dressed in a gray sweatshirt and pink pedal-pushers and in five years she would have traded the driftwood and the Chianti bottles for a washer-dryer and a husband, out in some suburban development.
I knew very little about this type of broad, because my work doesn’t normally bring me in contact with them. I’d known some way back in college days, but they’d bored me then and they bored me now. I didn’t know how to talk to this one to get her into the mood to answer questions.
She closed the door and turned to face me. “If you try anything,” she said, “I can scream. And I left the door unlocked. And the man next door is home, because he works nights.”
“Darn,” I said. “Then I guess I can’t rape-murder you after all.”
I’d forgotten that chicks like this have absolutely no sense of humor. She stood there for a second, trying to figure out what her reaction to that one was supposed to be, and finally gave up on it. “You can sit down anywhere,” she said.
“Thanks.” I avoided the black basket chair and sat on the studio couch.
“You wanted to talk about Mavis,” she said.
“Uh huh. I’d also like some coffee, if you’ve got some handy. I wasn’t kidding about being behind in my sleep.”
“All right. How do you like your coffee?”
“Black,” I said. “One sugar.”
“It’s instant,” she said doubtfully.
“That’s all right,” I told her. “I love instant.” I hate instant.
“So do I,” she said. She smiled. We had found a common ground.
October 18, 2009
Originally published as The Mercenaries. Probably one of the more unfortunate choices when it comes to renaming a book that really didn't need it in the first place. Also probably only rates two stars because it really was just ok, but it was a good mindless read right when I needed one, so hey. Bonus star.
Actually, the bonus star should probably go to the King County Library System for displaying it conspicuously on their "Paperback Picks" shelves that you have to walk past as you enter or leave the library, but I really don't have any way to express my appreciation other than mentioning it here or saying something like, "Thanks, guys. Bonus star!" as I stroll past the Reference Desk, and that would only cause them to give me slightly more puzzled glances than usual. So anyway, this book, regardless of title, isn't anywhere near as cool as the Parker novels Westlake wrote under the pseudonym Richard Stark. And I just found out he died at the end of last year (no, I mean literally at the end-- 31 December 08), which sucks because, y'know, death, but also because I wanted to meet him and now that's not gonna happen. At least not in this life... but let's not get started on that right now.
Thanks KCLS, thanks & R.I.P. Donald E. Westlake/Richard Stark (and a gazillion other pen names). Bonus stars all 'round.
Actually, the bonus star should probably go to the King County Library System for displaying it conspicuously on their "Paperback Picks" shelves that you have to walk past as you enter or leave the library, but I really don't have any way to express my appreciation other than mentioning it here or saying something like, "Thanks, guys. Bonus star!" as I stroll past the Reference Desk, and that would only cause them to give me slightly more puzzled glances than usual. So anyway, this book, regardless of title, isn't anywhere near as cool as the Parker novels Westlake wrote under the pseudonym Richard Stark. And I just found out he died at the end of last year (no, I mean literally at the end-- 31 December 08), which sucks because, y'know, death, but also because I wanted to meet him and now that's not gonna happen. At least not in this life... but let's not get started on that right now.
Thanks KCLS, thanks & R.I.P. Donald E. Westlake/Richard Stark (and a gazillion other pen names). Bonus stars all 'round.
September 22, 2011
More PI than hard hitting hit man – Clay, self proclaimed accident specialist and right hand man to a mob boss is tasked with tracking down a promising starlet’s murderer to take the heat of the organisation acquaintance and prime suspect Billy-Billy. The language is a testament to the era (written in 1960) with the quarry commonly referred to as the cutie, while Clay’s investigative prowess relies on more conventional approaches without the convenience of today’s mod cons. A familiar whodunit lacking the subtle finesse of Spillane and co whilst adding a somewhat fresh perspective in the protagonist’s social standing in a mob outfit playing PI. 3 stars.
February 26, 2015
This is classic tough-guy pulp fiction. It was first published in 1960 and titled "The Mercenaries." The fast talking protagonist reminds me of some Lawrence Block's first-person narrators, although he is not quite as glib.
The funniest aspect of the book is the cover drawing. It bares no relation to anything in the book. Some marketing guys had fun with this one, I imagine.
This is very, very light reading. I am always looking for new authors, but there wasn't enough in this novel to make me try other Westlake books.
The funniest aspect of the book is the cover drawing. It bares no relation to anything in the book. Some marketing guys had fun with this one, I imagine.
This is very, very light reading. I am always looking for new authors, but there wasn't enough in this novel to make me try other Westlake books.
January 7, 2022
The novel evidences Westlake's knack or rather genius to set a plot in motion and come up with an unrelenting chain of situations, presently to the unceasing ringing of doorbells and telephones. Paradoxically, the plot is a bit loose at the ends, underwhelming in its resolution, which hardly matters. And Westlake tops it off with a typical dash of fatal doom.
March 27, 2021
E’ che poi quando mi prende la scimmia finisco per stabilire un approccio che mi sembri rispondere a una pretesa di scientificità. E siccome la (prima) scimmia letteraria del 2021 è rappresentata dai gialli di Donald E. Westlake (e dei suoi innumerevoli pseudonimi), ho deciso di provare a seguire l’ordine e di accaparrarmi – inevitabilmente sul mercato dell’usato – una copia Mondadori del 1981 de I mercenari, primo romanzo dell’autore statunitense ad aver raggiunto la gloria nel 1960.
Il problema è che – come certificano le poche notizie e studi sull’autore presenti in rete – la sottile vena umoristica con cui Westlake mi aveva convinto in un suo lavoro decisamente più recente non era minimamente presente in questa sua opera prima.
Come inevitabile conseguenza, al lettore un po’ più scafato I mercenari sembra soltanto un ottimo esercizio: intravedi sfumature di Chandler e – soprattutto – qualche colpo ad effetto alla Hammett, senza che )direi ovviamente) se ne raggiungano le vette che hanno inaugurato e segnato un genere. Sei perfettamente conscio di muoverti all’interno dell’hard boiled, in fondo apprezzi anche il protagonista (il classico criminale duro-e-puro senza pensieri di rettitudine, qui impegnato a salvare un compagno incastrato con un cadavere in casa) e tutta la vicenda, ma sotto sotto hai una sensazione a metà fra il “già provato” e il dispiacere per la mancanza di una cifra stilistica autonoma.
Con calma, nei prossimi mesi affronterò la serie “Parker”, quella in cui si è sviluppata la narrativa di Westlake in una direzione che probabilmente risponderà un po’ di più alle mie corde. Durezza e sarcasmo, ironia e sottile critica sociale.
E magari una edizione che non mi riporti ai glorioso tempi dei gialli comprati di corsa in stazione 😀
Il problema è che – come certificano le poche notizie e studi sull’autore presenti in rete – la sottile vena umoristica con cui Westlake mi aveva convinto in un suo lavoro decisamente più recente non era minimamente presente in questa sua opera prima.
Come inevitabile conseguenza, al lettore un po’ più scafato I mercenari sembra soltanto un ottimo esercizio: intravedi sfumature di Chandler e – soprattutto – qualche colpo ad effetto alla Hammett, senza che )direi ovviamente) se ne raggiungano le vette che hanno inaugurato e segnato un genere. Sei perfettamente conscio di muoverti all’interno dell’hard boiled, in fondo apprezzi anche il protagonista (il classico criminale duro-e-puro senza pensieri di rettitudine, qui impegnato a salvare un compagno incastrato con un cadavere in casa) e tutta la vicenda, ma sotto sotto hai una sensazione a metà fra il “già provato” e il dispiacere per la mancanza di una cifra stilistica autonoma.
Con calma, nei prossimi mesi affronterò la serie “Parker”, quella in cui si è sviluppata la narrativa di Westlake in una direzione che probabilmente risponderà un po’ di più alle mie corde. Durezza e sarcasmo, ironia e sottile critica sociale.
E magari una edizione che non mi riporti ai glorioso tempi dei gialli comprati di corsa in stazione 😀
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