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    The Dame: An Alan Grofield Novel
    Unavailable
    The Dame: An Alan Grofield Novel
    Unavailable
    The Dame: An Alan Grofield Novel
    Ebook208 pages2 hours

    The Dame: An Alan Grofield Novel

    By Richard Stark and Sarah Weinman

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Donald E. Westlake is one of the greats of crime fiction. Under the pseudonym Richard Stark, he wrote twenty-four fast-paced, hardboiled novels featuring Parker, a shrewd career criminal with a talent for heists. Using the same nom de plume, Westlake also completed a separate series in the Parker universe, starring Alan Grofield, an occasional colleague of Parker. While he shares events and characters with several Parker novels, Grofield is less calculating and more hot-blooded than Parker; think fewer guns, more dames.

    Not that there isn’t violence and adventure aplenty. . The Dame finds Grofield in Puerto Rico protecting a rich, demanding woman in her isolated jungle villa, and reluctantly assuming the role of detective. A rare Westlake take on a whodunit, The Dame features a cast of colorful characters and a suspenseful—and memorable—climax.

    With a new foreword by Sarah Weinman that situates the Grofield series within Westlake’s work as a whole, this novel is an exciting addition to any crime fiction fan’s library.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press
    Release dateMar 1, 2012
    ISBN9780226770406
    Unavailable
    The Dame: An Alan Grofield Novel

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    Reviews for The Dame

    3.5/5

    16 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Stark (aka Donald Westlake) is best known for his 'Parker' novels. 'The Damsel' is the first of four he wrote featuring Alan Grofield, one of Parker's occasional partners in crime.The action picks up after the events of 'The Handle.' Grofield is recuperating from a gunshot in Mexico when he meets up with a young American woman being pursued by generic thugs. They escape, he eventually gets her to explain her situation, and he tries to come up with a plan to help her. The structure is similar to the Stark uses with Parker: two acts setting up the action, a third act from the POV of the other players, and a final act wrapping things up. But Grofield is no Parker - he's less cold-blooded, more willing to lend a hand. And the story is not about pulling off a job so much as it is about Grofield rescuing the 'damsel' of the title.I don't find Grofield as interesting a character as Parker. But the action moves at a decent clip and the prose is typical of Stark. It's an interesting diversion, but not classic in the same way as the 'Parker' books are.
    • 4/5
      Here, Grofield has left Parker and other conspirators, after pulling off a casino heist on a small island off the Texas coast. Grofield has a suitcase filled with money, a bullet wound in his back, and is sleeping most of the time in a Mexico City hotel as he tries to recover from his wounds. In his fifth story window bounds a beautiful pair of tanned legs: Elly. After some witty reparte about how she is just in time to scratch his back, it turns out that Elly is involved in some political
      intrigue involving gangsters and assasinations and three or four tough guys are out to keep her from a rendevous in Acapulco.

      This was about a three hour read. It was a smooth, quick reading tale that had Grofield and Ellie on the run from a group of tough gangsters as they tried to figure out how to get through the only road to the coast. It's really not like the Parker novels, but it is an excellent series in its own right. Although the underlying political plot is a little bit goofy, the story is well told and was enjoyable to read.

      The relationship between Grofield and Elly is well paced and comical as they meet in his hotel room and both try to sell the other ridiculous stories about how they ended up there. She climbed out a sixth story window on a rope of bed sheets to escape an overprotective aunt and
      he got an arrow in his back when a woman's husband showed up unexpectedly. The truth about who they are and how they ended up there takes a while to come out, but eventually Grofield signs on as
      her escort through the Mexican mountains and jungles. All in all, a book well worth reading.