I Know a Trick Worth Two of That

Know those classic mysteries set in a mansion where one of the guests is killed and you've got to work out who amongst the other guests killed him, well this is Westlake's spin on that plot. A lot of Westlake novels are catergorised under the mystery category when they are not in fact mysteries. This one though, definitly is. You do not need to have read the first Sam Holt adventure One of Us Is Wrong to get into this as enough background on the main character without giving away the plot of that novel is given. One of Us Is Wrong incidentally is not a mystery, it's a hard crime novel. Donald E Westlake originally wanted to know if he could be successful if he started in the industry today (today being 1986) so planned on writing a series of six books under the pen name Samuel Holt to see how they would sell. Westlake wrote the first three novels in this series at the same time. Only himself and the publishers knew the secret, unfortunately when the One of Us is Wrong novel appeared in the bookstores, Westlake learnt his publishers had betrayed him and posters and displays everywhere told the public Samuel Holt is Donald E Westlake. In fact that was the only book published under the Samuel Holt name without Westlake's on the cover. Westlake saw no further point in continuing the series since the whole point was to see if an unknown pseudonym could make it, so he finished off the fourth book then never brought Sam Holt character to the pages of his typewriter again. And that's a shame, as the Sam Holt character is just as good as Dortmunder or Parker (found under his pen name which he revealed to the world after it was successful - Richard Stark). The other books in the series are What I Tell You Three Times Is False and The Fourth Dimension Is Death. If you forget their order remember the number is in each title. Westlake passed away in December 2008 so unfortunately this all we are likely to see. This is a sensational mystery. Basic plot is Doug Walford, Sam's ex partner from his days as a Long Island police officer convinces Sam to meet up with him in an isolated place. Sam learns that Doug has annoyed some people so much that they killed his girlfriend and her daughter in a fire and now they are after him. Sam decides to let Doug hide out in his house, only problem is he has a party coming up. It is decided to disguise Doug and pass him off as a writer with writer's block. Unfortunatly Doug is murderered. The police tell Sam it's a suicide but he knows it wasn't. Sam Holt is going to have to face the fact that one of his friends is a murderer and he's only going to be able to return to a normal state of everyday living when he's worked out who. Of course those responsible for Doug's demise are not going to be to happy when an ex TV detective, starts being a detective in real life!

Yup, or so many of the fan sites would have us believe. Written when he was cranking out mysteries under pen names, it may not be Westlake at chipper best, but each is a well-written, well-crafted mystery starring "Samuel Holt," a cop turned star of a cancelled televison series, who now has the time to solve cases for real.