Donald E. Westlake

Donald E. Westlake (1933 to 2008) was an American writer who published more than one hundred novels and works of nonfiction, and who became best known for crime fiction, above all the comic caper. He created two long-running professional criminals: Parker, the cold and relentless thief of the novels issued under the pen name Richard Stark, and John Dortmunder, the unlucky planner at the centre of a lighter, funnier series that grew out of a book first meant to be a Parker story. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Albany, he began selling stories in the 1950s and wrote full time from about 1960, producing work under his own name and under a number of other pseudonyms. He won three Edgar Awards in three different categories, for a novel, a short story and a screenplay, and the Mystery Writers of America named him a Grand Master in 1993. Most of his novels are set in New York City, and critics noted the ingenuity of his plots and the audacity of his comic gimmicks.