FORGOTTEN BOOK: TOMORROW’S CRIMES by Donald Westlake, 1989
This is the 87th in my series of Forgotten Books.
When Donald Westlake died on December 31, 2008 the world lost one incredible writer. He wrote caper novels, noir novels, sleaze novels, straight mysteries and, amazingly, some quality science fiction.
This week the Forgotten Books group is making a concerted effort to bring attention to Westlake’s books in anticipation of his final unpublished novel THE COMEDY IS FINISHED which is being published next week by Hard Case Crime, one of my favorite presses. Since Missions Unknown is devoted to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, my choices for Westlake books was limited to HUMANS (1992) or TOMORROW’S CRIMES (1989). I chose TOMORROW’S CRIMES since it contains some short stories as well as a short novel ANARCHAOS which I reviewed about six months ago.
TC contains nine short pieces, all of which have something to recommend them. My two favorites were “Nackles”, a mini-masterpiece of horrific science fiction. It deals with an unkind father who hates his children and does not want to give them Christmas presents. He devises the anti-Santa Claus, Nackles who is Santa’s brother. For children who are not good, Nackles takes them on Christmas Eve and munches on their bodies. Dear old Dad gets his children believing it to the point that Nackles comes to life. Mayhem ensues.
I also really liked “The Rick Profession” where an insurance investigator is checking into the death of an asteroid miner and the huge payout his company needs to make. He does not believe all the stories he hears and encounters several interesting twists before the story is finished. The last page is well worth the trip by itself.
Other fun pieces were “The Girl of My Dreams” where a young man falls into love with his dream girl and then finds his odious boss making a play for her in the dreams. “The Spy in the Elevator” is a story of government conspiracies and how people buy into them.
“The Ultimate Caper: The Purloined Letter” deals with the theft of a letter of the alphabet and the hunt to find references to it. I once started a story where the number 4 had been taken and the decimal system was now a base 9 system. It did not work. Westlake’s story does. I am jealous.
The remaining stories “The Winner”, “Dream a Little Dream”, “In at the Death” and “Hydra” all have their moments, but I think the others are the cream of the book. The novel ANARCHAOS is quirky and varies some ion quality throughout the course of the tale. I enjoyed but others have strong distastes in relation to the book.
Westlake wrote a large number of novels, many of which are among the best in the mystery field. If you have not read him, check out THE HUNTER, the first of his Richard Stark novels of the thief Parker. It was filmed with Lee Marvin as POINT BLANK and it is unrelenting. Or check out TWO MUCH, a 1975 novel about twins, murder, and lying. A paperback original, the first orienting has the two girls in pink fuzzy bikinis with (apparently) nothing on underneath. I have not destroyed my copy to verify this. The Dortmunder caper novels including GOD SAVE THE MARK, THE BLACK BIRD, and THE BUSY BODY are a hoot and a half. Well worth searching them out.
So, I have digressed a little but this is the best of Westlake’s science fiction and fantasy. Copies are pretty available at the normal used book places on the web.
Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.
This book sounds great. It’s now on my list.
Paul – it is hard to go wrong with Westlake. He delivered the goods consistently for many, many years. The tragedy is that we have just the one last book to come and it will be out next week. No more new things.
Thanks, Scott. You got us off to an excellent start and this book sounds good.
I wish I knew why Westlake wrote so little SF. I enjoyed TOMORROW’S CRIMES and wanted more.
When I decided to feature Westlake stories today, Scott, I toyed with the idea of looking at some of the sci-fi pieces, but unfortunately our local public library doesn’t have them. I wish they did, because I’d love to read this collection. George, I read one Westlake interview recently where he said he stopped writing sci-fi because it was “more about planets than people.” Not necessarily true, of course, but apparently it was to him.
“Nackles” sounds like some ideas in Westlake’s screenplay “The Stepfather” mixed with that old John Collier story “Thus I Refute Beelzy.” And the others…well, now I must sample Westlake’s short stories in another genre.
Thanks, BV! Some writers know their limits and apparently Westlake drew the line at SF. Still, I like his work as “Curt Clark.”
Well, he never quite stopped writing fantasy, with HUMANS and SMOKE late in his career.
For those curious about “Nackles,” a classic story, the full text is published over at my Donald Westlake site, The Violent World of Parker.
“The Risk Profession” is in the public domain. You can get the text from Project Gutenberg and a quite-good audiobook version from Librivox.
Nackles: http://violentworldofparker.com/?p=4393
George, the story about why Westlake left science fiction is in The Best of Xero. I think Dick Lupoff is one of the editors.
Yes, Patricia and Richard (Pat and Dick) Lupoff were both the editors/publishers of XERO and the editors of THE BEST OF XERO. Westlake’s kiss-off letter and responses from some of the targets and from interested parties such as Avram Davidson (who would buy “Nackles”) are included.
Harlan Ellison famously wanted to do an adaptation of “Nackles” for the revived TWILIGHT ZONE but was stymied…he published the screenplay.
[...] weeks ago I covered Donald E. Westlake’s TOMORROW’S CRIMES which contained science fiction and fantasy from one of the great mystery writers of our time. This [...]