UPI author interview: Donald E. Westlake

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Donald E. Westlake is among the most prolific and versatile of modern American authors. Writing under a multitude of names in a variety of styles, he has created some of the most memorable characters in all of crime fiction including the comedic criminal John Dortmunder and Parker, the ruthless thief and killer known only by his last name.

His fascination with the inner workings of the criminal mind have led to some of the most unusual caper books in the history of American crime fiction. In one, a gang of thieves operates from inside the prison where they are kept, sneaking out to commit crimes while knowing they have an unshakable alibi. In another, a band of thieves manage to heist a bank by actually heisting the entire bank.

Westlake talked briefly with UPI's Peter Roff, who is also a fan of Westlake's work, about the creative process. His latest novel, "Firebreak, about Parker," is on sale on the Mysterious Press imprint.

Q. You are clearly one of America's most prolific writers. Where do you get all the ideas that you manage to turn into your books?

A. I don't know, I would like to say I'm observant, but it's just that things snag my attention. Like the bank being rebuilt (which forms the basis for the novel "The Bank Shot," Simon and Schuster, 1974) -- I went by that twice a week for months before it finally occurred to me. If I had gone past it once, forget it.

There are things that snag the attention. I remember back during the Watergate hearings, I was going along, going along, and then this guy came up -- he was this young guy who was the gopher/coffee-getter kid with the group -- with his descriptions of the whole thing from his point of view: Being in the hotel room with these guys, when it was all turning bad, (and) they were all getting diarrhea.

They were fleeing the hotel, saying to him, "Burn everything!" He says, "Does this mean I'm not going to Miami?" I said, my guy has showed up. I can always tell my guy. There he is.

Q. You don't seem to write much about politics. It would seem that someone as interested in human corruption as you are, based on the Dortmunder books and the Parker books, and some of the others but, other than the Culver book ("Ex Officio," M. Evans, 1970) you haven't touched on politics too much. Why?

A. I think generally it's because I haven't had a partisan attitude. The new book that's coming out in the spring does have a political element to it. A president's re-election committee finds themselves in an analogous situation to Watergate, and they need a little burglary.

But they've learned from Watergate that there were no professional thieves in that, it was all ideologues and spies and amateurs, so they decide they have to outsource. And that's my guy.

Q. (Laughing) Oh that's wonderful ...

A. (Laughing) To some extent why I've not gone in that direction, an old friend of mine was Mickey Schwerner -- who was the Schwerner of Goodman, Chaney, the three civil rights guys who were murdered in Mississippi in '64.

I was astonished when he died that way, because he'd always seemed apolitical to me. We were in a poker game together a lot -- where there was very little conversation, except "What are you going to do?" -- and there was once a little political discussion, a little one started, and Mickey said, "It's the same old story -- the moochers vs. the misers."

That's so perfect. He's (explained) the entire two-party system (laughing), it's there. So it's hard to write about politics starting from that point of view. So that's why in the new book, you read the whole book and you get to the end of it, and I believe you will not know which party is which. My character doesn't care.

Q. You got the series books, which you obviously have to and there are certain things you have to maintain. A Dortmunder book isn't a Dortmunder book without Tiny or without the Bar or without Murch, and a Parker isn't a Parker without a lot of blood on the floor...

A. (Laughing) Right ...

Q. But there are the individual books, like "Fugitive Pigeon" (Random House, 1965), like "Help I Am Being Held Prisoner" (Simon and Schuster, 1974), which is one of my favorites, if not the favorite ... "Brothers Keepers" (Simon and Schuster, 1975), "The Busy Body" (Random House, 1966), that all turn on such unusual things, like guys being able to walk out of prison or something buried in a coffin. Are these creations of your mind or do you see something in the newspaper and say to yourself "Oh, this, with some change, works?"

A. The guys getting out of prison and using the tunnel to go back in was adapted from an actual thing that I read about and said, "Who would think of that?" and then changed it around to be more useful to me. But it had a real-world thing ...

Q. Then there are the other ones, like "Fugitive Pigeon" and "Brothers Keepers" which don't necessarily track back to the real world ...

A. Well, "Brothers Keepers" is the one that refused to be The Felonious Monks...

Q. Going out every Sunday to get The New York Times to get the crossword puzzle and suddenly discovering your monastery is going to be bulldozed is a wonderful concept -- is that just completely made up or did something give you the idea?

A. Yeah, other than the title and then saying to myself, "Well, all right, what would be their problem?" and going from there.

It ranges. There's "Kahawa," (Viking, 1981) which is based on an actual event to one where, in the middle of dinner in a restaurant, I said, "Oh, I've got the first sentence. I have no idea what it's about: 'Well, she was dead, dash, no pulse, dash, and there was no use crying over spilled milk.'"

I said, "I don't know who he is, but that's an interesting voice." And sort of to find out who he was, that lead me into ...

Q. Is that a Tucker Coe? (A Westlake pseudonym).

A. No, it is the first two-thirds of the book called "Enough!" (Simon and Schuster, 1977). It turned out to be a short novel called "A Travesty" that became a film, a cable movie that William H. Macy co-wrote and starred in it. It was very good.