Double Feature
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
THE MOVIE STAR AND THE MOVIE CRITIC -- HOW FAR WOULD THEY GO TO KEEP THEIR SECRETS BURIED? DOUBLE FEATURE Contains two CLASSIC Donald E. Westlake novellas, A Travesty and Ordo.
WHAT'S HIDDEN BEHIND THE SILVER SCREEN?
In New York City, a movie critic has just murdered his girlfriend - well, one of his girlfriends (not to be confused with his wife). Will the unlikely crime-solving partnership he forms with the investigating police detective keep him from the film noir ending he deserves?
On the opposite coast, movie star Dawn Devayne - the hottest It Girl in Hollywood - gets a visit from a Navy sailor who says he knew her when she was just ordinary Estelle Anlic of San Diego. Now she's a big star who's put her past behind her. But secrets have a way of not staying buried...
These two short novels, one hilarious and one heartbreaking, are two of the best works Westlake ever wrote. And fittingly, both became movies - one starring Jack Ryan's Marie Josée Croze, and one starring Fargo's William H. Macy and Desperate Housewives' Felicity Huffman.
"A book by this guy is cause for happiness" - Stephen King
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this pairing of Hollywood-themed short novels from 1977, MWA Grandmaster Westlake (1933 2008) effortlessly demonstrates that what's old is new again. In Travesty, New York movie critic Carey Thorpe drops cinematic allusions left and right as he tries to dodge a murder rap. He did hit Laura Penny, one of his girlfriends, but didn't plan on her head smashing against the coffee table and even as he cooks up an alibi, a PI shows up who knows he was in her apartment. With all the clues and misdirection, the narrative is a huge treat for mystery fans, especially when Carey begins going out to crime scenes with the investigating officers and uses his observational abilities to crack the cases. (Westlake even includes a locked room murder.) Ordo, the second half of the double feature, poignantly sketches in what happens when the sailor Ordo Tupikos discovers that his former teen bride has become the sex symbol movie star Dawn Devayne. Why did he stay the same? Travesty is the perfect starting place for readers new to Westlake.
