When I read Lawrence Block’s SUCH MEN ARE DANGEROUS, it chilled me to the bone. It was perhaps the first crime novel that made me fully aware of the potential of writing a book in which the nominal bad guy gets away with his crimes. No one has ever crept into the heads of criminals and made them sympathetic the way Block has. I also remember being blown away by James M. Cain’s THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (heart-stopping) and by Raymond Chandler’s THE BIG SLEEP (heartbreaking). Then there was Bernard Malamud’s THE ASSISTANT, which floored me. Reading masterpieces like those four woke me up to just how powerful a crime story could be.
Und über Christa Faust (Hardcore Angel/Money Shot) sagt er:
There’s been a lot of talk about how Christa was our first female author, and that’s true, and I’m proud of her for breaking this barrier, but the truth is that things would have played out exactly the same regardless of her gender. If I’d seen the same post on a male author’s blog I’d have sent him a note just the same, and if he’d sent in the manuscript of MONEY SHOT I’d have bought it just the same. I probably wouldn’t have been able to get a sexy photo of him into Penthouse magazine when the time came to do PR for the book the way I did with Christa, but in terms of the book itself, the only question was quality of writing, not configuration of genitalia.
Ardai spricht auch über Donald E. Westlake. Aber ausführlicher schreibt Charles Ardai hier über ihn:
People love his books and can’t get enough of them. I am one of those people. It breaks my heart that after one more book coming this summer I’ll never get to read a new Donald Westlake novel. I’d settle for a new short story. Hell, I’d settle for an email. Don wrote great emails.
Kriminalakte 