|
There is no such thing as too much Richard Stark. The dark alter-ego of Donald Westlake, Stark is primarily known for his Parker series, a grim, brooding existential treatment of the crime novel that takes its existential elements to places it has not been before or since. LEMONS NEVER LIE, a dormant masterpiece first published in 1971, is loosely associated with the Parker mythos in that it centers on Alan Grofield, an occasional associate of Parker. While there are elements to it rendered foreign by time --- no cell phones, the absence of computers --- it is as fresh, vibrant and chilling in its current Hard Case Crime incarnation as the day it was published originally.
Grofield's first love, oddly enough, has little to do with robbery. He and his wife run a small theater in Indiana, which is emotionally satisfying but financially draining. The regular need for cash prompts him to engage in the occasional heist, with Parker as well as others. Grofield is scrupulous in his attempts to avoid killing, or even hurting, innocents in the course of his secondary employment. Yet the circumstances of the novel draw him inexorably into a world of violence and murder.
LEMONS NEVER LIE begins with Grofield listening to, and rejecting, a heist proposal from an Andrew Myers. It quickly becomes obvious to Grofield that Myers is a hapless amateur at best and a bumbling fool at worst. What Grofield doesn't learn, until it is too late, is that Myers is a loose cannon. Myers becomes an inexorable force in Grofield interfering with a subsequent heist and ultimately interjecting himself into Grofield's personal life. Motivated by a dark revenge, Grofield slowly initiates a plot to get Myers out of his life and to acquire some measure of rough justice from the man.
Stark's plotting and timing --- as Grofield begins the painstaking process of getting his own back, even as events start their eventual spiral out of his control --- is nothing less than masterful. Perhaps the strongest element of LEMONS NEVER LIE, however, is Stark's strong and vivid characterization, particularly with respect to the secondary players of the piece. There are a few --- the assistant manager of a supermarket and a second source motor vehicle dealer, to name but two --- whose appearances are limited to a couple of pages but who threaten to hijack the tale away from Grofield.
What is even more impressive about LEMONS NEVER LIE is the documentation of Stark's/Westlake's penchant, even 35 years ago, to bend and stretch the boundaries of crime fiction in particular and creative writing in general. It also has an ending --- an inevitable one --- that isn't even in the book and cannot be described without giving it away entirely. Suffice to say that it is worth reading every delicious page just to get to the end and see how Stark sets it up. This, after a series of climaxes both on and off the page that will keep you on the edge of your seat when you're not jumping out of it.
LEMONS NEVER LIE is a forgotten classic, deservedly and wonderfully resurrected.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
 Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.
© Copyright 1996-2008, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
Back to top.
|
