About Double Feature

DOUBLE FEATURE
Donald E. Westlake
February 2020
ISBN: 978-1-78565-720-7
Cover art by Paul Mann

THE MOVIE STAR AND THE MOVIE CRITIC—
HOW FAR WOULD THEY GO
TO KEEP THEIR SECRETS BURIED?

Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Donald E. Westlake was also an Academy Award Nominee—for the screenplay of The Grifters—and a lifelong fan of the movies. So it’s no surprise that some of his most brilliant writing intersected with Hollywood in unexpected and unforgettable ways.

"One of the great writers of the 20th Century."
—Newsweek

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-Josee Croze, and one starring Fargo’s William H. Macy and Desperate Housewives’ Felicity Huffman.

First appearance in bookstores in 40 years!
Donald E. Westlake won every major award in the mystery genre and gained fame both under his own name and writing as "Richard Stark"

Acclaim for DONALD E. WESTLAKE...

"A book by this guy is cause for happiness."

— Stephen King

"Westlake has a genius for comic strategy...a lunatic brilliance."

— New York Times

"If there is any funnier mystery novelist around, I can’t imagine who it would be."

— USA Today