Donald E. Westlake Books In Order

Publication Order of Parker Books (Writing as Richard Stark)

The Hunter / Point Blank / Payback	1962
The Man with the Getaway Face / The Steel Hit	1963
The Outfit	1963
The Mourner	1963
The Score / Killtown	1964
The Jugger	1965
The Seventh / The Split	1966
The Handle / Run Lethal	1966
The Rare Coin Score	1967
The Green Eagle Score	1967
The Black Ice Score	1968
The Sour Lemon Score	1969
Deadly Edge	1971
Slayground	1971
Plunder Squad	1972
Butcher’s Moon	1974
Comeback	1997
Backflash	1998
Flashfire	2000
Firebreak	2001
Breakout	2002
Nobody Runs Forever	2004
Ask the Parrot	2006
Dirty Money	2008

Publication Order of Alan Grofield Books (Writing as Richard Stark)

The Damsel	1967
The Dame	1969
The Blackbird	1969
Lemons Never Lie	1971

Publication Order of Dortmunder Books

The Hot Rock	1970
Bank Shot	1972
Jimmy the Kid	1974
Nobody’s Perfect	1977
Why Me?	1983
Good Behavior	1985
Drowned Hopes	1990
Don’t Ask	1993
What’s the Worst That Could Happen?	1996
Bad News	2001
The Road to Ruin	2004
Watch Your Back!	2005
What’s So Funny?	2007
Get Real	2009

Publication Order of Mitch Tobin Books (Writing as Tucker Coe)

Kinds of Love, Kinds of Death	1966
Murder Among Children	1967
Wax Apple	1970
A Jade in Aries	1970
Don’t Lie to Me	1972

Publication Order of Sam Holt Books (Writing as Samuel Holt)

One of Us Is Wrong	1986
I Know a Trick Worth Two of That	1986
What I Tell You Three Times Is False	1987
The Fourth Dimension Is Death	1989

Publication Order of Sara Joslyn Books

Trust Me on This	1988
Baby, Would I Lie?	1994

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

The Mercenaries / The Smashers / The Cutie	1960
Killing Time / The Operator	1961
361	1962
Killy	1963
Pity Him Afterwards	1964
The Fugitive Pigeon	1965
The Busy Body	1966
The Spy in the Ointment	1966
God Save the Mark	1967
Philip	1967
Anarchaos	1967
Who Stole Sassi Manoon?	1968
Somebody Owes Me Money	1969
Up Your Banners	1969
Adios Scheherazade	1970
Ex Officio / Power Play	1970
I Gave at the Office	1971
Cops and Robbers	1972
Comfort Station	1973
Gangway! (With: Brian Garfield)	1973
Help, I Am Being Held Prisoner	1974
Two Much	1975
Brothers Keepers	1975
Dancing Aztecs	1976
Castle in the Air	1980
Kahawa	1981
A Likely Story	1984
High Adventure	1985
Sacred Monster	1989
Humans	1992
Smoke	1995
The Ax	1997
The Hook / Corkscrew	2000
Put a Lid on It	2002
The Scared Stiff	2002
Money for Nothing	2003
Memory	2010
The Comedy Is Finished	2012
Forever and a Death	2017
Call Me a Cab	2022

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

The Curious Facts Preceding My Execution	1968
Enough	1977
Levine	1984
Tomorrow’s Crimes	1989
Horse Laugh and Other Stories	1990
A Good Story and Other Stories	1999
Thieves’ Dozen	2004

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Elizabeth Taylor: A Fascinating Story of America’s Most Talented Actress and the World’s Most Beautiful Woman	1961
Under an English Heaven	1972
The Getaway Car: A Donald Westlake Nonfiction Miscellany	2014

About Donald E. Westlake

Donald E. Westlake (1933 to 2008) was an American crime writer with more than a hundred books to his name. He is best known for two long-running series about professional thieves: the hard-boiled Parker novels, written as Richard Stark, and the comic capers of John Dortmunder, published under his own name. He won three Edgar Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 1993.

Westlake was born in Brooklyn, New York, on 12 July 1933 and raised in Albany. He wrote constantly in his teens and sold his first short story in 1954 after some 200 rejections. He studied at Champlain College in Plattsburgh and at Binghamton University, and spent two years in the United States Air Force. He moved to New York City in 1959 to work for a literary agency and was writing full time within a year. His first novel under his own name, “The Mercenaries”, appeared in 1960.

The Stark name was used for a colder, leaner style. “The Hunter” (1962) introduced Parker, a relentless career criminal, and fifteen more novels followed by 1974, ending with “Butcher’s Moon”. Four related books feature Parker’s associate, the actor and thief Alan Grofield. After a gap of 23 years Westlake revived the series with “Comeback” in 1997, and eight new Parker novels appeared in all, the last being “Dirty Money” (2008).

“The Hot Rock” (1970) was planned as a Parker novel, but in Westlake’s words it kept turning funny, and it became the first of fourteen novels about the pessimistic New York thief John Dortmunder and his gang. Westlake also wrote five Mitch Tobin mysteries as Tucker Coe and four Sam Holt mysteries as Samuel Holt. His standalone novels include “God Save the Mark”, which won the Edgar for best novel, and “The Ax” (1997), which follows Burke Devore on a violent hunt for a new job.

Many of the books have been filmed. “The Hunter” became “Point Blank” (1967) with Lee Marvin and “Payback” (1999) with Mel Gibson, and Robert Redford played Dortmunder in “The Hot Rock” (1972). “The Ax” was adapted by Costa-Gavras in 2005 and by Park Chan-wook as “No Other Choice” in 2025. Westlake’s own screenplay for “The Grifters” (1990) was nominated for an Academy Award.

He died of a heart attack on 31 December 2008 while on holiday in Mexico. Several novels have been published since, among them “Memory”, “The Comedy Is Finished”, “Forever and a Death” and “Call Me a Cab”.