Donald E. Westlake

I've known Don Westlake for many years. I can't say we were close friends, more like acquaintances, for we would simply see each other every few years at one event or another. I also used him in at least one of my anthologies. He is the author of two of my favorite series, Parker, and the Mitch Tobin books, which he wrote as Tucker Coe. That series is in my top five, easily, of favorite P.I. series. I also enjoyed the one shot P.I. novel KILLING TIME.

75 is much too young for a talent like his to be taken from us. He had many, many more books in him, I'm sure. Now we'll never see them, and that's a sin. My prayers go out to Abby and his family.

More about him later, as I form my thoughts. This is a shock to all of us.

ROBERT J. RANDISI