The Cutie
by Donald E. Westlake
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Book Summary Information
Author: Donald E. WestlakeEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-03
ISBN: 0843961147
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Hard Case Crime
Book Reviews of The Cutie
Book Review: Brilliant!
Summary: 5 Stars
The Cutie was originally published as The Mercenaries in 1960, it has also previously appeared under the title The Smashers. Westlake has mentioned in other novels' intros or afterwords that The Cutie was the title he originally wanted but didn't get.
This is Westlake's first novel, if you don't include All My Lovers which he wrote under the Allan Marshall pen name to pay the bills before he made enough money from proper novels to survive (read the great novel Adios Scheherazade : The Secret Life of a Sensuous Man and its intro where Westlake makes fun of these old lady porn (romance) novels that he was forced to write to put food on the table before and after The Cutie).
Ironically it's actually bedroom action where the Cutie begins. That action being interrupted by a persistent knock on the New York apartment door of George Clayton (Clay), mob boss Ed Ganolese's right hand man. On the other side is a terrified junkie Billy-Billy Cantell. He awoke in a strange woman's apartment after passing out on the street, problem is she had been stabbed to death and in his confusion and rush to escape the scene he left his hat behind, with his name and details written inside. It's not long before the police are also banging on Clay's door so Cantell is hidden in a cupboard. It appears that they only missed Cantell by minutes after being tipped off by an anonymous witness and tracked his movements to Clay's apartment. With the hat and Cantell's fingerprints all over the apartment the police are ready to close the case. Clay knows he should just give Cantell an "accident" but upon checking with his boss for some reason Ganolese says to keep him alive and hide him instead. Only problem is when the cupboard is opened Cantell's long gone. The murder victim was special to someone, so pressure is on the police and they inturn are putting pressure on Clay and the mob's operations so they'll hand over Cantell. Ganolese wants the "cutie" who is causing all these problems and he's assigned Clay the job of playing Sherlock Holmes and finding out who that cutie is.
Many of Westlake's novels are classified as mysteries when they are in fact not. This is a hard crime novel but at the same time a mystery as you the reader try and figure out who the cutie is from the clues becoming available to Clay. Of course the reader doesn't have Clay's added burden of the Cutie trying to silence them so they can just sit back, relax, read and try and solve this dilemma. If you can't Clay will work it out by the final chapters for you.
It's great to see Hard Case Crime reprinting this classic novel (and it was advertised as coming soon before Westlake passed away in December 2008, so it's not just a publisher cashing in on his death). It's a great story, with elements Westlake would later develop into other characters such as Parker (under pen name Richard Stark). There is some slight observational humour but those after Westlake's first comic caper before the Dortmunder series was invented in 1970 with The Hot Rockshould grab the The Fugitive Pigeon written five years after the Cutie in 1965.
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