Book Diary: Westlake, Burke
Donald Westlake - Humans
Westlake's introduction sets this up as a deliberate attempt to step outside his comfort zone - which is actually pretty broad anyway, covering the whole gamut of crime fiction, from very funny comedy capers to ultrahardboiled (under the Richard Stark name). Anyway, this is a fantasy: God decides he's had enough of this planet and sends an angel to arrange for it to be destroyed, by manipulating humans into doing it. Hell learns, and opposes their plans, sending a demon to fight that manipulation. This sounds a comedic setup, and there are hints of that tone here and there, but there is also horrible brutality and nastiness. It's as cleverly plotted as ever, and genuinely suspenseful - but mostly it's his usual top quality entertainment.
James Lee Burke - Lay Down My Sword and Shield
An early novel (1971) about a congressional candidate getting caught up with Mexican farm workers looking for more money. It features an incredibly harrowing flashback to the protagonist's time in a North Korean POW camp, mirroring the treatment of the farm workers in some ways. It has his usual glorious descriptive prose, and a few good characters - the lead is his usual troubled, bad tempered man, and to be honest a few of the others could have done with a little more effort or time. All his concerns are in place - power, money, race, class, morality under pressure, and so on - but they are more strongly and convincingly explored in his later crime novels. Worth reading, especially for a fan, but if you aren't one already, try one of the Dave Robicheaux novels first.