The Dame

This whodunit is set in a mansion in the jungles of Puerto Rico. Richard Stark is a pseudonym of Donald Westlake and while the genre is still hardboiled, Stark's style is slightly softer - very slightly - Edward G. Robinson or James Cagney would be at home here. Yet with all the toughness, the detective, Alan Grofield, came across as an insipid character: neither heroic nor efficient. The humour I expected was meagre. However, of all the crime novels I have read in my life, the denouement in this one was ground-breaking.

Alan Grofield, in his second adventure after spinning out if the world of Parker, seems to get no rest. The Dame takes place right after The Damsel, which closely follows The Handle, where he was seriously injured. He would have been wise to go home, not only because he was flush with money but because accepting an invitation for work without quite knowing what the job might be would require the kind of curiosity that would make Parker scoff. Perhaps that’s why Grofield seems a more layered character then Parker. Of course the style of their adventures also contributes. Parker stories are about the job and getting away clean and plowing through anybody in the way. Grofield interacts more with those around him. So getting stranded in show more an isolated villa in a Puerto Rico jungle only works with Grofield. And in all honesty, even then it’s not a great set-up. It works only because Donald Westlake’s sure professional hand makes it work. Not as quick as Parker adventures, lighter than the previous Grofield outing and, as always, entertaining. show less

The Parker books are excellent. This series is pretty weak. The first one, The Damsel, was good enough to read while eating lunch, although it was still pretty thin soup. This one is just awful. Grofield Is meant to come off as raffish or rakish, but he’s just annoying. He keeps making little comments throughout the whole book that Westlake must’ve imagined would be amusing, but the effect is that they make Grofield sound like one of those people at work that have to make a lame joke about everything. The plot is supposed to be a whodunit, but it’s really a whocares? I’ve read that the third one is better, but it will take a lot to get me to read it. And I hate saying this, because I get such enjoyment from the Parker books.

The Dame is the second of four Alan Grofield novels by Donald Westlake's alter ego, Richard Stark. There are four Grofield novels in all, The Damsel, the Dame, The Blackbird, and Lemons Never Lie.
Grofield was a minor character in a couple of Parker novels (specifically the Handle). The Parker series consists of 24 novels about a tough-as-nails thief. Grofield is also a thief, but a different kind of character.

Grofield lives in a small midwestern town and his first love is acting.
He runs a small community theater with his wife, but makes no money at it, supporting his acting profession with heists, sometimes with Parker. Grofield is humorous and always has some light banter, making him quite a bit different than Parker.

In this book, show more Grofield starts out for home after the events in "The Damsel," but receives airline tickets and a mysterious client in Puerto Rico. Sending Elly (the damsel in distress) back to his wife with the suitcase full of money (perhaps not his wisest idea as Elly was more than just a messenger), Grofield heads to San Juan. Once there, Grofield finds himself stuck in the middle of a nasty
divorce between a mobster and his randy wife. This trip was quite different from what Grofield bargained for and, despite his best efforts, he can't get out of Dodge.

While there are plenty of fight scenes and car chases, the bulk of the story involves a classical murder whodunit where the murder could only have been committed by one of the dozen or so people staying in the house. Although Grofield is blamed, he plays Inspector Poirot questioning each of a cast of strange characters who were there on the night it happened.

It is a smoothly written story that reads quickly and is an enjoyable read. While this plot may not blow the reader away, something about Westlake's writing makes you keep reading until the end.
This is your weekend in the Poconos murder mystery, but in San Juan and, well, there's also mobsters and tough guys running around. In this book, Grofield isn't the most professional criminal. In fact, he's held up, taken prisoner, and blackmailed. And he really doesn't even
want to be there. No, he wants to click his heels three times and say I
want to go home.

What is compelling about this story besides the exotic setting? Perhaps
the odd assortment of characters? The mobster's wife with the twenty five year old body and the voice "somewhat older than that, a little rough, a little too used to late hours
and neat whiskey and chainsmoking." The cryptic lawyer and his middle aged wife "in a dark suit too heavy for the climate, her mouth down-turned in what seemed to be a permanent expression of disapproval." An African businessman with a sort of maroon pillbox on his head. A lovely girl of twentysomething with long ash-blonde hair and eyes looking past you "as a doe might look at the first hunter of Autumn." "You couldn't find enough blood in her veins to make a scab."
Her brother with a weak face and a petulant attitude. Of course, it could have been Mr. Green in the library with the
candlestick. show less

Grofield solves a Murder Mystery
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (May 2013) of the Macmillan paperback original (1969)

Richard Stark was one of the many pseudonyms of the prolific crime author [author:Donald E. Westlake|30953] (1933-2008), who wrote over 100 books. The Stark pseudonym was used primarily for the Parker novels and their spinoff series, the Grofield novels. The Parkers are a hardboiled noir series but the Grofields have more of a lighter touch, often with humorous banter.

In The Dame, Alan Grofield travels to Puerto Rico on the promise of a possible job. He travels to an isolated house and discovers that the proposal is to act as a bodyguard for a woman whom he finds to be unpleasant and he turns the job show more down. There is a ragtag group of hangers-on at the house and during the evening, the woman is murdered. Her husband, a gangster, and his cronies show up and they consider Grofield to be the prime suspect. Grofield has to solve the crime in order to save his own life.

This was light comic crime fiction which was heavy on the banter. The solution to the crime really wasn't evident based on the evidence presented so it wasn't the sort of mystery where the reader has any chance of figuring it out. Grofield seems to just pull the solution out of thin air.

Narrator R.C. Bray does a good job in all voices in this audiobook edition.

The 4 Grofield books are all available for free on Audible Plus.

Trivia and Links
There is a brief plot summary of The Dame and of all the Parker & Grofield books and adaptations at The Violent World of Parker website.

Although The Dame's 2013 Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition shares the same cover art as the University of Chicago Press 2012 reprint, it does not include the Foreword by author [author:Sarah Weinman|1057583]. show less

This is the second of Stark's Grofield novels, with the action picking up right after The Damsel. This is Stark's play on a country house murder. Here, the country house is in the jungles of Puerto Rico, with a mobster playing the role of the detective. Grofield, pinned for the murder, has to figure out the true killer before the mobster kills him.

I don't have a lot to say about this one. I like the twists on the theme, but again I find that Grofield doesn't work as a protagonist. I'm not sure why I should feel invested in him as a character. Parker is a great anti-hero; Grofield is just kind of there.

Again, it's fine for what it is. The plot moves briskly, and it's a nice diversion for a few hours. I love that Stark sets these in what show more would have been exotic locales at the time. You can see him playing around a bit with themes, so the Grofield books are interesting in a technical respect. In the end, though, they feel like an afterthought. show less