Alan Grofield first appeared as a character in Richard Stark's excellent series about Parker, the tough-as-nails heist man. Grofield, whose day job was as an actor in small, regional theater groups, moonlighted as a very competent thief. Parker could always depend on Grofield when the two worked together, and Grofield was one of the very few members of the crew that Parker (and the reader) knew would never be the one who screwed things up.Stark (Donald Westlake) ultimately liked the character we...

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 sma...

The second in the four book Alan Grofield series by Richard Stark, that is a spin-off of Stark's Parker series featuring a struggling midwestern actor supporting himself by doing heists with Parker. This one follows The Damsel, where Parker gets involved with a young woman after he is recuperating from a gunshot wound in Mexico City. In this one, for some inscrutable reason (I mean, he has plenty of money after the Texas casino heist) Grofield accepts a plane ticket to San Juan from a woman who

This takes place not long after the island heist in The Handle* & follows Grofield on a fun adventure on Jamaica. The central issue is a who-done-it murder, not something Grofield would normally care about, except the victim's husband is sure that he's it. Interesting characters in tough situations help throw wrenches into the works as Grofield struggles to get free. Great scenery & I loved the way he describes the sudden downpours of the rainy season. He had to have been there.Very well read, a...

★ ★ ★ 1/2Alan Grofield, in his second adventure after spinning out of 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 lay...

Enjoyable, as expected.

This took me a long time to get into, but not very long to read once I did. In other words, I was reading it too slowly, then I was reading it too quickly.I believe even among Stark aficionados, this particular outing is not held in the highest regard.I personally liked both The Damsel and The Blackbird much better.Now, here is a sample of Westlake/Stark's ultra-dry humor, although it is a spoiler, and, if not crude, let's say salacious (it may be all in my dirty mind):(view spoiler)[ At the end...

Grofield solves a Murder MysteryReview 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 Donald E. Westlake (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 Th...

Before Missing in Action 2: The Beginning there was The Dame. Once again I am reminded of Loren D. Estleman's intro to Fer-De-Lance by Rex Stout. The difficulty of reading a series when there is no number system and the reader jumps right into the rapids.The beauty of Stark/Westlake is that the books can be read in any order with a minimum of confusion simply because they are just so damned entertaining. The Dame (1969) is no exception to this rule. The Dame is the origin story of Alan Grofield

What is this??? Another book about Grofield .... Hell Yeah!One problem though. While Grofield is an interesting supporting character in the Parker series (he provides humor in contrast to the cool calculations of Parker like a Martin and Lewis for criminals), his stand alone series seems to fall a little flat.The first book was fun and cool but the story seemed rushed. This second entry felt like Westlake had a deadline to meet, stayed up all night drinking Folgers instant with his Microsoft Wor...

I don't think I've ever read a murder mystery where the person trying to solve it doesn't even care who did it. This was a great read and one I accidentally picked up before the Damsel, but by the time I realized my mistake, I didn't care. The Dame is a page turner and Stark gets you up to speed pretty quick.Don't expect the same sort of thing you'd get in a Parker novel, but I'd suggest reading a bunch of those first before sinking into a Grofield. The contrast between the men is a joy to read....

This one is a whodunit and Grofield is the detective ferreting out the killer. He has to as he's the prime suspect and the husband of the dead woman is a hood from the States.Grofield is about to leave mexico after the events of the first novel in the series, THE DAMSEL, when he gets a message from the Central American General, ruler of a small country, whose life he saved offering him a job. Nothing more than that and a plane ticket to San Juan, Puerto Rico, as well as directions from the airpo...

Part time actor and robber Alan Grofield gets involved in another fun caper in Puerto Rico. Listened to the audio version which was well read by R. C. Bray.

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 every...

#2 in the Alan Grofield series. Like his sometime partner Parker, Grofield is a crook. He has a money losing small theater in Indiana and resorts to illegal activities to foot the bills. Alan Grofield receives a note from Gen. Pozos suggesting a profitable venture in Puerto Rico. The job turns out to be bodyguard for the estranged wife of a mobster. She winds up dead in a "manor house" setting. The mobster shows up and prepares to kill Grofield, who everyone agrees is the murderer. But someone i...

A very easy, but also ultimately pointless read. The flimsiest of plot contrivances takes Grofield from Mexico (at the end of The Damsel) to Puerto Rico eventually for him to be accused of murder and having to play cat and mouse with his mobster captors while magically figuring out who the real killer is. Please.Hopefully the next (also the last) two Grofield books are better and more entertaining.

This is a lightweight little novel starring Alan Grofield in his own limited series by Richard Stark. While the character is amusing, the plot is practically non-existant, a mere whodunit set in Puerto Rico. Of the Grofield series so far, The Blackbird is the best. But nothing tops the Parker series.

"Grofield, not knowing what it was all about, got off the plane and walked through the sun into the main terminal buiding."

4.5 stars The second Grofiled novel is miles above the first, with Stark/Westlake finally fully embracing the humor of the character. I felt like the first novel found Stark struggling to straddle the line between the grim world of Parker and the lighter realm of Grofield, whereas this second novel was pretty much a Westlake novel with Stark’s pseudonym attached. The writing is reminiscent of the classic droll humor found in Chandler’s Marlowe novels or Hammett’s Nick Charles character. And this...

This is one of the more middling Stark books. This take on the “whodunit” genre finds Parker staple Grofield hopping off to Puerto Rico to take a look at a job. When he arrives and finds that he doesn’t like the client, he tries to leave, only to be brought back. When the client turns up dead, Grofield’s life is on the line unless he can find a more likely culprit to the crime. Unfortunately, this lacks the interesting organizational aspects of a Parker book and doesn’t have nearly as much of th...

A perfectly acceptable crime story about an associate of one of Stark's better know characters, Parker. Parker doesn't appear here, and that's fine. Grofield gets a message from a mystery woman in Puerto Rico who wants an unknown task done. Listening to his ego and curiosity, he goes to meet her. Needless to say, the meeting takes place and then events quickly get out of hand and Grofield finds himself accused of murder. A set up? A darker plan? Stark surrounds Grofield with enough shady charact...

I'm not sure that I've ever read a who-done-it where the "detective" genuinely didn't give a shit who actually did it and had no particular interest that an innocent woman was murdered beyond saving is own arse.I've read nearly 20 Richard Stark novels this year and each time I'm amazed at how brilliantly masculine and stark his writing is. In my mind that's how he came up with the pseudonym.

(Lucius Fox voice) Now that's more like it, Mr. Stark..After being disappointed with the initial entry in the series, I fell in love with this one. A sparse thriller that doubles as a locked room mystery read. Hilarious and entertaining. One of the better Stark novels I've read in either the Parker or Grofield series respectively.

Interetsingly, I want to post the same thing I did for the #1. I thought there could be more character development but nope. There was also a lot that happens very quickly and suddenly. It's like Grofield just gets to the point where he shags and that's the climax (wow, no pun intended!) and that's the point of the story??? Entertaining I guess because I didn't hate it.

Another stunning Stark novel. So witty but also very cleverly structured. You never know where the plot is going. A good middle third is an investigation of who did it, and just when you start to think where did that go, the characters reveal they know but don't tell the reader. You gotta wait for the penultimate chapter for that. So good.

Stark's take on the classic dinner party murder, but since it's in the Grofield series, there are some man-hungry women around to break the mold. Does that make it sexist or feminist? Either way, I prefer the Parker series, hands down.

The Grofield series is the weakest series in Westlakes catalogue, with Parker being toughest and Dortmunder being the funniest - Grofield is just somewhere in the middle. This who-done-it tale is tedious and dull.

This is one Stark novel that comes up short. Westlake phoned this one in.

Not essential reading but certainly fun.

RATING: 3.0 - Don’t care for the Alan Grofield character who is an associate of Parker, who I really like. He just doesn’t seem authentic.