Customer Reviews

Lemons Never Lie (Hard Case Crime)

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4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

There is no such thing as too much Richard Stark. The dark alter-ego of Donald Westlake, Stark is primarily known for his Parker series, a grim, brooding existential treatment of the crime novel that takes its existential elements to places it has not been before or since. LEMONS NEVER LIE, a dormant masterpiece first published in 1971, is loosely associated with the Parker mythos in that it centers on Alan Grofield, an occasional associate of Parker. While there are elements to it rendered foreign by time --- no cell phones, the absence of computers --- it is as fresh, vibrant and chilling in its current Hard Case Crime incarnation as the day it was published originally.

Grofield's first love, oddly enough, has little to do with robbery. He and his wife run a small theater in Indiana, which is emotionally satisfying but financially draining. The regular need for cash prompts him to engage in the occasional heist, with Parker as well as others. Grofield is scrupulous in his attempts to avoid killing, or even hurting, innocents in the course of his secondary employment. Yet the circumstances of the novel draw him inexorably into a world of violence and murder.

LEMONS NEVER LIE begins with Grofield listening to, and rejecting, a heist proposal from an Andrew Myers. It quickly becomes obvious to Grofield that Myers is a hapless amateur at best and a bumbling fool at worst. What Grofield doesn't learn, until it is too late, is that Myers is a loose cannon. Myers becomes an inexorable force in Grofield interfering with a subsequent heist and ultimately interjecting himself into Grofield's personal life. Motivated by a dark revenge, Grofield slowly initiates a plot to get Myers out of his life and to acquire some measure of rough justice from the man.

Stark's plotting and timing --- as Grofield begins the painstaking process of getting his own back, even as events start their eventual spiral out of his control --- is nothing less than masterful. Perhaps the strongest element of LEMONS NEVER LIE, however, is Stark's strong and vivid characterization, particularly with respect to the secondary players of the piece. There are a few --- the assistant manager of a supermarket and a second source motor vehicle dealer, to name but two --- whose appearances are limited to a couple of pages but who threaten to hijack the tale away from Grofield.

What is even more impressive about LEMONS NEVER LIE is the documentation of Stark's/Westlake's penchant, even 35 years ago, to bend and stretch the boundaries of crime fiction in particular and creative writing in general. It also has an ending --- an inevitable one --- that isn't even in the book and cannot be described without giving it away entirely. Suffice to say that it is worth reading every delicious page just to get to the end and see how Stark sets it up. This, after a series of climaxes both on and off the page that will keep you on the edge of your seat when you're not jumping out of it.

LEMONS NEVER LIE is a forgotten classic, deservedly and wonderfully resurrected.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Sometime thief and full-time actor / theatre owner Alan Grofield has just entered Las Vegas to hear a robbery pitch from a man he only knows through another colleague, but he's already not feeling good about it. This is because, to "pay his dues" to the city, he always plays one slot going in and one going out, and he never wins. He just got three lemons, and "You know what they say about lemons": Lemons Never Lie.

Author Richard Stark is best known for his series of novels featuring Parker, a professional thief. Lemons Never Lie, however, features Parker's less-well-known colleague, Alan Grofield, the star of three other novels in his own right: The Damsel, The Dame, and The Blackbird.

Stark is also the darker alter-ego of acclaimed author Donald E. Westlake (it's no coincidence that Stephen King chose "Richard" Bachman as his own pseudonym and George "Stark" for Bachman's fictional counterpart in The Dark Half), and their respective books differ in tone. Where Westlake's work is usually in a lighter vein (like my personal favorites God Save the Mark and Trust Me On This), Stark delves deeper into the seamy underside of society. And where Westlake injects his prose with a lot of personality, Stark's is ... well ... starker.

Oddly enough, this last (so far) Grofield novel actually feels more like a Westlake in its tone and style, but with Stark's worldview (the connection to Parker almost requires the use of the Stark credit to avoid confusion), and Westlake's first Hard Case Crime appearance, 361, feels more like Stark than the usual Westlake production. First published in 1962, the same year Stark first appeared, it just may have been the novel that brought the author's dual nature to his own attention. (Stark and Westlake eventually crossed paths in Jimmy the Kid, where Westlake's series thief, Dortmunder, attempts to replicate a heist pulled off by Parker in a Stark novel called Child Heist.)

In Andrew Myers, Stark has created Lemons Never Lie's highly memorable villain. Myers is the guy whose pitch Grofield has come to Vegas to hear. He has an idea for a job that he needs some good people on, but Grofield, like most thieves, has his own moral code. Myers' plan to steal a brewery's payroll (one of the few still paid in cash) automatically includes killing, which makes Grofield uncomfortable (not the killing itself, but its lack of necessity), so he walks out. This results in everyone else eventually walking out, which really irks Myers, who immediately takes revenge. Grofield is not a man who can be taken down easily ... but Myers just won't quit, and he doesn't appear to have any limits to what he'll do.

Stark is different than most authors I've read in that he seems to put his characters in the most difficult position possible, given the options available, and then challenge himself (and them) to see if they can get out of it. Several times in Lemons Never Lie, I was in awe of the choices he made with Grofield, always making his current situation unnecessarily trying. But, as conflict is the reason for all stories, it only makes the novel more entertaining. As do the little humorous touches the author peppers in between the crimes committed. Like how Grofield, when he wants a book to read, steals one from the local library (a biography of David Garrick, no less -- what a trouper!).

As a sometime actor myself, I had to admire Grofield. After all, he's a purist: he believes "live performances before live audiences" to be the only true medium for an actor, and scoffs at film and television work: "Movies and television were for mannequins, not actors. An actor who stepped before a camera was in the process of rotting his own talent." I especially appreciated the insight into the community theatre business. Grofield is, after all, only a thief to support his true love of treading the boards. The day-to-day preparations for a summer opening made for a nice contrast to all the mayhem.

I only wish the ending weren't such a lemon. After 220 pages of investment, the reader deserves more than Grofield literally riding off into the sunset.

"Lemons Never Lie," is not the best Stark I've read, but still is worth a look. One reason is that Alan Grofield, a sometimes associate of Parker, who happens to be an actor, is simply too pale a character for me to get into. The whole purist-actor wanting to run a summer theater thing, which is Grofield's gig, seems a bit precious to me. And at one point during the novel, Myers, the bad guy (and he is a nasty piece of work), tells a whopper of a lie to Dan Leach (an associate of Grofield) and Grofield, in order to save his skin. It's such an outrageous lie involving a tunnel and some old men, that I had to believe Stark/Westlake was writing this one on the fly. There's no way two hardened "pros" like Grofield and Leach should be falling for such a lie. And the whole vengeance part of the story seemed to be going through the motions. I did like the ending though - and it's a fast read. But give me Parker any day over Grofield. Please.

On the good side however is, as always, Stark's dialogue, and the nitty gritty of planning and executing a crime. You wouldn't think the mechanics of buying a hot getaway vehicle would be entertaining, but Stark makes the wheeling and dealing a real delight. Another standout: the breaking of a safe in a supermarket. And I got one extra bonus from this book. At one point, as the thieves are talking among themselves about what to read, a couple of characters get enthusiastic over Brian Garfield's "Sliphammer." Well, "Sliphammer" is one of a sea of first rate pulp novels (a western) that are out of print. I found an old paperback at a local used book store - and it's super. This may not be Stark / Westlake's best, but you can definitely count on the master to point you in the right direction when it comes to reading material.

Alan Grofield is the owner of a local theater, and part time criminal. When he and his wife Mary need money for a vacation or to finance the theater's next season he pulls a caper with a loose team of associates. Grofield and his friend Dan Leach are double-crossed and robbed by the psychopathic Andrew Myers. When Leach tries to take revenge on Myers, he inadvertently draws Myers' attention to Grofield and his wife.

Lemons Never Lie starts slowly, but really picks up during the last half. Stark has written an engaging story about honor (and the lack of) among thieves, with plenty of violence and plot twists.

A good read but Alan Grofield does not have the raw, savage, power of Richard Stark's main character PARKER. The villian of the story,Andrew Myers, while being a nasty piece of work, would have been knocked off by PARKER in the first few pages for wasting his time. The Alan grofield character is interesting and his being involved with the theatre is different but I think he is just too nice. This reader likes his baddies to be really nasty ie. PARKER.

Another good Stark novel. A little light weight compared to the Parker books but still a good read.

I have read quite a few of Westlakes 'Stark' books over the years. They are always enjoyable. Westlake often takes the side of the crook and constructs a heist and then writes events surrounding the escapade. 'Lemons' is no different. If you haven't read one of the Stark books, mostly set around his professional 'Parker', this is just as good as any of these books to start with.

The story is about an actor, Alan Grofield, who supports a small theater in the middle of nowhere with his theiving. The book starts with him in Las Vegas where he goes to meet up with a crew led by a chap named 'Myers'. The plan laid out is so crazy that Grofield walks out. Myers, who sets up the plan, gets upset with Grofield and the rest of the story situates between the two.

Once again, if you have read enough of Westlakes work, nothing here really will jump out at you. This is just another one of his almost formulaic light thrillers. The joy of reading one of these are in encountering the 'hard-boiled' characters and in following the development of the undertaking.

LEMONS NEVER LIE is a crime novel written by Richard Stark aka Donald Westlake in 1971. It's a highly enjoyable read about a stage actor named Alan Grofield who commits crimes on the side to fund his theater projects. This book starts as a lighthearted caper story, but eventually turns into a rather grim story about retribution.

This novel is quite short (under 200 pages of text) and can literally be read in a few hours. Westlake is a legendary writer in American crime fiction, and the prose and dialogue in this book is absolutely first-rate. Based on LEMONS NEVER LIE, I can see why Westlake has often been described as the precursor to Elmore Leonard and Quentin Tarantino. The only downside to this novel is the rather bland, subservient nature of the female characters.

I think it's great that Hard Case is republishing these titles and LEMONS NEVER LIE makes me interested in reading more of Westlake's other work. I recommend this story to anyone interested in reading classic noir fiction.

Although Parker is referred to on the back cover he is not actually in this novel, which may disappoint fans of that series who were purchasing the book to read one of his adventures. The absence of Parker however doesn't mean Lemons Never Lie isn't a superbly written and very enjoyable criminal adventure.

This novel centres around part time theatre operator, part time criminal Alan Grofield. Grofield flies to Vegas to join a plan to knock over a brewery. At the airport he put a penny in the arrival gate poker machine and it came up with three lemons. From that moment he knew he has used up his luck until he leaves Vegas and the ludicrously of the plan by a man named Myer highlighted this so he decided to walk away, his friend Dan joins him. Myer of course not to thrilled with this plans a payback of his own. This payback on them results in Dan tracking down Myer for his own vengeance which results in a vicious revenge circle which pulls Grofield away from his theatre with only one purpose. To find and kill Myer!

If this is your first Stark novel also check out the sensational Parker series. Also check out this author's work under his own name Donald E Westlake, especially his masterpiece The Ax!

Alan Grofield, one of Parker's crew, has bought a summer stock theater (a renovated old barn) in Mead Grove, Indiana. Of course the only theater-goers are doctors wives and schoolteachers. Grofield is forced to work on the side as a thief to keep his enterprise afloat.

Himself an actor, Grofield deplores violence and death. Unfortunately the members of the criminal underclass don't share his mellow life view. Grofield teams up with Myers, an explosives nut job. They botch robbing the payroll at a plant in Monequois, New York, near the Canadian border.

Low-keyed but methodical and cunning, Grofield may not win your sympathy but he's a memorable crook. Donald Westlake (aka Richard Stark) writes seamless, laconic dialogue. His descriptions of robbing an old Mosler safe or sealing a deal to buy the getaway truck for the heist are precise and vivid. The layering of these details builds the suspense. The humor is deadpan. This is a solid bet as a change of pace from the typical Westlake caper novels.