The Last and the Best Grofield
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (August 22, 2008) narrated by Steve Aveson of the original World Publishing hardcover (1971).

“You know, there’s a school of thought that says the artist and the criminal are variants on the same basic personality type. Did you know that?”
Grofield was sorry now the conversation had gotten started at all.
“No, I didn’t,” he said.
“That art and crime are both antisocial acts,” Tebelman said. “There’s a whole theory about it. The artist and the criminal both divorce themselves from society by their life patterns, they both tend to be loners, they both tend to have brief periods of intense activity and then long periods of rest.”

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 24 Parker novels and their spinoff series, the 4 Grofield novels. The Parkers are a hardboiled noir series but the Grofields have more of a lighter touch, often with humorous banter. Their plots were more fantastical, with Grofield being drawn into some international conspiracy. I didn't find the first 3 books that compulsive, and actually skipped the 4th one at the time of my Stark binge.

When I saw Lemons Never Lie as a Kindle Deal of the Day offer I decided to give the final Grofield a try and read it in conjunction with the Audiobook. It turned out to be the best one yet as it mostly dropped the wisecrack humour and was much more Parker-like with its series of heists gone wrong, betrayals and paybacks.

See cover at https://i0.wp.com/violentworldofparker.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/...
The cover of the first hardcover edition of 'Lemons Never Lie' by World Publishing (1971). Image sourced from The Violent World of Parker (see link below).

We meet Grofield at the Las Vegas airport where he plays a nickel slot upon arrival. The machine comes up all lemons and pays out 70 cents in nickels only. Grofield sees this as a bad omen for the future. He is there for a meet about a future payroll heist planned by Andrew Myers. Grofield decides the job sounds unprofessional and walks out of the meeting, along with another associate. Myers later robs and assaults them both as payback. The rest of the book is a cat-and-mouse game with Grofield seeking revenge on Myers and also planning to abscond with Myers' final score of the payroll job. Things don't quite work out as planned.

This was definitely more in the hardboiled vein of the Parker novels with little comic relief. There are moments of respite where we hear stories of Grofield's theatrical production career which he finances through his criminal sideline. Although Grofield, like Parker, is an anti-hero character, the reader has sympathy for him as he at least adheres to a personal code and loyalty and has his love of theatre as his motive, bizarre as that might seem. In any case, I enjoyed this one as much as any of the Parker novels, whereas the earlier Grofields were all 2-stars for me.

Narrator Steve Aveson does a good job in all voices in the audiobook edition.

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

Other Reviews
There is an extensive review with a detailed plot description (spoilers obviously) at The Westlake Review, May 8, 2015.

Trivia and Links
There is a brief plot summary of Lemons Never Lie and of all the Parker & Grofield books and adaptations at The Violent World of Parker website.

The Lemons Never Lie's 2008 Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition shares the same cover art as the Hard Case Crime 2006 edition. That edition of Lemons Never Lie is part of the Hard Case Crime (2004-) series of reprints, new commissions and posthumous publications of the pulp and noir crime genre founded by authors Charles Ardai and Max Phillips. GR's Listopia with 130 books is not complete (as of May 2023) and the most complete lists of publication can be found at Wikipedia (with 158 books) or the Publisher's Official Site (showing the same 158 books as Wikipedia, with an additional 3 books yet to be published). ( )

The Last and the Best Grofield
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (August 22, 2008) narrated by Steve Aveson & the Kindle eBook of the original World Publishing hardcover (1971).

“You know, there’s a school of thought that says the artist and the criminal are variants on the same basic personality type. Did you know that?”
Grofield was sorry now the conversation had gotten started at all.
“No, I didn’t,” he said.
“That art and crime are both antisocial acts,” Tebelman said. “There’s a whole theory about it. The artist and the criminal both divorce themselves from society by their life patterns, they both tend to be loners, they both tend to have brief periods of intense activity and then long periods of rest.”

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 24 Parker novels and their spinoff series, the 4 Grofield novels. The Parkers are a hardboiled noir series but the Grofields have more of a lighter touch, often with humorous banter. Their plots were more fantastical, with Grofield being drawn into some international conspiracy. I didn't find the first 3 books that compulsive, and actually skipped the 4th one at the time of my Stark binge.

When I saw Lemons Never Lie as a Kindle Deal of the Day offer I decided to give the final Grofield a try and read it in conjunction with the Audiobook. It turned out to be the best one yet as it mostly dropped the wisecrack humour and was much more Parker-like with its series of heists gone wrong, betrayals and paybacks.

See cover at https://i0.wp.com/violentworldofparker.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/...
The cover of the first hardcover edition of 'Lemons Never Lie' by World Publishing (1971). Image sourced from The Violent World of Parker (see link below).

We meet Grofield at the Las Vegas airport where he plays a nickel slot upon arrival. The machine comes up all lemons and pays out 70 cents in nickels only. Grofield sees this as a bad omen for the future. He is there for a meet about a future payroll heist planned by Andrew Myers. Grofield decides the job sounds unprofessional and walks out of the meeting, along with another associate. Myers later robs and assaults them both as payback. The rest of the book is a cat-and-mouse game with Grofield seeking revenge on Myers and also planning to abscond with Myers' final score of the payroll job. Things don't quite work out as planned.

This was definitely more in the hardboiled vein of the Parker novels with little comic relief. There are moments of respite where we hear stories of Grofield's theatrical production career which he finances through his criminal sideline. Although Grofield, like Parker, is an anti-hero character, the reader has sympathy for him as he at least adheres to a personal code and loyalty and has his love of theatre as his motive, bizarre as that might seem. In any case, I enjoyed this one as much as any of the Parker novels, whereas the earlier Grofields were all 2-stars for me.

Narrator Steve Aveson does a good job in all voices in the audiobook edition.

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

Other Reviews
There is an extensive review with a detailed plot description (spoilers obviously) at The Westlake Review, May 8, 2015.

Trivia and Links
There is a brief plot summary of Lemons Never Lie and of all the Parker & Grofield books and adaptations at The Violent World of Parker website.

The Lemons Never Lie's 2008 Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition shares the same cover art as the Hard Case Crime 2006 edition. That edition of Lemons Never Lie is part of the Hard Case Crime (2004-) series of reprints, new commissions and posthumous publications of the pulp and noir crime genre founded by authors Charles Ardai and Max Phillips. GR's Listopia with 130 books is not complete (as of May 2023) and the most complete lists of publication can be found at Wikipedia (with 158 books) or the Publisher's Official Site (showing the same 158 books as Wikipedia, with an additional 3 books yet to be published). ( )

The last Grofield - a little grittier than the previous entries. ( )

First book I've read in the Alan Grofield Series by Richard Stark/Donald E. Westlake. Not as hard-boiled as the Parker stories (whose name shows up a couple of times in this book), but more along the lines of Dortmunder's capers, since lots of things go wrong, but minus the humor in the Dortmunder stories. A very good read. ( )

emons Never Lie is a terrific crime tale originally written under the Richard Stark name. Don't pick this up if you have anything pressing you need to do.

Grofield is not your usual criminal. That's part of what makes Westlake's fiction so interesting. Grofield's passion is summer stock theater. He and his wife, Mary, have got an old barn that's been converted to a theater, but are so hard up for cash that they rent out their residential properties most of the year and sleep on the stage sets. In the summer, they kick their tenants out and house their actors. But, its how Grofield pays for his artistic fantasies that is interesting. Sometimes he drives into Kentucky and passes bad paper, but he doesn't enjoy doing that because he feels its an inappropriate use of his acting schools and cheapens it for him.
Grofield does "jobs" to earn his bread. He flies to Las Vegas to meet with four or five others and hear Myers' plans for a job. Myers is not your usual crook, though, as he basically comes equipped with photos and powerpoint displays. The job is odd and Grofield is not comfortable with it. Myers has found one place in the country where a payroll robbery will still work, one place where the workers are still paid in cash every week, not by paycheck. It's an old brewery up in Maine near the Canadian border. Myers has cased this little town and figures he will set some fires and then enter the plant with a fire engine and make off with the payroll, escaping with the loot across the border. The plan never takes off when some of the group walks out, gambling at the tables and winning big on their way out of the casino. There is a falling out and Myers has made some permanent enemies as he skedaddles out of town.

Grofield returns home to his small Indiana town and soon hears of another job, although things are a little dicey with his real "work" making an appearance in his safe hometown and Grofield doesn't like to bring his work home. It's a professional job in St Louis, a market robbery, and the story takes the reader step by step through the job.

Of course, the fight with Myers foreshadows what comes later with an ultimate showdown.
It is a well-told story that can be finished in just a few hours. There is a lot of conversation that moves the plot along (sort of in the Elmore Leonard tradition) and you wouldn't think it, but the story moves along quite rapidly. Highly recommended. Thanks to Hard Case Crime for republishing this classic work. ( )