Time Capsule: Behind the Mystery with Donald Westlake

Stuart M. Kaminsky's Behind the Mystery: Top Mystery Writers (2005) is a must-read for anybody interested in the genre. Over the course of four years, Kaminsky and photographer Laurie Roberts visited the homes of eighteen iconic contemporary crime/mystery writers and conducted a series of in-depth interviews spanning their lives and careers.

More importantly for us Stark enthusiasts, Donald Westlake was among the authors interviewed in the book. He spoke about his childhood and his father, about Parker and the way a young, 'cat-like' Jack Palance had served as a major inspiration early on, his approach to his work in both literature and film among many other topics. The full interview has been reproduced below: