It's really amazing he got four whole novels to himself. Literally, in the case of "The Hot Rock", even though that's clearly an alternate universe version of the character. But if they give it a Parker-esque cover, people will be wanting their money back, because it's nothing like Parker.Įssentially, Grofield is a Richard Stark character who somehow crosses over into the world of Westlake-ian farce when he's away from Parker. But it's a Richard Stark, and his readers don't go in for whimsy.
If Westlake had published it under his own name, I bet we'd have seen a more whimsical cover. It's got the Stark name on it, which should mean it's a tough hardboiled crime novel, but somehow it isn't. It's cynical and hard-boiled, but also romantic and idealistic. It's a lighthearted romp, but there's definitely a more serious side to it. I think this is another case of Grofield falling between the cracks-how do you sell it? I can see publishers just shrugging in confusion trying to slot it. What the hell: any excuse to include more Westlake books, I say. Tremor of Forgery and though they're not quite as refined – and I'm not sure they could be convincingly described as "beautiful", either – I've also added Craig Dodd's dust jacket for The Dame and Graphics Partners' one for The Blackbird – even though The Blackbird dates from 1970. You can read Mike's own account of the history of Carroll & Dempsey on his excellent Graphic Journey blog, along with all manner of other fascinating posts on design matters Mike's recent, righteous tirade against a Raymond Hawkey rip-off cover caught my eye, but the blog has been going for four years now, and is absolutely stuffed with wonderful reminiscences drawn from across Dempsey's near-fifty year career.Ĭertainly Dempsey's dust jacket for The Damsel is elegant enough, I feel, to join the Existential Ennui Beautiful British Book Jacket Design of the 1950s and 1960s gallery, where it has now taken its rightful place alongside his cover for the Heinemann edition of Patricia Highsmith's A Dempsey was very active in British publishing in the late-1960s and throughout the 1970s: he was art director at both Heinemann and Fontana/Collins, and in 1978 set up Carroll & Dempsey with freelance designer Ken Carroll.
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