This is an interesting combination of two early Westlake pieces: a novel, "A Travesty," and a novelette, "Ordo." I'm particularly surprised that "A Travesty" was never acquired as a film property (if it was, I'm not aware of it). The darkly delightful plot involves a sexually voracious film reviewer who accidentally kills one of his girlfriends (it's Westlake-- you have to just go with it). In his attempts to flee and cover himself up, he encounters a scheming blackmailing private investigator (likened to Martin Balsam in "Psycho" but for some reason conjuring up Danny DeVito in my own head) who complicates matters. The two detectives investigating the death take a liking to him and bring him along on several of their other cases (again, it's Westlake, you have to go with it) and he shows himself to be an excellent amateur detective. As the plot develops he finds it necessary to commit more murders and sleep with absolutely the wrong women. But he seems to be getting away with all of it......Many of Westlake's earliest books are amusing but tend to be a trifle silly and to lack the tight intricacy and comprehensiveness of his later work. This one holds up well alongside many of his later comic novels. I'd still love to see someone update it as a film. The second very different entry is "Ordo," a touching story about a rather simple Navy sailor who discovers that a Hollywood sex goddess was the teenage bride he briefly married in his youth. It's a sort of "you can't go home anymore" tale mixed with "the grass is always greener." This makes for an interesting matchup of VERY contrasting stories, to be sure.
