Mitch Tobin
Created by Tucker Coe (pseud. of Donald Westlake)

Guilt-ridden unlicensed private eye and disgraced ex-cop MITCHELL TOBIN appeared in five novels which together make up one of the most interesting and varied PI series of the sixties. Obsessed and compulsive, all he wants to do is hide in his backyard and work on his wall, which he's building, brick by brick.

If the Parker novels showed how fast Westlake could get you to turn pages, and the Dortmunder tales proved Westlake could make you laugh, but it's the Tobin series that could make you cry. More than any of his other books, those are the ones I treasure the most. They're beautifully written -- haunting, compassionate, brooding examinations of a man slowly rebuilding himself. And kick-ass mysteries.

Go out, find them and read them. It's a true crime they all seem to be out of print. Recommended. Highly.

NOVELS

• Kinds of Love, Kinds of Death (1966)...Buy this book
• Murder Among Children (1967)...Buy this book
• Wax Apple (1970)..Buy this book
• A Jade In Aries (1970)..Buy this book
• Don't Lie To Me (1972)..Buy this book

RELATED LINKS

• "But I could be wrong."
  The official Donald Westlake web site contains a semi-complete bibliography, a biography and, best of all, a Dortmunder short story from 1986. Enjoy!
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• A Donald Westlake Checklist
  From Italy comes Giovanni Resta's excellent and impressivley comprehensive bibliographical checklist of Westlake's work, which also includes short stories and some miscellanea. Giovanni's also refreshingly honest: "Despite the efforts, I have no delusion of completeness...so I'd be grateful to receive any corrections or additions. Especially if you can help me locating that short story I still badly lack...)
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• The Mitch Tobin Series
  Overview by Bryan Schingle.

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.