361 By Donald E. Westlake

This is a story that catches Donald E. Westlake more closely aligned to his Richard Start pseudonym under which he wrote the Parker series. It's not so much a signpost for his lighter John Dortmunder series.

361 is a 1962 tale,  a mystery, perhaps even a whodunit in thriller clothing when all is said and done.

I discovered its existence recently in a Facebook group when someone posted a vintage edition he'd discovered at a used book sale. I was happy to learn Hard Case Crime had republished it along with an audio version which I soon downloaded for a listen.

At the outset, we're told .361, according to Roget's Thesaurus means "Destruction of life; violent death. Killing."

First-person narrator Ray Kelly's in for plenty of that as the story moves forward. His dad seems a little nervous about picking up in New York City after he concludes a stint in the Air Force.  Ray dismisses the nerves until a tan-and-cream Chrysler pulls alongside them on a roadway and guns blaze.

Dad's killed, and Ray's injuries include irreparable damage to one eye. He gets a glass one as he recuperates, a process that begins with his brother, Bill, at his side but becomes a solo journey when his brother stops showing up for visits.  Soon he learns Bill's wife, who he's never met, has been killed as well in a car accident. Coincidence?

When recovery's over, Ray decides it's time to look for answers, and those begin with a visit from an old friend of his dad's who owed Pop one. He suggests Ray keep his head down. Not satisfied with a cryptic warning, Ray and Bill try beating a few answers out of the pal. He's so fearful he'll only let a few details slip.

So Ray and Bill set off to research just what their father might have been party to. Bill favors a private investigator, while Ray wants to do things on his own and digs into enough newspaper clippings to discover Dad was once a mob lawyer.

That's the tip of the iceberg, and each move takes Ray further along the road to dark truths about his family's past and his own identity. Deaths and gunplay, ensue along with revelations,  and there's no question this deserves a hard-boiled label as important players die and Ray sets out on a path that has him wondering who he'll be if he comes out the other side.

That will only come after several twists and believable maneuvers that wrap up the action, reveal the truths and set the book on the road to a satisfying conclusion that's at a place the reader can accept in this grim universe.

Woven around the story is a bit of mob history. It's interesting to get a taste of early sixties perception of the mob, making the book almost a prelude to the revenge tales that would come a few years later in the action-adventure era.

There's one set-up phase involving meetings of mobsters and other necessary exposition that seemed to drag a bit to me, but otherwise the tale is tough and taut and a great experience.

It's truly a hidden gem recovered by Hard Case for contemporary readers after years of the book being out of print.

Impulse buy