Seven years after publishing "The Name of a the Game is Death," Marlowe wrote the sequel, "One Endless Hour." The backstory is that after the success of "The Name," an actual real-life bank robber, Al Nussbaum, contacted Marlowe from prison, urging Marlowe to write a sequel. This is what he wrote before going on to portray the lead character, Drake, in nearly a dozen more books: the "Operation" series of books. "One Endless Hour" begins by recapping and actually presenting again the last chapter of "The Name." Hint: read that one first.

Then, it goes off in a direction really reminiscent of Westlake's Parker series, particularly "The Man With The Getaway Face." Back in the sixties, plastic surgery was viewed as a way to perhaps completely change your appearance so much so that even your own mother wouldn't recognize you. Like Parker, Drake changes his appearance and then goes after the loot he left behind when he got locked up. The bulk of the novel focuses on pulling off a caper, together with help from a planner or schemer and a mismatched pair of accomplices, one a compulsive gambler and the other a compulsive pornographer.

This is a smooth, professionally-written book that is quite a hardboiled caper novel. Anyone who enjoys a good caper novel will want to read this one. ( )

The first sequel to Marlowe's classic The Name of the Game is Death finds arch-criminal Chet Arnold in a prison hospital recovering from the injuries he suffered at the end of the first book. But he has plans....

This is a brutal, enjoyable book but lacks the intensity of its predecessor, as it rambles somewhat from episode to episode as Arnold takes on a new identity and tries to make some much needed cash through bank robberies. The transitions are a little sloppy and the repetition of a few key facts a bit annoying, but the individual episodes are engrossing. Marlowe throws some really kinky twists into the plot that will surprise (and perhaps disgust) you. Just don't expect any too-neat wrap-up. After all, Marlowe knows when he has a winning character, and he isn't about to get rid of him yet! ( )