From Booklist
Before it was renamed Sideswipe for publication in 1987, Willeford called his penultimate Hoke Moseley novel The Second Half of the Double Feature . It's a title deserving of resurrection, which makes it a fitting moniker for this posthumous collection of short stories and autobiographical sketches (including seven unpublished ones). A few of the pieces can be charitably described as holding only scholarly interest, but lots of good, lean prose lurks behind the fat. Willeford, who launched the legendarily acerbic Moseley series a few years before his death in 1988, delivers indictments of human nature more wry than withering in stories that explore such weirdly wonderful notions as trying to find a date at a drive-in theater and hosting a Tupperware party for men. But the memoir sections prove most satisfying, as Willeford recounts his Army life just after World War II. A highly decorated tank commander, he eschews war stories for perfectly pitched accounts of soldiers at loose ends that bring to mind the young Hunter S. Thompson. Frank Sennett
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Elmore Leonard
No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford.

Book Description
The widest-ranging collection of Willeford's short fiction, with 25 stories including several recently unearthed works that have never been published before.

From the Publisher
In this new collection of short stories, vignettes and autobiographical sketches—many previously unpublished—Charles Willeford, author of Miami Blues and The Burnt Orange Heresy creates a mosaic of the absurdities of life in the 20th century. From a malicious grandmother to prophetic depictions of the power of reality television—with wry humor and sudden shifts to violence—he seduces, amuses and repeatedly surprises you. "Willeford's experience of his life led him to a certain attitude toward the world and his place in it, and this attitude, ironic without meanness, comic but deeply caring, informed every book he ever wrote, from his two volumes of autobiography through all the unnoticed novels." -Donald Westlake

From the Author
"I'm not really breaking the genre, just bending it a bit." -Charles Willeford

SYNOPSIS

The widest-ranging collection of Willeford's short fiction, with 25 stories including several recently unearthed works that have never been published before.

FROM THE CRITICS

Donald Westlake

Willeford's experience of his life led him to a certain attitude toward the world and his place in it, and this attitude, ironic without meanness, comic but deeply caring, informed every book he ever wrote, from his two volumes of autobiography through all the unnoticed novels.

Publishers Weekly

The Second Half of the Double Feature, by hard-boiled writer Charles Willeford (1919-1988), collects 25 short stories, vignettes and autobiographical sketches, many previously unpublished. The cloth edition includes a section of Willeford's poems. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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