Alan Grofield is a fictional character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 created by Donald E. Westlake

Donald E. Westlake

Donald Edwin Westlake was an American writer, with over a hundred novels and non-fiction books to his credit. He specialized in crime fiction, especially comic capers, with an occasional foray into science fiction or other genres...

. He is the main protagonist of four of the 28 novels Westlake has written under the pseudonym Richard Stark, and a supporting character in an additional four. Grofield's first appearance was in the novel The Score, which was published in 1964.

A career criminal and professional thief, Grofield is a devilishly handsome and charming womanizer whose main passion in life is the stage. In fact, the only reason he steals is to keep his summer stock company running, and if he were ever able to make enough money through his legitimate artistic efforts, he would have no trouble giving up his life of crime. Unlike his frequent companion Parker

Parker (fictional criminal)

Parker is a fictional character created by Donald E. Westlake. He is the main protagonist of 24 of the 28 novels Westlake wrote under the pseudonym Richard Stark.-Character overview:...

, Grofield is a somewhat inconsistent character, and his adventures run the gamut from hard-boiled crime stories (Lemons Never Lie) to more fanciful, James Bond

James Bond

James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

-style globetrotting and intrigue (The Damsel, The Dame, and The Blackbird).

Novels

• The Score (1964, aka Killtown), a novel in Westlake's Parker
  Parker (fictional criminal)
  Parker is a fictional character created by Donald E. Westlake. He is the main protagonist of 24 of the 28 novels Westlake wrote under the pseudonym Richard Stark.-Character overview:...
  
   series
• The Handle (1966, aka Run Lethal), a novel in Westlake's Parker
  Parker (fictional criminal)
  Parker is a fictional character created by Donald E. Westlake. He is the main protagonist of 24 of the 28 novels Westlake wrote under the pseudonym Richard Stark.-Character overview:...
  
   series
• The Damsel (1967)
• The Dame (1969)
• The Blackbird (1969) — First chapter shared with Slayground (below)
• Lemons Never Lie (1971)
• Slayground (1971), a novel in Westlake's Parker
  Parker (fictional criminal)
  Parker is a fictional character created by Donald E. Westlake. He is the main protagonist of 24 of the 28 novels Westlake wrote under the pseudonym Richard Stark.-Character overview:...
  
   series. Grofield appears only briefly.
• Butcher's Moon (1974), a novel in Westlake's Parker
  Parker (fictional criminal)
  Parker is a fictional character created by Donald E. Westlake. He is the main protagonist of 24 of the 28 novels Westlake wrote under the pseudonym Richard Stark.-Character overview:...
  
   series

Grofield is mentioned in passing in the Parker novel The Sour Lemon Score, but does not appear.

also:

• The Hot Rock (1970), the first of the Dortmunder series, written by Westlake under his real name. Charming ladies' man Alan Greenwood changes his name to Alan Grofield after Dortmunder and company break him out of jail (p. 233). This may or may not be the same Grofield character as that of the Richard Stark novels.

External links

• Web site devoted to the Parker novels, with a special section devoted to Grofield