Peter Pavia

The Archive

A DAME TO KILL FOR

Gin-swilling women, the sinister, palpable dint of corruption, the longing lives and shattered dreams of Los Angeles: these are the elements readers naturally associate with Raymond Chandler. In novels like...

BRED AND WHINERS

LIKE any proper social conservative, Diana West loathes the 1960s. But in her unapologetic defense of Western society, "The Death of the Grown-up," West points out that the cultural upheavals...

SILVA'S 'SECRET'

DANIEL Silva's latest novel, "The Secret Servant," arrives with all the familiar elements in place: Recurring character? Check. Gabriel Allon, world-weary Israeli intelligence agent, is back for another bite at...

INSULT TRIUMPH

BY the late 1960s, Don Rickles was one of the most recognizable performers in America. He had guest-starred on virtually every TV sitcom, became a regular on Dean Martin's roasts...

BAD GUYS DONE GOOD

At the outset of American involvement in World War II, the winter months of 1942, the United States was already at a grave impasse. The Pacific fleet had been devastated...

'GATE CRASH

WHEN I first met E. Howard Hunt in late 2003, I expected to find a grizzled Cold Warrior, and the man who invited me into his Miami home for a...