Killing Time is a Donald Westlake book following Tim Smith, the only private eye in the town of Winston, New York. Tim has dirt on all of the thoroughly corrupt city fathers and is being sought out by Paul Massetti, representative of a reform group hoping to clean out the town. Someone is trying to kill Tim,and he comes to suspect that it’s one of the local big shots he has dirt on. He threatens to turn it all over to the reformers unless he’s given assurance the attacks will stop, but this just gets them amped up, and soon he doesn’t know what trust, and finds himself growing to more cold lengths to save his own life and freedom.
Tropes:
- Amoral Attorney: Multiple corrupt city councilmen are lawyers, the district attorney has no interest in justice and Tim’s lawyer friend Ron (although an affable guy who wants to help him out) has been trying to set up up a scheme to double tax a neighborhood of down on their luck World War Two veterans in order to get admitted to the local machine.
- Anyone Can Die: Major characters repeatedly bite it, with the last fifteen pages alone seeing at least eleven named characters die. Tim himself is seen facing down a Casale about to shoot him for his actions in the last lines of the book.
- Awful Wedded Life: Marvin Reed and his wife Allisan don’t get along at all, ever since she found out he hired Tim to try and find dirt on her for a divorce (there wasn’t any) so he could pursue blonde bimbos.
- The Clan:
- The vast Wycza family, led by one of the local councilman has dozens of members, all collecting city salaries for doing little work.
- The Casale family consists of the four sons and many grandsons of Joey Casale, the local sotorekeeper, and all of them band together to avenger Joey’s death at the hands of a bomb meant for Tim.
- Corrupt Politician: The mayor, police chief, District Attorney and four of the six city councilmen embezzle funds, take bribes and more.
- Detective Mole: The attempts on Tim’s life are all committed by the chief of police conducting the investigation.
- Dirty Old Man: Chief Hacrum is happily having an affair with a girl about half of his age.
- Fat Bastard: Mayor Wanamaker (who's referred to as resembling Santa Claus), Dirty Cop Chief Hacrum, District Attorney Watkins (who gets compared to a beach ball), Jack Wycza and Jordan Reed are all large, fleshy men who don't know a thing about hard work and love lining their own pockets.
- I Fight for the Strongest Side!: Jack Wycza’s hired gunman Bert, who sees the potential of gaining more power by helping Tim take down some of the local bigwigs and shows disappointment at seeing sentiment from Tim.
- I Own This Town: Jordan Reed, the corrupt local chemical plant boss, has spent years having all of the city officials in town taking both his orders and his money and is proud of it.
- Mercy Lead: After CCG employee Archer Danile makes it clear to Tim that he isn't going to offer him immunity he does urge him to leave town before the next morning with a hint of respect.
- Morality Pet: Tim’s are Ron Lascow and his girlfriend Cathy, who draw out the most moments of friendship and unselfish moments from him.
- Mouth of Sauron: The crusading Paul Masetti and later his "politician's politician" replacement Archer Danile talk to Tim on behalf of a reform movement that wants him to testify against the political machine, with the leaders of their group being mentioned but never seen.
- Police Are Useless: Chief Hacrum is quick to jump on any lead that might end the case due to how deeply involved he is in the local corruption Tim is threatening to expose, and while Detective Hal Ganz (whose assigned to the case) is honest and dutiful, he isn't that imaginative either.
- Private Detective: Tim, although really he’s more of The Fixer for the local powers, not that he’d admit it.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Tim's files on all of the town big shots are the reason that he’s being targeted for murder, not out of an attempt to keep the reform movement from getting them, but because Chief Hacrum wants to give them to the reformers to save his own skin. After killing Tim, he'll have an excuse to "confiscate" his files.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Mayor Wanamaker and Councilman Brice flee town near the end as loyalties are readjusted and it becomes more clear who will and won't be able to make a deal.
- Suspicious Spending: Chief Hacrum buys a brand new car every year with the money he gets taking bribes from Jordan Reed.
- Token Good Cop: The police chief of Winston is one of its most corrupt citizens and a large percentage of his uniformed officers are members of the Wycza Family, who were hired due to their corrupt councilman relative and do little work and/or act as his enforcers. Detective Hal Ganz is the highest-ranking honest cop in town (and is sent to investigate who is trying to kill Tim specifically to prove to Tim that the case is being treated seriously), but he has a mild case of Good Is Dumb.
- Unwitting Pawn: Massetti, who doesn’t realize that his employers are just trying to shake up the corruption for political headlines and are willing to make deals with the most corrupt locals themselves.
- Villain Protagonist: Tim is a belligerently self-righteous man despite having spent years covering up the local corruption for money (although he sees himself more as regulating it) with no remorse. While initially affable enough and genuinely believing that his actions constitute the lesser of two evils, when it comes down to the prospect of going to prison himself he’s willing to set up people he’s known for years to die (or kill them himself) just to eliminate the people who pose a threat to him.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Marvin Reed seems both terrified of his father Jordan and hopeful of pleasing him.
