The Risk Profession by Donald E. Westlake Episode #330

Donald E. Westlake | February 11, 2025

The Risk Profession by Donald E. Westlake Episode #330
Donald E. Westlake

THE RISK PROFESSION

Episode #330 · Written by Donald E. Westlake · Narrated by Scott Miller

Ged Stanton is paid to notice what other people overlook, and the case that pulls him into the asteroid belt is built entirely on things that don’t quite line up. A retirement payout request arrives after the client’s death, written in authentic handwriting and backed by a story that sounds airtight. On paper, there’s no fraud. In person, nothing feels settled.

The investigation unfolds in sealed domes and low gravity, where equipment is scarce and isolation sharpens every decision. Stanton isn’t chasing a murderer so much as stress-testing a version of events, listening for the moment when confidence turns defensive. Each explanation narrows the problem instead of resolving it, until the question is no longer what happened—but who is standing in front of him.

Rather than relying on action or spectacle, the story builds tension through logistics, environment, and motive. Space itself becomes an accomplice, offering plausible ways for evidence to vanish while quietly preserving the truth in plain sight. The risk isn’t in the profession Stanton investigates—it’s in believing a story simply because it can’t be disproved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Donald E. Westlake published hundreds of short stories and novels across multiple genres, appearing in magazines such as Analog Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and major crime-fiction venues. Writing under his own name and several pseudonyms—including Richard Stark—he became one of the most structurally disciplined storytellers of the twentieth century.

His crime novels featuring Parker are known for their exacting logic and moral clarity, and those same strengths drive “The Risk Profession.” The story applies Westlake’s signature control of identity, paperwork, and motive to a science-fiction setting, proving that a perfectly designed scam can collapse under one careful question.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to The Risk Profession by Donald E. Westlake — a tense vintage science fiction mystery set in the asteroid belt, where a retirement payout hides a dangerous lie.

ABOUT THE LOST SCI-FI PODCAST

The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast is the most listened-to vintage science fiction podcast in the world. Ranked #1 in 34 countries and heard in more than 190 countries, the show has surpassed 3.3 million listens, introducing classic science fiction to a global audience of devoted fans.

Each episode features carefully selected stories from the Golden Age of science fiction, professionally narrated. Timeless storytelling the way it was meant to be heard.

What listeners are saying:

★★★★★ “Best of all Worlds. No Sci-Fi podcast content or context compares to LSF and no one does it like Scott Miller. He doesn’t just read the stories. He tells them.”
— JCMargerison

★★★★★ “Exceptional! The best scifi podcast I’ve come across. Fantastic stories are one thing, but I can’t count the number of times I have been disappointed by the quality of the voice acting. I am very happy to say, that the standard of both contained within these episodes is top notch.”
— El Phantsmo

Vintage science fiction. Professionally narrated. Carefully curated.