[citation needed] After traveling to the Soviet Union, Westbrook wrote his first book at age 17, Journey Behind the Iron Curtain, which was published in 1963 by G.P.
[citation needed] In the 1980s, while living with his family in Hawaii, Westbrook began a handful of satirical mysteries set in 1950s Los Angeles.
[citation needed] In 1988, Westbrook was living in Greece when his mother, Sheilah Graham, died on November 17 in Palm Beach, Florida, of congestive heart failure.
She left him her papers and record and instructed Westbrook to tell her story,[1] which he did, describing his mother's romance with F. Scott Fitzgerald, and other details that were omitted from Graham's 1958 memoir, Beloved Infidel.
Published by HarperCollins in 1995,[2] the American magazine Kirkus Reviews considered Intimate Lies a valuable contribution to the literature on Fitzgerald and Graham.