Donald E. Westlake
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In what may be the "best Dortmunder yarn yet," Westlake's seasoned but often scoreless crook must take on an impossible crime, one he doesn't want and doesn't believe in — but a little blackmail goes a long way (Associated Press).
All it takes is a few underhanded moves by a tough ex-cop named Eppick to pull Dortmunder into a game he never wanted to play.
With no choice, he musters his always-game gang and they set out on a perilous...
All it takes is a few underhanded moves by a tough ex-cop named Eppick to pull Dortmunder into a game he never wanted to play.
With no choice, he musters his always-game gang and they set out on a perilous...
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A hapless thief is drafted by a gang of nuns in need, in a novel by an Edgar Award winner who “has no peer in the realm of comic mystery novelists” (San Francisco Chronicle).
It was supposed to be a simple caviar heist. Dortmunder is almost in the building when the alarm sounds, forcing him up the fire escape and onto the roof. He leaps onto the next building, smashing his ankle and landing in the den of the worst...
It was supposed to be a simple caviar heist. Dortmunder is almost in the building when the alarm sounds, forcing him up the fire escape and onto the roof. He leaps onto the next building, smashing his ankle and landing in the den of the worst...
4) Get real
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When a TV producer convinces John Dortmunder and his merry gang to do a reality show that captures their next score, Dortmunder hatches an ingenious plan to outwit viewers glued to their television sets and end the shoot with money in his pockets.
5) The hook
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Critically acclaimed for his recent bestseller, "The Ax, " Westlake returns with a tale of twisted psychological suspense involving two cunning authors—and one deadly proposition.
6) Why me
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Be careful what you steal . . . A fast-paced crime caper from the Edgar Award–winning author and “funniest man in the world” (The Washington Post Book World).
The Byzantine Fire is much more than a ninety-carat ruby. As a stone it’s worth over a million dollars, a value vastly increased by its pure gold band—but its history makes it priceless. A ring that has been fought for with sword...
The Byzantine Fire is much more than a ninety-carat ruby. As a stone it’s worth over a million dollars, a value vastly increased by its pure gold band—but its history makes it priceless. A ring that has been fought for with sword...
7) 361
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The men in the tan-and-cream Chrysler came with guns blazing. When Ray woke up in the hospital a month later, he was missing an eye, and his father was dead. Then things started to get bad...
From the incomparable Donald E. Westlake comes a devastating story of betrayal and revenge, exploring the limits of family loyalty and how far a man will go when everything he loves is taken from him.
From the incomparable Donald E. Westlake comes a devastating story of betrayal and revenge, exploring the limits of family loyalty and how far a man will go when everything he loves is taken from him.
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Feating Donald E. Westlake's hapless hero, John Dortmunder, this original compilation of short stories ties in to Westlake's latest Dortmunder hardcover, The Road to Ruin.
It's all Dortmunder, all the time, in this long-awaited collection representing one of the finest achievements in crime fiction. Chosen from hundreds of stories and decades of work, this is the first time that Westlake has offered a compilation of his short form...
It's all Dortmunder, all the time, in this long-awaited collection representing one of the finest achievements in crime fiction. Chosen from hundreds of stories and decades of work, this is the first time that Westlake has offered a compilation of his short form...
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This Edgar Award winner is a “raucously funny” novel of crime, con artists, and a poor sucker caught in the middle, by the author of the Dortmunder series (Kirkus Reviews).
If there is a scam operating anywhere, sooner or later it will find Fred Fitch. The pure-hearted, gullible man seems to get taken every time he turns around. At this point, he’s been ripped off so many times he’s got a regular...
If there is a scam operating anywhere, sooner or later it will find Fred Fitch. The pure-hearted, gullible man seems to get taken every time he turns around. At this point, he’s been ripped off so many times he’s got a regular...
10) Drowned hopes
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This rollicking tale of an aging robber who wants to blow up a reservoir “will keep readers laughing” (Publishers Weekly).
In his day, Tom was a hard man. He came up with Dillinger in the 1930s, and pulled a lot of high-profile jobs before the state put him away. They meant it to be for good, but after twenty-three years the prisons are too crowded for seventy-year-old bank robbers, and so they let the old man go. Finally...
In his day, Tom was a hard man. He came up with Dillinger in the 1930s, and pulled a lot of high-profile jobs before the state put him away. They meant it to be for good, but after twenty-three years the prisons are too crowded for seventy-year-old bank robbers, and so they let the old man go. Finally...
11) Put a Lid on It
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In this uproariously funny novel from "a national literary treasure," a career criminal is offered a new life outside of prison — if he can steal a compromising video of the president (Booklist).
Meehan, a career thief staring at life without parole, is awaiting sentencing at the Manhattan Correctional Center when he is called to a meeting by someone masquerading as his lawyer.
The man, it turns out, represents the presidential...
Meehan, a career thief staring at life without parole, is awaiting sentencing at the Manhattan Correctional Center when he is called to a meeting by someone masquerading as his lawyer.
The man, it turns out, represents the presidential...
12) The Road to Ruin
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In this "furiously funny" new novel from Donald Westlake, career thief John Dortmunder is back to steal a fleet of vintage cars from a corrupt CEO (New York Times).
The con is on. The mark is Monroe Hall, a CEO who lavished more of his company's money on himself than the boys at Enron and WorldCom combined.
The loot? A fleet of vintage automobiles that would leave the Sultan of Brunei blushing.
The catch? Trying to outsmart...
The con is on. The mark is Monroe Hall, a CEO who lavished more of his company's money on himself than the boys at Enron and WorldCom combined.
The loot? A fleet of vintage automobiles that would leave the Sultan of Brunei blushing.
The catch? Trying to outsmart...
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A mob boss hires an ex-cop to find his mistress's killer in "the kind of tight lipped, hard mouthed story . . . which Chandler initiated and which Bogart immortalized" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
Six months ago, Mitchell Tobin lost his career—and with it, his identity. An honest cop drummed out of the force because of one terrible mistake, Tobin has spent six months watching his savings dwindle and his family fall apart....
Six months ago, Mitchell Tobin lost his career—and with it, his identity. An honest cop drummed out of the force because of one terrible mistake, Tobin has spent six months watching his savings dwindle and his family fall apart....
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Sometimes winning feels an awful lot like losing in this “comic caper” about a New York City cabbie whose outrageous mishaps “keep us smiling along in the backseat” (Booklist)
Cab driver Chet Conway was hoping for a good tip from his latest fare, the sort he could spend. But what he got was a tip on a horse race . . . which might have turned out okay, except that when he went to collect his winnings Chet found...
Cab driver Chet Conway was hoping for a good tip from his latest fare, the sort he could spend. But what he got was a tip on a horse race . . . which might have turned out okay, except that when he went to collect his winnings Chet found...
15) Watch Your Back!
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In his classic caper novels, Donald E. Westlake turns the world of crime and criminals upside-down: the bad get better, the good get worse, and God save anyone caught between a thief named John Dortmunder and his most improbable plans.
It's a long way from the island of Manhattan to the island resort where Preston Fareweather has his hedonistic hideout-avoiding the legal prosecutions of five embittered ex-wives and enjoying the attentions...
It's a long way from the island of Manhattan to the island resort where Preston Fareweather has his hedonistic hideout-avoiding the legal prosecutions of five embittered ex-wives and enjoying the attentions...
16) High adventure
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One man’s quest to make history—and a lot of money: “High entertainment” from the three-time Edgar Award–winning Grand Master of Mystery (Elmore Leonard).
Kirby Galway may be a low-level marijuana smuggler in Belize, but the man has a dream—to make lots and lots of money. So when a local official offers him a back-jungle tract of land he swears would make a perfect...
Kirby Galway may be a low-level marijuana smuggler in Belize, but the man has a dream—to make lots and lots of money. So when a local official offers him a back-jungle tract of land he swears would make a perfect...
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One of America's best-loved authors returns with a delightfully chilling new stand-alone in the vein of his bestsellers The Ax and The Hook.
Josh Redmont was 27 when the first check arrived, and he had absolutely no idea what it was for. Issued by "United States Agent" through an unnamed bank with an indeterminate address in D.C., someone seemed to think Josh was owed $1,000. One month later, another check arrived, and then...
Josh Redmont was 27 when the first check arrived, and he had absolutely no idea what it was for. Issued by "United States Agent" through an unnamed bank with an indeterminate address in D.C., someone seemed to think Josh was owed $1,000. One month later, another check arrived, and then...
18) Jimmy the kid
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A kidnapping plan cribbed from a crime novel goes hilariously wrong for gang boss John Dortmunder—from the Edgar Award–winning author of Bank Shot.
When his “friend” Andy Kelp has a plan, career criminal John Dortmunder knows that means trouble. Kelp’s schemes, no matter how well intentioned, tend to spiral quickly out of control. But this one, Kelp swears, is airtight. He read it in a...
When his “friend” Andy Kelp has a plan, career criminal John Dortmunder knows that means trouble. Kelp’s schemes, no matter how well intentioned, tend to spiral quickly out of control. But this one, Kelp swears, is airtight. He read it in a...
19) Bad news
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From Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Donald E. Westlake comes the eagerly anticipated return of unlucky master crook John Dortmunder.
Dortmunder doesn't like manual labor. So when Andy Kelp relays the offer of a grand to help dig up a grave in a far-flung cemetery, he balks...until he begins to wonder just why Fitzroy Guilderpost, criminal mastermind, wants to pull a switcheroo of two 70-years-dead Indians. Central to the plan is...
Dortmunder doesn't like manual labor. So when Andy Kelp relays the offer of a grand to help dig up a grave in a far-flung cemetery, he balks...until he begins to wonder just why Fitzroy Guilderpost, criminal mastermind, wants to pull a switcheroo of two 70-years-dead Indians. Central to the plan is...
20) The Busy Body
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"Merriment, mayhem and a plot that really keeps you guessing" from the Grand Master of Mystery and author of the John Dortmunder novels (Kirkus Reviews).
The corpse isn't anybody special—a low-level drug courier—but it has been so long since the organization's last grand funeral that Nick Rovito decides to give the departed a big send-off. He pays for a huge church, a procession of Cadillacs, and an ocean of flowers,...
The corpse isn't anybody special—a low-level drug courier—but it has been so long since the organization's last grand funeral that Nick Rovito decides to give the departed a big send-off. He pays for a huge church, a procession of Cadillacs, and an ocean of flowers,...