Watch Your Back! (John Dortmunder Series #12)

by Donald E. Westlake

Overview

After a year on the lam, the return of bumbling thief Dortmunder is a cause celebre. The author's most recent Dortmunder caper. "The Road to Ruin," and the short story collection, "Thieves' Dozen," received rave reviews in the "New York Times Book Review, New York Daily News," and "Kirkus Reviews" (starred review), among other publications.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780892968022
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	04/18/2005
Series:	John Dortmunder Series , #12
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Donald E. Westlake has written numerous novels over the past thirty-five years under his own name and pseudonyms, including Richard Stark. Many of his books have been made into movies, including The Hunter, which became the brilliant film noir Point Blank, and the 1999 smash hit Payback. He penned the Hollywood scripts for The Stepfather and The Grifters, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay. The winner of three Edgar awards and a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, Donald E. Westlake was presented with The Eye, the Private Eye Writers of America's Lifetime Achievement Award, at the Shamus Awards. He lives with his wife, Abby Adams, in rural New York State. For more information, visit his website: www.donaldwestlake.com.

Editorial Reviews

… no matter how fast Dortmunder scrambles to adjust his plan, he can't control the obsessive characters or anticipate the consequences when they all converge on the Fareweather place on the day the burglary goes down. Which only proves the truth of Dortmunder's downbeat philosophy -- ''You think everything's O.K. in life, and then something different happens'' -- and the genius of Westlake's fatalistic comic vision.
— The New York Times

Janet Maslin

Begin laughing right now. Offensive fence Arnie Albright's been sent to a Caribbean Club Med by his family in hopes that, once there, he'll develop charm and social skills. Instead, he finds a mark, Preston Fareweather, who's spent the past three years there hiding out from the subpoenas of his four ex-wives. (Fareweather: "To have ex-wives is normal. It's merely the end product of lust.") So his multimillion-dollar New York penthouse with its Picassos and Ming vases is empty, as Arnie explains to Dortmunder, Tiny, Kelp and Stan when he returns. But there are some snags. The gang can't reconnoiter as usual at the O.J. Bar & Grill because Mikey the mobster has taken it over. Will Dortmunder (The Road to Ruin, 2004, etc.) ever get another house bourbon-and-ice again? Even once Mikey's out, he doesn't go quietly but puts a tail on Dortmunder that leads directly to the Fareweather penthouse and the moving van that Stan has confiscated from undercover feds to haul the loot away. By this time, however, Fareweather, gulled by yet another beauty, has retreated to the empty penthouse, which now plays headquarters to: our gang; young Judson Blint, who is being trained, sort of, to join our gang; the mobsters' gang; and Fareweather. Can the cops be far behind? Can the laughs? A top-flight caper from Westlake, who can outconnive anyone in the writing business.

Kirkus Reviews