Westlake writes so smooth and as usual things don't quite work out for Dortmunder. A perfect read from start to finish ( )

Another fun heist story :) ( )

What’s so funny?
At first reading this is a good, funny criminal romp. But it is different from all the other Westlake Dortmunder reads. For a start it’s longer, unusual for this brilliant author who liked to earn his money in as few paragraphs as possible.
Dortmunder often takes the backseat in this book. He is surly, scruffy, preoccupied. In one chapter a young lawyer even mistakes him for a beggar and almost gives him a handout. He is not the slick “ideas criminal” we all know and love.
The people on the pages draw attention to the class divide in our society, they are very real and well drawn in the briefest possible way. Westlake takes delight in backhand swipes at big lawyers and officialdom throughout. The effect is Dickensian (Westlake even mentions this word four times in one paragraph towards the end of the novel).
It is as if DW intended this to be a social comment within a crime story from the very beginning. All the clues are there if you look for them, there is no other reason for the title of the book “What’s so funny?”
In conclusion, I think DW had fun showing us samples of the people who make up this complicated New York (or almost any town) and cleverly weaving them into the yarn. Go back and have another read, almost everyone you know is in this book. ( )

Not the best Dortmunder book, but fun none-the-less! John gets put up by a private-eye type, "17 months not a cop" says he, to steal a gold chess set from a bank's vault. And there is also a gold dome that might need some thieving! And, of course, the whole crew gets involved and it's typical Dortmunder luck from then on! The story does go on a bit, but the ending is well done! Not so funny after all! ( )

Another fun Dortmunder story. Sadly, however, I bought the book by mail from a dealer who advertised the book as "NEW". When I got the book it had someone's name plate on the inside over and the page edges were greyish. But I decided to keep the book, since I love Dortmunder. Imagine my anger, anguish and annoyance when I get to the part where you know something is going to go wrong (four pages from the end) and the page has been ripped out of the book!

Needless to say, the book is being returned. But I implore my fellow LT'ers... if anyone with this book in their collection would scan pages 355-356 for me I would be sooo grateful. I could make it a four star book instead of a 3.5, I'm sure, if I just knew what happened! I kind of know, but I would like to find out the how... ( )