Customer Reviews

Bank Shot

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

No matter how painstakingly John Dortmunder plans his burglaries, there always seems to be some fly in the ointment. It is the nature of the foul-ups and the brilliant changes of plan that make the Dortmunder series so enjoyable.

This time Dortmunder and his mixed-bag crew are planning to steal a bank. That's right, not rob a bank, but actually, physically, steal a bank.

As you can imagine, to achieve such an ambitious task takes a fair bit of planning not to mention luck. Dortmunder is a master planner, so they've got that bit covered, unfortunately the luck side of the equation is a tad skinny, and this is where the laughs are provided.

Donald Westlake is a master of farce, and Bank Shot certainly doesn't disappoint. This is a great diversion with an interesting caper brought to us by likable, amusing characters.

If you share a bedroom with someone, don't read this book in bed! Keeping a room-mate awake by laughing aloud long and frequently could be hazardous to your relationship! One of Westlake's most preposterous and believable plots. (How does he do that?)

Dortmunder, the premier robbery planner in crime fiction, begins the story by selling encyclopedia. I remember selling encyclopedia door to door and assure you that it can be a lousy job. But Dortmunder is between heists and needs the money. Despite a great sales pitch, the housewife calls the police and he is on the lam again (loses his expensive sales kit while getting away). Kelp, his friend and partner in crime, meets Dortmunder, gives him a ride, loses control of the car, and slams on his brakes causing an accident. A strange beginning for a strange book.

"Bank Shot" is one of the most entertaining books I have read in years. This is a special crime mystery. Donald Westlake decided to write humorous crime stories about a master planner called Dortmunder. Westlake's idea is a marvelous success. Bank Shot is the second in a series of Dortmunder tales.

Kelp, as usual, has an idea for a heist. He tells Dortmunder who is less than supportive, decides to try it because he is running low on cash. What worries Dortmunder is that: the bank is a mobile home, so to steal the money they must steal the bank; Kelp's nephew, who is a former FBI agent, wants to join the gang; and both Dortmunder's girlfriend and Murch's mom are suddenly part of the crew.

Before reading the book, if I were to list all that could go wrong with a "pre-planned" bank robbery, my imagination would never yield the startling and hilarious events in "Bank Shot". I highly recommend the novel to readers everywhere.

John Dortmunder is a careful guy who is always looking for a reasonable way to make crime pay. Between major jobs, he's pulling the old "give me a deposit for the encyclopedia" con, working door-to-door in the suburbs. During the recession in the early 1970s, he can earn a pretty decent living doing this. But Mae (his live-in girl friend) knows that Dortmunder needs something to occupy his mind. So when the crazy ex-FBI agent kid shows up with a nutty scheme to steal a whole bank, she encourages Dortmunder to plan it out. From that humble beginning, the humorous complications just keep piling on in unexpected ways!

Donald Westlake is a master of setting up the absolutely ridiculous situation. He uses the Dortmunder character as a surrogate for the reader's perspective, so you can laugh at how you would react in the same situation. Like Jane Langton, he also likes to have fun with pointing out how people miss what is just under their noses.

The book is also a satire on all of those great theft stories, like The Thomas Crown Affair, in which little is what it seems. The difference is that this is The Thomas Crown Affair Meets the Three Stooges. Dortmunder's gang is as rag-tag a group as you can imagine, but they manage to keep stumbling forward.

I particularly admired how the same story element of the bank's mobility is reused time and again for different plot and humor developments. Mr. Westlake is a most imaginative writer!

One of the book's most interesting themes is that a piece of good luck is always met by a piece of bad luck, and vice versa. These reversals take the story off in all kinds of unexpected ways (not unlike the unfolding of The Sting).

The basic plot revolves around a quite clever idea, using a bank office located in a mobile home as a large version of the letter in "The Purloined Letter." If you were planning to steal a bank, where would you hide it? I know that my drives will never be the same in the future. I'll be looking for places to hide banks!

Mr. Westlake does a marvelous job of keeping the reader in suspense about how the story will end. I suspect that few will guess the book's final three scenes.

This audio cassette version of the book is very well in presenting the dry humor necessary to carry off the wonderfully witty fictional pictures Westlake draws in your mind.

After you finish this story, I suggest that you think about places where you could accomplish your goal better by taking on a larger goal. For example, if you want enough money to retire at age 55, how about setting a goal of being able to create more wealth whenever you want? That idea may sound ridiculous, but public companies can issue more stock . . . and have more cash . . . in all but the worst market environments. So starting a company that can go public could better fulfill your retirement goal than just focusing on the retirement goal itself. Where else can raising the bar be helpful?

Can you take your best shot to the bank?

I have read most all of Westlake's Dortmunder books, and I would have to rate this as the best. It is incredibly funny and clever. But what ever you do, don't see the horrible movie based on the book and starring George C. Scott. What a terrible shame that that mess of a movie was made when the book offered the perfect film vehicle

Sure, lots of thieves can rob banks, but it takes Westlake's own Dortumunder to steal the bank itself. I laughed out loud on many pages, and could not put it down when I got to the "Murphy's Law" of endings! I have read most of the Dortmunder series, and I look forward in every one to hearing what the "regulars" are discussing in the bar..some of the funniest writing today!

Master criminal planner Dortmander is reduced to peddling encyclopedias door-to-door to the housewives living on Long Island when his friend Kelp tells him about a "sure thing." Seems Kelp's nephew Victor is a former FBI agent who has noticed a perfect opportunity - a local bank is undergoing major renovation and so operations have been temporarily moved to a mobile home in a nearby vacant lot. All they have to do is hitch the trailer to a truck and they can steal the entire bank!

Westlake created a wonderful character with Dortmander - a master planner of elaborate crimes who is cursed with a gang of not-quite-competent accomplices. If anything can go wrong with Dortmander's perfect plan, it will. The only thing that seems to save Dortmander and his friends is that the police are equally (or more) inept than the crooks. I just find myself cheering for Dortmander's crew, sharing their frustrations, shaking my head at their obvious mistakes, chuckling at their mishaps. This comic caper is the perfect antidote to a gray dreary day. I'll be smiling for hours just thinking about it.

The second novel in the John Dortmunder comic caper series, Bank Shot starts off a bit slow but once the caper actually begins is as good as any other Dortmunder novel. This 1972 first published adventure is also historically important as the novel where May, John's girlfriend appears on the scene and through a flashback memory we learn how the two of them met. Also the first novel where the Continental Detective Agency (a security guard company) has their laid back night interrupted by one of John's plans.

Basic plot of Bank Shot is Andy Kelp's (regular gang member in the series) nephew Victor, who was kicked out of the FBI as he kept trying to get a secret handshake going, comes up with the idea to rob a bank housed inside a customised mobile office. Problem is the bank is wired to set off alarms in a police station not too far away if the walls and floors are broken into. So it's not too long once Dortmunder comes on the scene that the idea changes from robbing the bank to actually stealing and driving away with the entire bank. They will then get into the safe in a quiet place away from the scene and police. Like all Dortmunder novels, nothing goes as simply as first thought, Dortmunder and the gang are going to have to overcome sudden bouts of bad news, and Murphy's law hurdles such as the bank no longer having wheels.

Once the caper begins, this equals any adventure the team's been on together. The first half doesn't move at the same pace as most Dortmunder novels and if someone wasn't familiar with how good and funny this series, or Westlake's independent storyline comic capers are, it's possible they wouldn't even get to the great writing of the second half. Herman a man who usually commits crimes on behalf of a black political movement was an interesting addition to the team before the bank caper started and the best parts of the first half of the book, but was a bit boring once the bank heist began. The other non regular, Victor doesn't add a great deal either, to the plot or the quality of the novel.

A fantastic follow up to 'The Hot Rock'. Dortmunder's old pal Kelp convinces him once again to plan a robbery that will make all of them rich! However, the only way to get the money is to steal the whole bank! I don't want to spoil it for you so I'll say no more. But trust me! This is even better than 'The Hot Rock' - crazier, more fun - a must read for fans of Westlake. Munch and his mother return (with mom playing a big part in this scheme); and now Dortmunder has a live-in love who gets caught up in the action too. For a short novel it packs in alot of action and great characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am so hooked on the Dortmunder series now that I have to read them all!

This is but one of several novels by Westlake with Dortmunder as the main character; and what a character. He is marginally smarter than his colleagues in crime, but they are always screwing things up or having bad luck. He's always complaining and sort of expects the worst. They've made some bad movies about some of this series of books, but the books are wonderful. Read anything with Dortmunder in it - "Drowned Hopes" was probably my favorite, but "What's the Worst That Could Happen" and his most recent one "Bad News" are also classics.