Customer Reviews

Busy Body

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

 

 

The Busy Body was written in Westlake's early career and although still a very enjoyable tale, just lacks the masterpiece level of a lot of his other work. So what sort of novel is it? Well it's a mystery set in the mafia world. It has some elements of a comic caper such as a few dimwitted characters for the main one to interact with, but doesn't really have any eccentric characters that most of Westlake's comic capers do. You've got to remember at the time this was written there had really only been one, what would later be classified under the genre comic caper, which was written the year before and was of course The Fugitive Pigeon. The other Westlake work around the early and mid sixties was a lot heavier crime writing such as 361 and Pity Him Afterwards. The Busy Body is certainly light reading and nowhere near as intense as those novels and a sign Westlake wanted to further develop the successful different directional arm he had earlier created with Pigeon. The next book actually written after Busy Body was arguably one of Westlake's greatest comic capers, the spy caper The Spy in the Ointment so the comic caper vibe you can certainly see building as you read these pages. The comic elements of Busy Body are more in the situations faced by the main character, more than the usual portrayal through the characters.

The basic plot of Busy Body is heroin drug smuggler for the mob, Charlie Brody, passes away upon his return to New York. Since the mob hadn't had a death in years and the ones they had were just everyday funerals they decided to celebrate and have a massive funeral even though Charlie was way down the mob ladder and was really nothing more than a drug mule. It is only when his grieving widow mentions how appreciative she is of mob boss Nick Rovito to put this on for her husband and allow her to ride with him in the lead car on the way to bury the coffin, that the mob learn she requested the funeral home without telling anyone in the mob, to bury him in his nice blue suit that he wore every day he went to work. Unfortunately no one had ever told her just how her husband carried the heroin back to New York, that being in the seams of the suit which was ripped apart and mended each time. Unfortunately for someone else who had the responsibility to collect the suit, they just plain forgot in the excitement of the funeral "party". For Al Engel, Rovito's right hand man, his night is only slightly more fortunate. Rovito orders him to go to the grave in the early hours of the morning, dig up the coffin and get back the suit, plus kill two bird with one stone so to speak and whack the guy who will help him dig who they were planning on killing anyway and hey whose going to look in the coffin after Engel refills in the dirt? While there are many problems along the way such as not being able to drive the only car suited to blend in to the neighbourhood which happens to be a manual car and the idiot that he is supposed to kill being absolutely wasted on alcohol the biggest problem is, there's no body in the coffin. Rovito's not a man you can tell you failed with a task and it is up to Engel to find Charlie Brody's body before Rovito's patience runs out. Of course he has to first work out why anyone would want to steal a corpse and there's a heap of other hurdles to jump over along the way, including other corpses, mysterious women and a policeman determined to put Engel behind bars.

If you haven't already done so also check out Westlake's other comic capers. The best four comic capers at an absolute masterpiece level are, Smoke, The Spy in the Ointment and a New York Dance (also published as Dancing Aztecs) and Cops and Robbers. Other great comic capers worth checking out too are Gangway!, God Save the Mark, Who Stole Sassi Manoon?, Help I am Being Held Prisoner, Castle in the Air, Enough and High Adventure to name just a few!

Of course you've also got to check out his absolute masterpiece The Ax.

Al Engel is just a lower level MOB goon,
but when he is sent to dig up a dead messenger
his life take a right turn toward a long walk off a short pier.
And it all hinges on this beautiful blond named Margo Kane
who has just lost her husband.
The guy is just smart enough to avoid getting trashed
and try to get to the bottom of the disappearing body.
Not the best book I've ever read,but the plot with a little added would make a very good hard boiled movie script.

This is a very funny book. If you are a Donald E. Westlake fan, and haven't read this bood, then by all means read it!

This is a very funny book. If you are a Donald E. Westlake fan, and haven't read this bood, then by all means read it!