Money for Nothing [Hardcover]

Donald E. Westlake (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2003 | Series: Westlake, Donald

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 another, and another...and Josh cashed them all. Month after month, year after year, never a peep from the IRS, never an explanation for all this seemingly found money; the checks even followed Josh from one address to another as he moved through life. Now, after a full seven years, we find him on his way to meet the wife and kids for a summer vacation. Puzzled by the approach of a smiling stranger, Josh's stomach seizes with dread when the unwanted greeting begins with, 'I am from United States Agent.' Dumbstruck, Josh attempts to feign ignorance until he hears the words, 'You are now active.'

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Proving the old adage that there's no such thing as the windfall promised by the title, Westlake starts this funny divertissement with an intriguing premise: Mr. American Everyman, young, ambitious, decent, honorable husband and father, has been receiving a check for $1,000 once a month from an unknown benefactor for seven years. Just when Josh Redmont has finally stopped worrying about where the money comes from or what it means, a stranger with a foreign accent approaches him on the Fire Island ferry and clues him in. Therein hangs the tale of who's behind Josh good fortune and what kind of bill has come due for all those tax-free dollars. Unbeknownst to our hapless hero, he's been a "sleeper agent" whose paymaster has awakened him just in time to play a big role in a political assassination. How Josh gets out of a mess he had no idea he was in drives the lively narrative to its breathless conclusion. Westlake is the undisputed master of the caper genre--although Money for Nothing may not be as deviously convoluted or sidesplittingly comic as some of his earlier novels (The Ax, Put a Lid On It), it's well worth the reader's attention and appreciation. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

Prolific MWA Grand Master Westlake's latest novel has neither the engaging characters of his Dortmunder series nor the comic zing of his previous stand-alone, Put a Lid On It (2002), but it does offer an entertaining answer to the timeless debate over whether anything in life is ever truly free. Josh Redmont, a struggling New York office temp, receives a $1,000 check in the mail from United States Agent, a firm he's never heard of and, despite his best attempts, is unable to contact. He decides to deposit the check, and it clears. So begins the biggest mistake of his life, as checks arrive each month for the next seven years, seemingly a tax-free error in his favor. Then one day a man on the Fire Island ferry tells Redmont he's from U.S. Agent and states, "You are now active." By now a successful advertising executive with a wife and young son, Redmont finds his life turned upside-down as he's drawn into a terrorist plot to assassinate a visiting dignitary. His only hope is a disgruntled operative, Nimrin, who originally "recruited" him as a mole or sleeper agent without his knowledge. With time running out, Redmont must find two other moles recruited by Nimrin and turn the tables on the terrorists. Westlake creates a fascinating scenario, yet fails to fully develop Redmont and his fellow players. Some of the lesser characters are often more interesting than Redmont, who for all his charm and wit still comes across as a rather dull yuppie.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Press; First Edition edition (May 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892967870
• ISBN-13: 978-0892967872
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,114,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An amusing, engrossing spy romp, April 17, 2003

By 

Bruce Trinque (Amston, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Money for Nothing (Hardcover)

For seven years, each month Josh Redmont has been cashing thousand dollar checks from an unknown benefactor. Money for nothing. Until one day a mysterious stranger arrives to "activate" him, to become a spy for the Ukraine. The Ukraine? Well, Russia didn't get everything after the breakup of the Soviet Union, and in this case the Ukraine inherited a unwitting spy who is now expected to do something very deadly as payback for all that money.

I will not claim that "Money for Nothing" packs the emotional punch of Westlake's "The Ax" or "The Hook" or that it is quite so funny as the wonderful, googy Dortmunder books. But "Money for Nothing" is still an interesting read about a rather average guy who finds himself in a very deadly situation. Make no mistake about it, there is a very palpable sense of menace lurking here, and it is entirely believable that the real cost of the "money for nothing" may be the lives of Josh, his wife, and his son. There was enough suspense generated to keep me eagerly turning the pages to find out what would happen next. As good as "the Ax"? No. But good nonetheless? Definitely yes.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Don't Worry, We'll Think of Something, April 17, 2003

By 

S. Berner (Cocoa, Fl USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Money for Nothing (Hardcover)

Westlake is one of the great names in genre fiction (Actually, he's several of the great names in genre fiction, but that's another discussion, entirely), and a book by him is sure to be interesting, enticing, and eminently readable, at the very least. But, every so often, he produces something that reads more like an exercise than a fully thought out work. MFN is such a book. One can't get over the feeling that he came up with an amusing premise for a tale and then decided to challenge himself to see how many roadblocks he could put in his own way to try to figure out a solution. This, by the way, is similar to a couple of "challenge" novels he wrote with Brian Garfield a couple of decades ago wherein each author wrote a chapter whose main goal was to get the protagonists into an impossible situation and leave the other one to figure out how to extricate them. As a literary exercise, it's a lot of fun. As a novel, it leaves the reader asking "What next?", not in anticipation, but exasperation. Westlake can no more write a bad novel than Peter O'Toole can give a bad performance. But this is not one for the pantheon... more like for the underpatheon.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I Want My. . .I Want My. . .I Want My KGB, May 23, 2006

By 

Pseudonymous the Younger - See all my reviews

This review is from: Money for Nothing (Mass Market Paperback)

In Money for Nothing, a young slacker finds himself in dire straits. (Hey, I couldn't help it, all right). He's getting his checks for free. (Sorry. Sorry. I think I've got it out of my system now.) Let me start again.

In Money for Nothing, Josh Redmont, a college student is surprised when he starts receiving a $1000 check in the mail every month. He doesn't know who sent them or why, so, of course, he cashes them and spends the money. (Let's just say, he's not going to school on a Genius Grant,) And he keeps cashing them each month for seven years. Then, one day, a nice Russian gentleman from the KGB informs him that his cell of sleeper agents has been activated and that Josh has a little job to do--no big deal, just a minor assassination.

I had read several Donald Westlake books, most of them lighthearted novels about the unlucky burglar John Dortmunder. I was delighted with the Dortmunder stories; they manage to combine the excitement of the caper genre with the laughs of a good comic novel. I don't have those same good feelings about Money for Nothing.

The plot of Money for Nothing is thin enough to be a cover model for Vogue magazine. It isn't that compelling; this is a book that I could put down. The characters aren't much better. Westlake doesn't waste more than a few paragraphs on Josh's wife and child; they are there only to illicit your sympathy for Josh. Its hard to have any sympathy for Josh, himself; he is shallow and clueless, not the sort the reader wants to identify with. The humor, . . .well, perhaps two grins and guffhaw in the entire book. If you want to read funny crime novels, try the Dortmunder series or perhaps Fugitive Pigeon, another first rate novel by Westlake.

This novel is not up to Westlake's normal standards. If only someone had been looking over Westlake's shoulder when he was writing Money for Nothing, someone who could have said, "That ain't working. Here's the way you do it."