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33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You can't go wrong with Westlake, June 16, 2008
This review is from: Somebody Owes Me Money (Mass Market Paperback)
Baseball, football and basketball all have their Halls of Fame. The equivalent among mystery writers would be the Grand Masters, a title awarded once a year to honor the lifetime achievement of a particular writer. The Grand Masters are the best of the best, and one of their most shining examples would be Donald Westlake.
Westlake has been writing crime stories for over four decades, both under his own name and his pseudonym, Richard Stark (he has had other pseudonyms such as Tucker Coe that have long since been retired). As Stark, he writes the classic Parker novels featuring the thief with a heart of steel. Under his own name, he has written Oscar-nominated screenplays (The Grifters) and a whole string of novels that are often, but not always, comic. Somebody Owes Me Money, the latest Hard Case Crime book to feature Westlake, is one of those comic novels.
The narrator of Somebody Owes Me Money is cab driver Chet Conway, an ordinary guy who likes to play the ponies, never getting seriously in debt but also never getting ahead. One of Chet's fares gives him a real tip: not money, but some inside information on a longshot that is certain to win. Conway takes a chance and on a small bet wins $930 (which in 1960's New York can go a long way).
Unfortunately, when he comes to collect from his bookie, the man is dead, leaving Chet in a bind. For one thing, the police are now regarding him with suspicion; for another, he doesn't know who to collect his winnings from. What's worse, it turns out that the bookie was entangled with two rival gangs, both of which suspect Chet of the killing, as does the bookie's beautiful blonde sister. For self-preservation - and to get his money - Chet will have to try and solve this crime himself.
As always, Westlake is a master of both suspense and humor, making this book a delight to read. If you're expecting one of Hard Case Crime's typical gritty pulp novels, this will be a bit of a surprise but no disappointment; you will get a nice example of what makes Westlake one of the very best in the business.
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Vastly entertaining, April 11, 2008
This review is from: Somebody Owes Me Money (Mass Market Paperback)
I'm really glad that Hard Case Crime has chosen to reprint this early Donald Westlake novel, not only because Somebody Owes Me Money is a really good book, but also for a more personal reason. I've been reading his series books for so long -- whether under his own name, or the Richard Stark pseudonym -- that I had really forgotten how good Westlake could be at standalone comic crime novels.
The most eloquent cab driver in New York City, Chet Conway works nights so he can spend his days at the track (and he works days where there are no races). When he gets a tip on a horse instead of the usual spendable gratuity, Chet decides that a man who can calculate in his head the return on a $3.54 bet at 22-to-1 odds must know what he's talking about.
But when Chet goes to pick up his winnings ("Almost a thousand dollars! I was rich!"), he finds his bookie Tommy McKay "spread out on the floor, sunny side up. With the yolk broken." And suddenly people start thinking he did it. Tommy's wife Louise, the police, the syndicate, etc. But nobody seems to know where he can go now to collect his $930.00 payoff.
When Tommy's sister Abbie climbs into his cab, things take a definite turn for the worse. Chet gets shot in the head and has to recuperate at Tommy's place, where eventually every member of organized crime in the city treads through, wanting to know why Chet killed Tommy. Chet has to clear his name by figuring out the real killer.
Somebody Owes Me Money is one of the few actual mysteries put out by Hard Case Crime. Off the top of my head I can only think of three, but they all involve licensed private investigators, as opposed to this amateur. After all, Chet may be eloquent, but, like all good crime protagonists, he's also a little dim. (Truly smart people manage to avoid these situations.)
God Save the Mark is more wildly clever (it's Westlake's masterpiece, in my opinion), and any given Dortmunder book has more belly laughs, but Somebody Owes Me Money is still vastly entertaining (with an ending that is 180° from the typical whodunit) and yet another reason why every Donald E. Westlake book, even the lesser-known ones, should stay continuously in print.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everybody's After Chet, April 3, 2010
This review is from: Somebody Owes Me Money (Mass Market Paperback)
When poker playing, racetrack going, cab driver Chester "Chet" Conway gets stiffed on a tip he's a bit miffed. Then the fair gives him a tip of a different kind. A sure thing. The man seemed to know his stuff, so Chet calls his bookie Tommie McKay and places a bet and to his surprise the horse comes in and Chet wins $930, almost a thousand bucks, he feels rich. But when he goes to collect, he finds Tommy "spread out on the floor, sunny side up. With the yolk broken." This is not good, all of a sudden he's gone from riches to inches away from being booked for murder.
And to make matters worse there are two rival gangs who think Chet did it and for reasons of their own are after Chet. Then Tommy's wife goes missing. Things just aren't looking good for poor Chester. And I shouldn't forget to mention Abbie, Tommy's revenge seeking sister, definitely a girl you don't want to mess with.
Chet better find out what really happened before he's next on the list. Plus there's that matter of the almost one thousand dollars, somebody owes Chet $930. This is simply a great story that delivers great characters and some good laughs along the way. Kudos to Hard Case Crime for bringing back this 1969 Donald Westlake Mystery.
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