Bad News (Dortmunder Novels) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "John Dortmunder was a man on whom the sun shone only when he needed darkness..." (more)
Key Phrases: sacred tribal lands, sand spreader, three tribes, Little Feather, New York, Judge Higbee (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When the smartest writer of lighthearted crime fiction brings John Dortmunder back after a five-year hiatus, his fans are in for a double helping of fun. Before the plot takes its first outlandish turn, Dortmunder's having a kind of midlife crisis: what's a career crook to do when his most recent attempt at restocking the family coffers ends in a botched burglary? Dortmunder makes his escape by pretending to be a customer caught napping in the optician's office of a New Jersey discount store after midnight, but he's unable to set up a new heist. Hoping to recoup his losses, he signs on with his old friend Andy Kelp, who's made an Internet connection with a bizarre scam artist named Fitzroy Guilderpost.

Guilderpost's plan to take over an Indian gambling casino requires the replacement of one dead Indian buried in a Queens cemetery with another corpse, who's actually related to Guilderpost's partner, a Las Vegas chorine named Little Feather. Dortmunder and pals have to spirit Joseph Redcorn out of the plot he's been occupying for nearly a century and replace him with Little Feather's grandfather, who's been dead for quite a spell himself. Little Feather will inherit a third of the casino if she can prove she's related to the newly planted Indian, who belonged to a vanishing tribe, the Pottaknobbees.

Dortmunder can smell the wool being pulled over his eyes and has no intention of playing the fleeced sheep, not when he sees a way to cut himself and Andy in for a partner's share of the profits. But the casino's current owners are as crooked as Fitzroy Guilderpost, so while switching one dead Indian with another isn't tough, even for a fellow who hates physical labor as much as Dortmunder does, keeping him planted long enough for the law to match his DNA with Little Feather's is a much more problematic enterprise.

This is one of Dortmunder's most picaresque adventures (The Hot Rock, Don't Ask, etc.), and shows off author Donald E. Westlake's gifts: the pacing as swift as a dealer's shuffle, the secondary characters and the convoluted twists and turns of the plot worthy of the late Ross Thomas. And speaking of switched bodies and stolen identities… is it possible that Donald Westlake is Ross Thomas? (Don't panic; it's just wishful thinking from a big fan of the comic caper genre. But when you've worked your way through Westlake's oeuvre of over 50 novels, and reread every Elmore Leonard you can get your hands on, you might want to make your way to Ross Thomas's back list, too). --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

Westlake fans will welcome the return, after a five-year hiatus, of luckless burglar John Dortmunder and his gang of lowlifes from the back room of the O.J. Bar and Grill. In this, perhaps the best Dortmunder novel so far, Andy Kelp, Tiny Bulcher and the Murches (Stan and Mom) join Dortmunder in horning in on another crew's scam cheating two Native American tribes out of one-third of the take from a lucrative Indian casino in upstate New York. Fitzroy Guilderpost, mastermind of the con (and a memorable Westlake creation one hopes to see again), has enlisted Little Feather Redcorn, a Las Vegas card dealer and showgirl, to pose as the last living member of an extinct tribe with a claim to the casino. Unknown to the schemers, the casino managers have been cooking their books and will go to any length to avoid sharing the wealth. As the foes switch dead Indians from grave to grave, seeking to prove or deny Little Feather's tribal membership, Dortmunder plots an impossible and hilarious robbery using a blizzard as an accessory, and comes up with the usual mixed results. Now that Westlake has resumed both the Dortmunder series and (writing as Richard Stark) the Parker novels, his fans again have a choice of the amusing, relatively benign capers of the Dortmunder clan and the cold crimes of the felonious Parker and his endless trail of bloody bodies and blown safes. This latest carries on the Dortmunder tradition and raises it to new standards. (Apr. 11) Forecast: With the June 1 release of the film of What's the Worst That Could Happen?, which features Danny DeVito as the villain, MWA Grand Master and three-time Edgar winner Westlake seems headed for the kind of success his hapless hero can only dream of.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Press (April 11, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 089296717X
• ISBN-13: 978-0892967179
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #678,108 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE GOOD NEWS IS "BAD NEWS", May 11, 2001

By	Robert Edler "Master Of Mystery" (Saint Louis, Missouri USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Finally, after five long years, Dortmunder is back along with his ever-loving May and his sidekicks-in-crime Andy Kelp, Tiny Boucher, Stan Murch and Murch's Mom. "So, who's Dortmunder," you ask? Well, where have you been for the past quarter of a century? He's just main character in the most hilarious crime caper series ever created. He's...well, actually, the author tells you everything you need to know about the character in the opening line of this book. "John Dortmunder was a man on whom the sun shown only when he needed darkness."

Things always seem to go wrong whenever Dortmunder plans the perfect crime. And rest assured, as you might expect author, Donald E. Westlake, has invented new and side-splitting ways for things to go wrong during this visitation. John Dortmunder is your basic professional (or unprofessional) breaking and entering artist, a.k.a. burglar. So how does your basic burglar end up in the middle of con caper digging up the remains of a long dead Native American, a.k.a. Indian?

Well, it's probably because he didn't get the thousand bucks for the cameras he was stealing from the Speedshop before he got locked in the optical department. And that all takes place in the first few pages of this new page-turner.

Dortmunder fans will really enjoy this new adventure. And yes, there is the mandatory visit to O. J. Bar and Grill on Amsterdam Avenue where the discussion of "the regulars" centers on the names of Santa's reindeer and the seven dwarfs. If you're not a fan, get this book and you soon will be!

As for author, Donald E. Westlake (a.k.a. John B. Allan, Tucker Coe, Curt Clark, Timothy J. Culver, Morgan J. Cunningham, Samuel Holt and Richard Stark), I've been a fan for almost as long as he's been writing - which is almost, but not quite as long I I've been reading. The bad news about Bad News is I read it too fast and now I'll have to wait five years for the next Dortmunder!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dortmunder lives!, December 26, 2003

By	Ernest Joselovitz (Rockville, MD USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Bad News (Dortmunder Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

There are very few writers who can sustain a humorous novel. It is a talent wildly under-appreciated until one seeks out those few examples of truly funny books: currently, David Lodge, last century, P.G. Wodehouse. A few others. And then there are the Dortmunder novels by Westlake, who takes the mystery genre and turns it into clever, lovable, hilarious adventures of these star-crossed robbers.

This one, his most recent, returns to the level of his earlier ones, those memorable ones like the serial robberies in HOT ROCKS and "bank-robbing" taken too literally in BANK SHOT and the un-robbery of WHY ME?

These are shamelessly shallow feel-good lovable entertainments: a rare accomplishment for any novelist in any period. This one, about DNA and Native Americans' casinos, is a splendid hoot.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Westlake's Brilliant (Criminal) Career, July 7, 2001

By	William Peschel (Hershey, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What's bad news for John Dortmunder, the talented but unlucky thief, is good news for mystery readers. It's been five years since we've heard from Donald Westlake's creation, but while he's been away, Dortmunder hasn't lost any of his zip, whether evading police inside a Sam's Club-like megastore to planning the burglary of a mansion guarded with the latest high-tech security measures.

It wouldn't be giving too much of the book away to say that "Bad News" could also be subtitled, "Or, the Last of the Pottaknobbees." That is the scam Dortmunder stumbles into while switching bodies during a contract job in a Long Island cemetery. Soon, he and his confederates -- the massive Tiny and the smooth car thief Andy Kelp -- are freezing in the woods of upstate New York, helping to pass off a Las Vegas casino dealer as the last of her Native American tribe, and therefore the one-third owner of a reservation casino worth millions. It's not an easy task, dodging stake-outs, the police, the casino's owners and the trio's reluctant partners, but "Bad News" hums along as Dortmunder and crew maneuver -- on eggshells sometimes -- among a gallery of rogues, imbeciles and everyday misfits.

Westlake has been around long enough that it may be difficult to realize just how truly inventive and consistent he is. He's delivered the goods in works ranging from comic novels ("Baby Would I Lie?") to his hard-edged Richard Stark series, to caper novels that tread a fine line in between the extremes ("Kahawa," set in Idi Amin's Uganda), and the corporate satire, "The Axe." "Bad News" is another welcome addition to Westlake's collection of must-read and must-re-read books.