What's the Worst That Could Happen?

Rating:
Summary: Highly Original
Review: Burglars such as John Dortmunder can accept getting caught and turned over to the police, it goes with the territory. So it was with an air of inevitability that Dortmunder allowed himself to be handcuffed by the police after making the mistake of getting caught while robbing billionaire Max Fairbanks. What is totally unacceptable is, while in custody and about to be taken to the station, the same Max Fairbanks brazenly steals Dortmunder's 'lucky' ring.

John is determined to recover his ring and won't rest until he has it. The fact that he's up against a billionaire with virtually unlimited resources isn't enough to alter his resolve. So we follow caper after caper as John and his old friend Andy Kelp make their attempts which occur in New York City, Washington D.C. and then, in a rousing finale, in Las Vegas.

This is the 9th book in the Dortmunder series and is an outstanding story that contains all the humour and characters of the previous books, but is different for one important reason. It looks as though John's luck may have changed, although he won't hear of it. It's the paradox between the luck Dortmunder thinks he is experiencing and the luck he's actually having that provides many of the more amusing moments.

Donald Westlake's John Dortmunder series has provided me with some of the most consistently entertaining reading of any author I have read in recent years. The books are complete farces, yet have been presented with the greatest imagination possible. What's The Worst That Could Happen picks up this precedent and carries it even further. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good laugh.

Rating:
Summary: Plot twists to bust a gut over.
Review: Donald E. Westlake is one of the funniest authors on record. His Dortmunder series enthralls me every time I reread it. I think he gets better with each book. "Don't Ask" was a riot. "Smoke" wasn't in the series, but was a joy. I hope there are future editions of the series to come.

Rating:
Summary: Dortmunder's famous luck
Review: Hilariously clever, Westlake's 1996 John Dortmunder thriller turns on luck as the ingenious but luckless burglar's soulmate, May, receives a bequest, "a small box, such as earrings might come in, or a kidnap victim's finger."

In it is her dead uncle's "lucky" ring which fits Dortmunder perfectly. Wearing it, he embarks on a burgling job. But the corporate beach house is not empty. The owner, Max Fairbanks, one of the world's richest men, greets Dortmunder with a gun. Whimsically topping off his coup, Fairbanks announces to the police that Dortmunder has stolen his ring and gleefully appropriates Dortmunder's lucky piece.

A mistake. Dormunder, personally affronted, begins a single-minded quest to retrieve the ring by escaping the police and returning to the house, now disappointingly empty - of people, that is. Consoling himself with a rich haul, Dortmunder plots his next move, undeterred even by the prospect of pursuing Fairbanks beyond the bounds of his New York world. Meanwhile the burglary is the start of a spectacular downhill slide for Fairbanks.

Westlake's prose hurtles along with the twists of the plot as loot fairly jumps into the hands of Dortmunder's gang (growing larger at every turn) while the ring continues to elude him. The final caper unleashes a veritable army of New York's thieves on an extremely suspicious and watchful Las Vegas. This is Westlake at his funniest.

Rating:
Summary: I can't wait to read more about my friends...
Review: I wish I could have John Dortmunder over for dinner. Westlake creates such a likeable, believable character. All the characters - they became my friends as I read, I rooted for them, I wished I was on the caper with them. Excellent storytelling - brilliant characters.

Rating:
Summary: Good Comic Crime.
Review: I'll read anything that Westlake can crank out about his eccentric gang of professional criminals, even though the series has lost some of the zaniness and hilarious ineptitude of the characters in some his earlier efforts (like The Hot Rock). In this book, Dortmunder and his crew go head to head with an arrogant tycoon. Donald Westlake invented the genre of "Comic Crime" and never disappoints.

Rating:
Summary: Another Westlake/Dortmunder hit
Review: If you enjoyed the other books in the Dortmunder series, this one will not disappoint. If you haven't read any of this series,get with it - you don't know what you're missing! This novel had me laughing out loud, especially at the end. Most of the characters from the previous books in the series come back to pull a mega-heist, so if you had a favorite accomplice, you'll probably see him/her again.

Rating:
Summary: Whose Bad Luck Is It?
Review: In If you have read any of the previous novels about John Dortmunder, the imaginative planner for many a heist, you know that he lacks only one element to have a perfect life . . . some good luck. In What's the Worst That Could Happen? Talented crime caper author Donald E. Westlake reveals many ironies about our views on luck.

As the book opens, Dortmunder is offered $500 to pretend he is someone else at a deposition. He spends a week memorizing his lines, and is ready to go. Then he friend cancels the whole thing. So there's no $500 coming. As usual, such a setback sets Dortmunder in motion to find a new source of "easy" and illegal income.

May, Dortmunder's girl friend, receives a FedEx package, and is puzzled. Unexpectedly, her uncle, Gideon Gilbert Goodwin has died. Her sister, June, has decided to send her Uncle Gideon's "lucky ring." May remembers Uncle Gid as "the one who smelled like horse manure, I think. He was out at the track all the time." The ring was not too thrilling. It was "gold-looking but wasn't gold . . ." and "displayed on its flat surface three thin lines of tiny stones -- chips, really -- . . . that were probably glass." The top line was discontinuous with a blank in the middle. May's annoyed because she sees this as a gambit by June to get May to call her. The ring also doesn't fit her. She asks John to try it on. "You could use a little luck." The ring fits perfectly on the ring finger of his right hand. "So there you are," she said. "Your lucky ring."

Immediately, the phone rings and a friend, Gus, offers him the chance to work on a burglary that night. A billionaire, Max Fairbanks, "is in Chapter Eleven, so the house his corporation owns . . . is under control of the bankruptcy court, so nobody's supposed to go there, so it's empty."

Unfortunately, Max has decided to sneak into the house to entertain Playboy's Miss September, Tracy Kimberly, for one last time before he loses the house. When Gus and Dortmunder break in, Max lifts his head from Tracy's navel, takes a gun from a bedside drawer, and catches Dortmunder in the act. When the police come, Max notices that Dortmunder's "lucky" ring has the same symbol on it as his corporation uses. Max tells the police that the ring belongs to him, and steals it from Dortmunder.

Although the ring has little real value, Dortmunder doesn't want to lose it because it's a gift from May. After one of the most hilarious escapes from the police that you will ever read about, he sets about recovering the ring. In a rare reversal of fortune, Dortmunder always succeeds in pulling off each caper . . . reaping lots of loot in the process, but he cannot recapture that "lucky" ring.

The people who are getting lucky are Dortmunder's friends who help him with the capers. Andy Kelp does best because he even finds a girl friend in the process.

Gradually, Max realizes that it is Dortmunder who is after him, so all the resources that a billionaire in bankruptcy can muster are arrayed against Dortmunder. The final showdown comes in Las Vegas in a hilarious caper that will remind you of many of the great Hollywood movies about knocking off casinos.

By the time you are done, you'll be wondering who and what are really lucky and about what.

Perhaps Dortmunder should realize that his good luck begins and ends with May. After all his previous relationship had been an unfortunate marriage to and divorce from a nightclub entertainer named Honeybun Bazoom in San Diego.

The main problem with the book is that Dortmunder is a lot funnier when he's having more problems. A lot of the tension that creates laughter is lost by having him successfully ripping off Max in New York, Washington and Las Vegas.

After you finish reading this book, think about where you have good luck . . . always!

Rating:
Summary: Whose Bad Luck Is It?
Review: In If you have read any of the previous novels about John Dortmunder, the imaginative planner for many a heist, you know that he lacks only one element to have a perfect life . . . some good luck. In What's the Worst That Could Happen? Talented crime caper author Donald E. Westlake reveals many ironies about our views on luck.

As the book opens, Dortmunder is offered $500 to pretend he is someone else at a deposition. He spends a week memorizing his lines, and is ready to go. Then he friend cancels the whole thing. So there's no $500 coming. As usual, such a setback sets Dortmunder in motion to find a new source of "easy" and illegal income.

May, Dortmunder's girl friend, receives a FedEx package, and is puzzled. Unexpectedly, her uncle, Gideon Gilbert Goodwin has died. Her sister, June, has decided to send her Uncle Gideon's "lucky ring." May remembers Uncle Gid as "the one who smelled like horse manure, I think. He was out at the track all the time." The ring was not too thrilling. It was "gold-looking but wasn't gold . . ." and "displayed on its flat surface three thin lines of tiny stones -- chips, really -- . . . that were probably glass." The top line was discontinuous with a blank in the middle. May's annoyed because she sees this as a gambit by June to get May to call her. The ring also doesn't fit her. She asks John to try it on. "You could use a little luck." The ring fits perfectly on the ring finger of his right hand. "So there you are," she said. "Your lucky ring."

Immediately, the phone rings and a friend, Gus, offers him the chance to work on a burglary that night. A billionaire, Max Fairbanks, "is in Chapter Eleven, so the house his corporation owns . . . is under control of the bankruptcy court, so nobody's supposed to go there, so it's empty."

Unfortunately, Max has decided to sneak into the house to entertain Playboy's Miss September, Tracy Kimberly, for one last time before he loses the house. When Gus and Dortmunder break in, Max lifts his head from Tracy's navel, takes a gun from a bedside drawer, and catches Dortmunder in the act. When the police come, Max notices that Dortmunder's "lucky" ring has the same symbol on it as his corporation uses. Max tells the police that the ring belongs to him, and steals it from Dortmunder.

Although the ring has little real value, Dortmunder doesn't want to lose it because it's a gift from May. After one of the most hilarious escapes from the police that you will ever read about, he sets about recovering the ring. In a rare reversal of fortune, Dortmunder always succeeds in pulling off each caper . . . reaping lots of loot in the process, but he cannot recapture that "lucky" ring.

The people who are getting lucky are Dortmunder's friends who help him with the capers. Andy Kelp does best because he even finds a girl friend in the process.

Gradually, Max realizes that it is Dortmunder who is after him, so all the resources that a billionaire in bankruptcy can muster are arrayed against Dortmunder. The final showdown comes in Las Vegas in a hilarious caper that will remind you of many of the great Hollywood movies about knocking off casinos.

By the time you are done, you'll be wondering who and what are really lucky and about what.

Perhaps Dortmunder should realize that his good luck begins and ends with May. After all his previous relationship had been an unfortunate marriage to and divorce from a nightclub entertainer named Honeybun Bazoom in San Diego.

The main problem with the book is that Dortmunder is a lot funnier when he's having more problems. A lot of the tension that creates laughter is lost by having him successfully ripping off Max in New York, Washington and Las Vegas.

After you finish reading this book, think about where you have good luck . . . always!

Rating:
Summary: Dortmunder, funny as always.
Review: John Dortmunder is a burglar. While on what should have been an easy job he's caught by the pistol-toting homeowner and gets caught. That's bad enough, but the homeowner, wealthy Max Fairbanks, adds insult to injury when he claims that Dortmunder's lucky ring actually belongs to him. Big mistake. Dortmunder vows to get the ring back no matter what which leads to a series of funny capers where Max Fairbanks loses more and more wealth until the slam-bang finish in Las Vegas.

I've been reading the Dortmunder novels for years and they never disappoint. They are always funny with a little cockeyed slant to them that Donald Westlake is famous for. They are just fun books to read and I'd recommend any of them.

Rating:
Summary: A comic crime caper novel about poetic justice
Review: Mr. Westlake is a genius in gaining the sympathy of the reader for the inept badluck crook, John Dortmunder. The novel is well-written and kept my attention. Part of the humor in it is that a small-time hood can have a sense of righteous indignity at being "done unto" in the attempt to "do unto" somebody else. In this sense, the poetic justice is meted upon Dortmunder. Ultimately, however, the pilfering wealthy guy gets the poetic justice, in spades. I have heartily enjoyed the whole Dortmunder series, and it was this character who won Mr. Westlake a spot on my "if-he-wrote-it-I-must-have-it" author list (which is fairly exclusive)