Jimmy the Kid

A Dortmunder Novel

By: Donald E. Westlake

Narrated by: Brian Holsopple

Kelp has a plan, and John Dortmunder knows that means trouble. His friend Kelp is a jinx, and his schemes, no matter how well intentioned, tend to spiral quickly out of control. But this one, Kelp swears, is airtight. He read it in a book.

In county lock-up for a traffic charge, Kelp came across a library of trashy novels by an author named Richard Stark. The hero is a thief named Parker whose plans, unlike Kelp and Dortmunder's, always work out. In one, Parker orchestrates a kidnapping so brilliant that, Kelp thinks, it would have to work in real life. Though offended that his usual role as planner has been usurped, Dortmunder agrees to try using the novel as a blueprint. Unfortunately, what's simple on the page turns complex in real life, and there is no book to guide him through the madness he's signed on for.

©1974 Donald E. Westlake. Recorded by arrangement with Mysterious Press.com, LLC (P)2013 HighBridge Company

Another great Dortmunder

Dortmunder reluctantly gets involved with Andy Kelp in a kidnapping this time. As usual, there are many amusing missteps and mishaps , but it is a fun ride and thoroughly enjoyable. You don't want to miss it!

The Kid Steals the Show

Any additional comments?

Another great entry in the Dortmunder series. I was laughing out loud at a scene where Dortmunder's gang is trying to pull off a kidnapping while in rubber masks.

What a hoot!

I love the Dortmunder series for what it is! Give me more and more of the gang that could shouldn't shoot straight. I am happy to laugh my way through their escapades time after time. Here is a book that you can read with a light heart and a big laugh. Here is a book that isn't pretending or even trying to be great literature. It has no depth. It has no message. It doesn't even call out for a review.

A Comic Tour de Force

I've never seen a writer simultaneously:

1. Write a novel based on another novel that he never wrote.
2. Use the first, comic novel to satirize his own darker, more serious work.
3. Make me laugh so hard I almost fell out of my chair. Seriously.

To get the full comic wattage out of this little gem, start at the beginning. That means the first two Dortmunder novels, and at least the first two or three Parker novels (written under the Richard Stark label). Don't worry. You'll enjoy them. And you'll be fully prepared to enjoy this one even more.

At first, Brian Holsopple struck me as a little stiff. But as the story unfolded, I realized his semi-serious local newscaster tone was just that: semi-serious, the perfect key for this hilarious misadventure.

A fun crossover

Dortmunder and the gang come across a thrilling crime novel about a team heist led by a professional thief named Parker. Not only does it feature a decent plan like one they could have come up with, it's quite feasible how well the scheme worked out for the characters in that story. So as long as Kelp, Murch, and the others stick to the same plan, what could go wrong?

What they'll never know is, in an almost meta twist, that book's author, Richard Stark, is a pen name of the very author who writes the books they unknowingly live in. In our world, Stark's books have more grit, edge, and those characters are more prone to choose violence than Dortmunder and his friends. Meanwhile, "what could go wrong" is a primary comedic premise of the Dortmunder series, and its author, whose real name is Donald Westlake, is reliably up to the challenge of giving a clever answer to that question in his books, at the gang's expense of course.

The narrator has performed a couple of the Dortmunder audiobooks, and does good voices that give life to the comically likeable characters without distracting or breaking the immersion from the thrilling twists and turns of the story.

Early on, it felt like some details were missing, like the plan was underway without us the readers knowing very well what it was, but snippets of the contents of our protagonists' new favorite novel are revealed alongside their enacting of it, so the reader gets to experience the hilariously "stark" (sorry not sorry for the pun) contrast of results between the two.