Showing results by author "Donald Westlake" in All Categories

Cab driver Chet Conway was hoping for a good tip from his latest fare, the sort he could spend. But what he got was a tip on a horse race; which might have turned out okay, except that when he went to collect his winnings, Chet found his bookie lying dead on the living room floor. Chet knows he had nothing to do with it.

Listen to mystery stories by today's top writers and the masters who inspired them. The idea for this collection came to Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Lawrence Block when he was asked, "What is your favorite mystery story?" Block compiled this unique collection by posing the same question to some of today's favorite writers of the genre, including Stephen King, Tony Hillerman, and John Lutz.

Arriving home at dawn after another failed burglary, John Dortmunder—the anti-hero of Donald Westlake's popular comic crime series—is shocked to find his apartment occupied by a notorious cellmate everyone had supposed (and hoped) had been jailed for life.

Mavis St. Paul had been a rich man's mistress. Now she was a corpse. And every cop in New York City was hunting for the two-bit punk accused of putting a knife in her. But the punk was innocent. He'd been set up to take the fall by some cutie who was too clever by half. My job? Find that cutie - before the cutie found me.

There is no such thing as a free lunch, but it takes Josh Redmont a while to figure that out. The first check arrived when Josh was 27, $1,000, issued by "United States Agent" through an unnamed bank with an indeterminate address in Washington, D.C. The checks continued to arrive once a month, even when Josh changed addresses, with nary an explanation or a peep from the IRS.

Intrepid reporter Sara Joslyn, having escaped the clutches of the supermarket tabloid Weekly Galaxy, is finally going to be allowed to practice "clean journalism." Unfortunately, intrepid editor Jack Ingersoll has other plans, assigning her to a gory sex-murder trial in Branson, Missouri, home to more country stars than there are in the heavens. While delving into the muck, rake in hand, Sara runs into her old comrades from the Galaxy - Binx Radwell, Boy Cartwright, and the Down Under Trio among them. At the eye of this journalistic cyclone is country musician Ray Jones; is he guilty of the grisly murder, and what else is he up to?

The year is 1977, and America is finally getting over the nightmares of Watergate and Vietnam and the national hangover that was the 1960s. But not everyone is ready to let it go. Not aging comedian Koo Davis, friend to generals and presidents and veteran of countless USO tours to buck up American troops in the field. And not the five remaining members of the self-proclaimed People’s Revolutionary Army, who’ve decided that kidnapping Koo Davis would be the perfect way to bring their cause back to life....

Hospitalized after a liaison with another man's wife ends in violence, Paul Cole has just one goal: to rebuild his shattered life. But with his memory damaged, the police hounding him, and no way to even get home, Paul's facing steep odds - and a bleak fate if he fails. This final, never-before-published novel by three-time Edgar Award winner Donald E. Westlake is a noir masterpiece, a dark and painful portrait of a man's struggle against merciless forces that threaten to strip him of his very identity.

"Give me liberty or give me death!" was merely a quotation from a history book to Dr. Lambert until Patrick Henry walked into his office and complained of suffering from a chronic headache.

What would it take to lure a serious young newswoman from a respectable New England paper to the most notorious supermarket tabloid in America? The call of journalistic adventure? How about a promise of a salary that's triple what she's making? En route to her new job at the Weekly Galaxy, Sara Joslyn stumbles across a bloody corpse in a Buick Riviera. A big story? Not at this paper. The problem is compounded when the dead man vanishes, Buick and all.

Here's the book that started it all: A Girl Called Honey - and if listening to the saga of Honor Mercy Bane brings you a small fraction of the fun we had writing it, you'll be back right away to scoop up So Willing and Sin Hellcat.

And at one point we decided it might be fun to do a novel together. Not by thinking it out and talking through it and, you know, collaborating in a serious artistic manner. Our method was simpler. One of us would write a chapter, and then the other would write a chapter to come after it, and back and forth, like that, until we had a book. It worked, and by God it was fun. The first of our efforts was A Girl Called Honey, and it started when I wrote a chapter and sent it to Don. And so on, and we stopped when we had a book and sent it to Henry Morrison.

Když jsou zlodějíčci packalové, vše okolo nich i oni samotní dostanou na frak. Román z takzvané „dortmunderovské série“, pojmenované podle smolařského zlodějíčka Johna Dortmundera, patří k nejznámějším Westlakeovým propojením humoristického a kriminálního žánru. Zdánlivě prostý plán na uloupení vzácného drahokamu se nečekaně zkomplikuje a Dortmunderova parta se musí postupně vloupat do muzea, banky, blázince, vězení a na policejní stanici. Dortmunder, hrdina čtrnácti románů a jedenácti povídek, se poprvé objevil ve Westlakeově románu "The Hot Rock" z roku 1970.

Bible kanadských žertíků, které hrdina jménem Künde nepřestane dělat ani ve vězení, kam se kvůli nim ostatně dostal. Humoristický román s detektivní zápletkou je u nás Westlakeovým nejznámějším a nejslavnějším dílem. Harold Albert Chester Künde, hlavní postava románu, je dvaatřicetiletý svobodný muž, který v osmi letech dospěl k závěru, že jeho příjmení je kanadský žertík, a tak od té doby sám kanadské žertíky provádí. Jeden z nich ho bohužel přivede až do vězení. Jeho předsevzetí skončit se svým koníčkem mu ovšem nevyjde.

Fred Fitch är en dröm för alla bondfångare. Han är oerhört lättlurad och plockas på den ena dollarn efter den andra av falska poliser, präster och försäljare. En dag ärver han plötsligt 300 000 dollar från en gammal ohederlig morbror och då blir det fart på bondfångarna. Men Fred har annat att oroa sig för. Det verkar inte som att morbrodern dog en naturlig död och snart känner sig Fred förföljd och vågar inte lita på någon. Kanske bäst att göra sig av med pengarna? Men vågar han lita på sin gamle vän Jack på polisens bedrägerirotel?

När taxiföraren Chet Conway får ett speltips av en kund kan han inte låta bli att satsa pengarna han fick för taxiresan. Tipset höll, men när Chet ska hämta ut vinsten hittar han bookmakern död. Chet blir misstänkt för mordet och hamnar mitt bland två rivaliserande gäng. Dessutom är bookmakerns syster villig att göra vad som helst för att hämnas broderns död. Chets enda chans att överleva är att själv hitta mördaren, ett uppdrag som visar sig vara betydligt svårare än han först trott.

El robo elevado a la categoría de arte envenenado. A pesar de tener un don para organizar grandes golpes, John Dortmunder se dedica desde hace una buena temporada a las estafas de poca monta. Es más seguro... y más aburrido. Por eso, cuando su amigo Kelp le propone un audaz e inverosímil atraco a un banco, Dortmunder no puede resistirse. En poco tiempo urden un plan minucioso y forman un equipo de cinco hombres y dos mujeres para quienes el robo es algo más que un modo de vida. Para ellos, estos son los riesgos que vale la pena correr.

En række forbrydere fra forskellige europæiske lande slår sig sammen om at stjæle en formue, der er skjult bag stenene på et slot, som tilhører en afsat sydamerikansk diktator. Men nogle taler engelsk, nogle taler tysk, nogle spansk, og andre igen fransk og italiensk, og kun få kan tale et sprog udover deres modersmål. Sprogvanskelighederne og de mange nationale fordomme truer med at ødelægge det store kup ... Den amerikanske forfatter Donald E.

Ugebladet ’Galaxy’ ejes af en tidligere mafiaboss, og den redaktionelle stab er gennemkorrupt og skyer ingen midler for at finde de mest opsigtsvækkende historier og hårrejsende billeder til bladets fem millioner læsere. Fristet af en høj løn ankommer den unge journalist Sara Joslyn til ’Galaxy’. I begyndelsen er hun uspoleret og naiv, men snart deltager hun i kapløbet med kollegerne om at opsnuse sensationer og skandaler i hobetal.