Watch Your Back! (Dortmunder Novels (Paperback))

- After a year on the lam, the return of bumbling thief Dortmunder is a cause celebre. The author's most recent Dortmunder caper. "The Road to Ruin, and the short story collection, "Thieves' Dozen, received rave reviews in the "New York Times Book Review, New York Daily News, and "Kirkus Reviews (starred review), among other publications.- "Money for Nothing (Mysterious Press, 4/03) and "Put a Lid On It (Mysterious Press, 2002), two stand-alone mysteries, have sold over 68,000 hardcover and paperback copies combined.- Hollywood loves Dortmunder, too. "What's the Worst That Could Happen?, starring Martin Lawrence and Danny DeVito, was a major motion picture in 2001.- Donald E. Westlake was named Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master (1993); has won Edgar Allan Poe Awards for Best Novel, Screenplay, and Short Story; and was nominated for an Academy Award* for Best Adapted Screenplay for "The Grifters. "It's a long way from the island of Manhattan to the island resort where Preston Fareweather has his hedonistic hideout - avoiding the legal prosecutions of five embittered ex-wives and enjoying the attentions of the prettiest gold diggers who happen to come his way. A terrible human being, Preston makes the terrible mistake of getting friendly with an equally dyspeptic personality: a New York fence named Arnie Albright." "Arnie went to the island paradise to become a happier man. It worked. After a week with Preston, Arnie comes home to New York with a whole new attitude and a proposition for his associate John Dortmunder: a can't miss, million-dollar robbery - of Preston's nearly unguarded, art-filled Fifth Avenue penthouse. With Arnie taking a measly thirty percent cut, it's practically charity for the master thief." But when Dortmunder and his clean-up crew get together to plan the heist, they quickly get distracted. The place they meet, the place they have always met and always will meet - the O.J. Bar & Grill - has fallen into the clutches of a mob crew. Suddenly a billionaire from Fifth Avenue and a would-be Tony Soprano from New Jersey have one thing in common: John Dortmunder is after them both at the same time...and disaster can't be far behind. In his classic caper novels, Donald E. Westlake turns the world of crime and criminals upside-down: the bad get better, the good get worse, and God save anyone caught between a thief named John Dortmunder and his most improbable plans.It's a long way from the island of Manhattan to the island resort where Preston Fareweather has his hedonistic hideout-avoiding the legal prosecutions of five embittered ex-wives and enjoying the attentions of the prettiest gold diggers who happen to come his way. A terrible human being, Preston makes the terrible mistake of getting friendly with an equally dyspeptic personality: a New York fence named Arnie Albright.Arnie went to the island paradise to become a happier man. It worked. After a week with Preston, Arnie comes home to New York with a whole new attitude and a proposition for his associate John Dortmunder: a can't miss, million-dollar robbery-of Preston's nearly unguarded, art-filled Fifth Avenue penthouse.But when Dortmunder and his clean-up crew get together to plan the heist, they quickly get distracted and suddenly a billionaire from Fifth Avenue and a would-be Tony Soprano from New Jersey have one thing in common: John Dortmunder is after them both at the same time...and disaster can't be far behind.

Hapless criminal John Dortmunder returns in another rollicking tale of disorganized crime from Grand Master of Mystery Donald E. Westlake. It's the score of a lifetime: easy access to a lavish New York City apartment, hordes of valuables, and an absentee owner avoiding the lawyers of his unhappy ex-wives. But before they pull the job, Dortmunder's crew is startled to find their beloved gin joint, the OJ, in the clutches of the Mafia - who consider it perfect for a little fraud, courtesy of a nice big fire. For tactical and highly superstitious reasons, the fate of the OJ is even more important to the crew than the enormous score. Now, Dortmunder and his gang are determined to split their time, fighting the mob and robbing the rich simultaneously.

The New York Times - Janet Maslin

… no matter how fast Dortmunder scrambles to adjust his plan, he can't control the obsessive characters or anticipate the consequences when they all converge on the Fareweather place on the day the burglary goes down. Which only proves the truth of Dortmunder's downbeat philosophy -- ''You think everything's O.K. in life, and then something different happens'' -- and the genius of Westlake's fatalistic comic vision.

Master criminal John Dortmunder and New York fence Arnie Albright plan the million-dollar robbery of valuable artworks in the penthouse of Preston Fareweather; however, their plans are overheard by members of the mob who have plans of their own John Dortmunder and his crew find the perfect score in a lavish New York apartment, but when they discover that their favorite bar is on the Mafia's hit list, they are forced to split their time fighting the mob and robbing the rich WHEN JOHN DORTMUNDER, a free man, not even on parole, walked into the O.J. Bar & Grill on Amsterdam Avenue that Friday night in July, just before ten o'clock, the regulars were discussing the afterlife. Dortmunder's crew are working on the score of a lifetime. At the sme time they must defend their beloved gin joint, the OJ, from the Mafia.