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    Bad News: A Dortmunder Novel, Book 10
    Unavailable
    Bad News: A Dortmunder Novel, Book 10
    Unavailable
    Bad News: A Dortmunder Novel, Book 10
    Audiobook9 hours

    Bad News: A Dortmunder Novel, Book 10

    Written by Donald Westlake

    Narrated by Michael Kramer

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    "I'm a robber," John Dortmunder says, "not a grave robber." Yet he soon finds himself in a Long Island cemetery with dirt up to his knees. His old friend Andy Kelp is to blame-Andy and the Internet. For it was while ambling on the Net that Kelp met up with master manipulator Fitzroy Guilderpost and his nefarious companions, the flunked teacher Irwin Gabel and the Las Vegas showgirl Little Feather Redcorn. What these three have in mind is the takeover of an upstate casino, and what they also envision is that Dortmunder and Kelp will not share in the ill-gotten gains. Shovel in hand, Dortmunder wonders whose grave this is. If he isn't careful, it could be his.

    "Westlake has a genius for comic strategy, and Bad News has a lunatic brilliance worthy of Abbott and Costello."-New York Times

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 23, 2001
    ISBN9781415911228
    Unavailable
    Bad News: A Dortmunder Novel, Book 10
    Author

    Donald Westlake

    Donald E. Westlake (1933–2008) was one of the most prolific and talented authors of American crime fiction. He began his career in the late 1950s, churning out novels for pulp houses—often writing as many as four novels a year under various pseudonyms—but soon began publishing under his own name. His most well-known characters were John Dortmunder, an unlucky thief, and a ruthless criminal named Parker. His writing earned him three Edgars and a Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Westlake’s cinematic prose and brisk dialogue made his novels attractive to Hollywood, and several motion pictures were made from his books, with stars such as Lee Marvin and Mel Gibson. Westlake wrote several screenplays himself, receiving an Academy Award nomination for his adaptation of The Grifters, Jim Thompson’s noir classic.

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    Reviews for Bad News

    4/5

    99 ratings5 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A classic example of Donald E. Westlake's humorous crime fiction - more caper story than classic style mystery - with plenty of unexpected turns as the story progresses.This is the second book I've read in the Dortmunder series. Wasn't crazy about the first (Drowned Hopes -- Dortmunder #7) but I've always been a fan of Westlake's other work so I decided to give the series another try. So glad I did.At first things go unusually well for Dortmunder and crew (at one point Dortmunder actually says, "Everything's going too easy"). He and his pal Andy Kelp stumble into the middle of a scheme that involves switching 70-year-old corpses from one grave site to another. They quickly outclass the original schemers and deal themselves in on the deal... and everything goes great... until it doesn't. The whole thing turns into another hilarious chapter in the ongoing trials, tribulations and misfortunes that is the life of professional criminal John Dortmunder.The story takes off pretty quickly, and though it slows down in a few spots it keeps up the pace well enough that the reader doesn't lose interest or get sidetracked from what's going on. It doesn't exactly leave you on the edge of your seat but it does make you want to keep turning the pages to find out what will happen next.There were several points where I started to get a little bit ahead of the plot, guessing where the story was going and why, but almost every time I thought I had it all nailed down there was an unexpected twist to things that I didn't see coming. A delight from start to finish.I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a quirky crime story that features eccentric characters and fun twists.
    • 4/5
      I like books that shine a light on the bad guys and there scheming. Westlake series follows the hapless Dortmunder and his gang as they try to stir their way clear of various scams gone bad and make a little money on the deal.This time around Dortmunder become grave robbers in an overly complicated scheme to pull one over on some crooked Indian casino owners. It of course all falls apart and lands Dortmunder and the rest of the gang in all kinds of trouble (probably more than any eventual payoff is worth).Westlake is a genius for the one liners, theres something to smile about on every page. You can't help but love the crew, bad guys that are actually preety good guys, that just happen to make a bad living as bad criminals, who'd thunk?
    • 4/5
      Donald E. Westlake's Dortmunder series is always good value and Bad News doesn't disappoint. This caper involves Dortmunder and his gang swapping corpses at a grave yard and all the resulting shenanigans that comes with trying to run a scam about getting a Native American woman officially accepted as a different tribe. A lot of funny lines and situations and, for a change, Dortmunder's misfortunes aren't all encompassing.
    • 4/5
      Clever & funny
    • 5/5
      The tenth in the series and my favorite so far. Maybe not quite as amusing as some of the others, but interesting capers, complications and characters. Unlike most of the others in the series, I hadn't read this one before listening to the Audible version so it was all fresh. The narrator does a fine job, not as colorful with his characterizations as Jeff Woodman or Brian Holsopple but enough to differentiate the different speakers easily.Thoroughly enjoyable.