Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1227648 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11
• Format: Large Print
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 505 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In Westlake's diverting 13th John Dortmunder novel (after 2004's Watch Your Back!), the hapless crook gets blackmailed into trying to pull off an impossible heist—stealing a gold chess set originally intended as a gift for the last czar of Russia, but picked up by some U.S. soldiers who were part of an anti-Soviet expeditionary force in 1919–1920 and now kept secure in a midtown Manhattan basement vault while various parties dispute its ownership. Dortmunder makes little progress in the book's first half, until he figures out a way to prompt an inquiry that leads to the chess set's being transported downtown—to a location that proves far from secure. As usual, Westlake provides amusing, at times dim-witted dialogue, particularly among the regulars at O.J.'s Bar & Grill on Amsterdam Avenue, and a cast of appealing if often inept cops and robbers. Not every loose end may be tied up, but the ironic resolution will leave both series fans and newcomers satisfied. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Perennially star-crossed thief John Dortmunder is blackmailed by Johnny Eppick, a retired New York City cop. After careful study, Eppick has concluded that Dortmunder is the finest thief not already in jail. So, unless Dortmunder steals an 800-pound gold-and-jewel-encrusted chess set intended for Russia's last czar, he's off to prison again. But the job, in Dortmunder's very professional opinion, is impossible. The chess set is in the basement vault of a Manhattan bank building, and it's been there--safe--for 60 years. Between a rock and a hard place, Dortmunder is even more hangdog and dour than usual, and that translates to especially fertile ground for the fourteenth caper-gone-wrong novel in this delightful series. Fans of the fatalistic crook will be happy to see Dortmunder's quirky crew back again and will revel in their pre-Copernican view of a Manhattan-based solar system. Readers new to the Dortmunder series will simply laugh, then head to the library for more. Westlake is a national literary treasure, and his latest effort only enhances his value. Neocon pundit William Kristol recently wrote that Westlake deserves the Nobel Prize for Literature. The neocons haven't been right about much lately, but Kristol just may be on to something this time. Thomas Gaughan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Classic Dortmunder Humor Offset a Slow First Half Plot
What's So Funny? is uncharacteristically slow in the beginning. The best Dortmunder books have a humorous crime that goes awry in the first few pages to get the book off to a flying start. It's like the opening action sequence in a James Bond novel or movie . . . it sets the mood and gets the blood pumping.

What's So Funny? starts instead with an ex-cop, Johnny Eppick who advertises he's "For Hire," blackmailing Dortmunder inside the OJ Bar & Grill. It seems Eppick has a photograph of Dortmunder in felonious possession of stolen merchandise. What's more, Eppick seems to know way too much about Dortmunder for Dortmunder's comfort.

The blackmail effort is for an elderly retired inventor, Mr. Hemlow, who wants to recover a stolen chess set worth millions that had once been intended for the last czar, but the Russian Revolution countered that option before the chess set was delivered. Hemlow's father and some fellow army and navy personnel sneaked the set out of the USSR during the anti-Soviet battles just after World War I. Their sergeant retrieved the set from his squad after they returned to the U.S. and disappeared with the chess set. Now, Hemlow's granddaughter, an apprentice lawyer who fancies herself an amateur historian, has located the set. Hemlow wants Dortmunder to liberate the valuable prize.

Dortmunder is stymied when he learns that the chess set is locked up in a very secure bank vault in the very building where four law firms are fighting over the set. But Hemlow and Eppick don't want to let Dortmunder off the hook.

Eventually, Dortmunder thinks of an angle and the story proceeds in normal Donald E. Westlake fashion. The main outlines of how the story will proceed are obvious in advance, but the humorous mix-ups aren't. Four of the sequences are marvelous as Dortmunder and Eppick miss some illegal house sitters, Dortmunder and Kelp set up to case the site of the heist, the gang is surprised while casing the joint and has to vacate the premises quickly, and the timetable for the heist is voided and Dortmunder has to improvise.

To make up for the slow beginning, Mr. Westlake has larded in more than his usual humor about telephones and electronic devices, and Dortmunder's persecution complex and provided two classic malapropism sequences at the bar in the OJ Bar & Grill. There's also Stan Murch's klutzy idea for a heist to keep you chortling. Otherwise, just be patient and you'll find that the story gets a lot more interesting starting on page 95.

In classic Dortmunder style, the book ends with a final irony that will stay with you.

I love the Dortmunder books and adore Mr. Westlake's humor. But the weak plot in the beginning definitely drops this book for the usual five-star level for Dortmunder to only four.

Have a lot of great laughs!