Dortmunder novels
Author
1) The hot rock
Author
Series
Dortmunder novels volume 1
Language
English
Formats
Description
Fresh out of prison, Dortmunder plans a heist that could mean war John Dortmunder leaves jail with ten dollars, a train ticket, and nothing to make money on but his good name. Thankfully, his reputation goes far. No one plans a caper better than Dortmunder. His friend Kelp picks him up in a stolen Cadillac and drives him away from Sing-Sing, telling a story of a $500,000 emerald that they just have to steal. Dortmunder doesn't hesitate to agree. ...
2) Bank shot
Author
Series
Dortmunder novels volume 2
Language
English
Formats
Description
Instead of robbing a bank, Dortmunder tries to steal the whole building Encyclopedias are heavy, and John Dortmunder is sick of carrying them. While in between jobs, the persistent heist-planner is working an encyclopedia-selling scam that's about to blow up in his face. The cops are on their way when his friend Kelp pulls up in a stolen Oldsmobile, offering a quick escape from the law and a job that's too insane to turn down. Kelp's nephew is...
Author
Series
Dortmunder novels volume 3
Language
English
Formats
Description
"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....
Author
Series
Dortmunder novels volume 4
Language
English
Formats
Description
An art collector hires Dortmunder to steal one of his own paintings It would take a miracle to keep Dortmunder out of jail. Though he cased the electronics store perfectly, the cops surprised him, turning up in the alley just as he was walking out the back door, a television in each hand. Already a two-time loser, without divine intervention he faces a long stretch inside. Then God sends J. Radcliffe Stonewiler, a celebrity lawyer who gets Dortmunder...
5) Why me
Author
Series
Dortmunder novels volume 5
Language
English
Description
Donald E. Westlake has been called " a writer of uncommon talent, imagination, flair and unpredictablility." He proves it again in this tongue-in-cheek crime novel. John Dortmunder, trying to earn a modest living as a professional thief, unwittingly steals the hottest rock in town from a little jewelry store. It turns out to be a Turkish national treasure and the FBI, the police, the Turks and others are all after it; and worse--to get the police...
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
Dortmunder agrees to do a dangerous favor for a gang of nuns It was supposed to be a simple caviar heist. Dortmunder is almost in the building when the alarm sounds, forcing him up the fire escape and onto the roof. He leaps onto the next building, smashing his ankle and landing in the den of the worst kind of creature he can imagine: nuns. Although decades removed from his Catholic orphanage, Dortmunder still trembles before the sisters' habits....
Author
Series
Dortmunder novels volume 7
Language
English
Formats
Description
An old cellmate asks Dortmunder for help robbing a reservoir In his day, Tom was a hard man. He came up with Dillinger in the 1930s, and pulled a lot of high-profile jobs before the state put him away. They meant it to be for good, but after twenty-three years the prisons are too crowded for seventy-year-old bank robbers, and so they let the old man go. Finally free, he heads straight for John Dortmunder's house. Long ago, Tom buried $700,000,...
8) Don't ask
Author
Series
Dortmunder novels volume 8
Publisher
Mysterious Press
Pub. Date
c1993
Language
English
Description
Master criminal John Dortmunder sets out on a hilarious escapade to steal a religious relic for an East European government. As often happens in the Dortmunder series, things go wrong and Dortmunder is captured by police, but escapes to get back the relic. By the author of more than 60 novels.
9)
What's the worst that could happen? , Dortmunder novels volume 9
Author
10) Bad news
Author
Series
Dortmunder novels volume 10
Language
English
Formats
Description
From Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Donald E. Westlake comes the eagerly anticipated return of unlucky master crook John Dortmunder.
Dortmunder doesn't like manual labor. So when Andy Kelp relays the offer of a grand to help dig up a grave in a far-flung cemetery, he balks...until he begins to wonder just why Fitzroy Guilderpost, criminal mastermind, wants to pull a switcheroo of two 70-years-dead Indians. Central to the plan is...
Dortmunder doesn't like manual labor. So when Andy Kelp relays the offer of a grand to help dig up a grave in a far-flung cemetery, he balks...until he begins to wonder just why Fitzroy Guilderpost, criminal mastermind, wants to pull a switcheroo of two 70-years-dead Indians. Central to the plan is...
11) The road to ruin
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
This time out John Dortmunder and his merry band of crooks return to the scene of the crime world in an attempt to steal a fleet of automobiles that would leave the Sultan of Brunei blushing. The mark is Monroe Hall, corrupt CEO of a now defunct conglomerate, who spent more of his company's money on himself than the boys at Enron and WorldCom combined. Having escaped prosecution, Hall is holed up on his massive Pennsylvania farm and Dortmunder, as...
12) Watch your back!
Author
Series
Dortmunder novels volume 12
Language
English
Description
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...
13) What's so funny?
Author
Series
Dortmunder novels volume 13
Language
English
Formats
Description
All it takes is a few underhanded moves by a tough ex-cop named Eppick to pull thief John Dortmunder into a game he never wanted to play. With no choice, he musters his always-game gang and they set out on a perilous treasure hunt for a long-lost gold and jewel-studded chess set once intended as a birthday gift for the last Romanov czar, which unfortunately reached Russia after that party was over. From the moment Dortmunder reaches for his first...
14) Get real
Author
Series
Dortmunder novels volume 14
Language
English
Description
When a TV producer convinces John Dortmunder and his merry gang to do a reality show that captures their next score, Dortmunder hatches an ingenious plan to outwit viewers glued to their television sets and end the shoot with money in his pockets.
15) Thieves' dozen
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
On a literary landscape filled with cunning criminal masterminds, Donald E. Westlake's John Dortmunder is in a league of his own. With no scam too outrageous to contemplate, and no plan too simple to go wrong, this quirky career thief has stolen everything from money buried under a reservoir to a bank -- the whole bank. Now the ultimate repeat offender returns in a first-time collection of short stories proving that, just like bagels and donuts, with...