-
The Road To Ruin
Tonight I finished reading The Road To Ruin, which I assumed was the last Dortmunder novel Donald Westlake ever wrote, but was actually succeeded by three more. While not a classic on par with his earlier work, it was still a pleasant diversion.
-
Drowned Hopes
I’ve just finished Drowned Hopes, the seventh of the Dortmunder series. After what had felt like diminishing quality in some of the later novels, this was a welcome return to form. The location shifts again, from the New York City settings of the previous few stories, to a quiet town in upstate New York – […]
-
Good Behavior
Good Behavior is the sixth novel in the Dortmunder series, and first appeared three years after its predecessor, Why Me? Westlake is no longer around to ask whether that was because he was struggling to find inspiration, or was just too busy with everything else he was writing. Still, I’m mindful of the fact that […]
-
Why Me?
Why Me? is the fifth Dortmunder novel, after The Hot Rock, Bank Shot, Jimmy The Kid and Nobody’s Perfect. In any long series of books, you need to have more than one volume to bring in fresh readers. If you make every previous book absolutely necessary for the comprehension of the next, eventually attrition of […]
