Edgar Award Finalist: A comical crime caper “filled with action and imagination” (The New York Times Book Review). 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, … from Sing-Sing, telling a story of a $500,000 emerald that they just have to steal. Dortmunder doesn’t hesitate to agree. The emerald is the crown jewel of a former British colony, lately granted independence and split into two nations: one for the Talabwo people, one for the Akinzi. The Akinzi have the stone, the Talabwo want it back, and their UN representative offers a fine payday to the men who can get it. It’s not a simple heist, but after a few years in stir, Dortmunder could use the challenge.
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The Hot Rock is the first in a series about John Archibald Dortmunder written back in 1970, this is something that I had to keep reminding myself while reading, as it is also set in the time frame it is written in. I kept having to remind myself that what was happening could be possible since they wouldn’t have many of the technologies we have now. Imagine only needing a dime to make a phone call at an actually phonebooth. Once I put my mind in the prospective of the timeline I enjoyed it much more. (I mean come on it was written before I was even conceived of, three years before in fact). Still some of the things seemed a bit far-fetched. I find it hard to believe someone could fly a helicopter from only reading about it without being a genius but instead because he fully believes he can “drive” anything. Still it is fiction, a crime fiction with the perfect touch of comedy. I wish I could find the movie to see how well Robert Redford portrayed John Archibald Dortmunder.
When we first meet John Archibald Dortmunder or just Dortmunder he is sitting in the office of Warden Outes keeping up the appearance of a rehabilitated parole. All he really wants though is to get out to collect his three hundred dollars for selling his jail cell and leave the jail. Unfortunately the warden insists on walking him to the gates of freedom leaving him unable to collect.
Outside waiting for him is friend Andrew Philip Kelp, once again he goes by his last name Kelp. Kelp has come from New York to pick up his friend and tell him about a job he’s lined up. The job involves stealing an emerald worth half a million dollars (in 1970), but small enough to fit inside a cuff link case. Kelp is pretty good a stealing cars and tends to go for doctors cars because they have all the bells and whistles. I’m not completely clear on his other talents besides maybe hustling.
Major Patrick Iko is the UN Ambassador of his small country in Africa. His country had been a civil war that had ended when the one country became two smaller countries. The problem is the emerald had ended up in the other country though it had been a religious icon to Iko’s people. They had tried to get it back but to no avail. So Iko comes up with the idea to have it stolen while it is being displayed with other artifacts from Africa. He has offered to pay thirty thousand per man to Dortmunder to steal it, Dortmunder negotiates week to week living expenses of one hundred and fifty per man plus any supplies needed to pull off the caper on top of the thirty gee.
Dortmunder decides that they need three more men to get the job done a driver, a lockman and a utility outfielder better known as a jack of all trades. They grab Roger Chefwick a model railroad enthusiast whose good with locks. Stan Murch who claims there isn’t anything he can’t drive. He’s so obsessed with cars he buy’s records of the recordings of car sounds like most people buy a regular album. Lastly there is the utility man Alan George Greenwood who also happens to be a ladies man. All of the men go by their last name throughout the book.
Everything seems to go well and they get the emerald but that’s when everything goes sideways. The rest of the book they try and fail several times to pull off stealing the emerald. The story is full of hi-jinks and barely believable stuns to pull of these jobs. So if you can overlook the non practical acts of these five men and just enjoy the ride of the story give this book a shot. Your sure to laugh and shake your head more than once at what they go through for one little rock.
I can safely recommend any book by Donald Westlake, but I particularly enjoyed the dark humor in this one. Louise Titchener
laugh out loud funny! cinematic–and it was made into a movie years ago.
These books are about crooks that just don’t ever seem to get it right. They are entertaining and very easy to read.
I love the Dortmunder series of novels by Westlake. They’re a little dated, but the characters are so much fun that you don’t worry to much about that.