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What's So Funny? (Mass Market Paperback)

by Donald E. Westlake (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Product details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; Reprint edition (Mar 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0446401153
  • ISBN-13: 978-0446401159
  • Product Dimensions: 16.8 x 10.7 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 439,642 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

The Daily Mirror
Westlake is a crime-writing machine bordering on genius. Numerous twists and turns, masses of snappy dialogue and a ton of humour --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap
Donald Westlake turns the world of crime and criminals upside down and has the last laugh in WHAT'S SO FUNNY?, his latest comic caper novel. His perennially depressed master thief, John Dortmunder, finds himself involved in an impossible crime, one he doesn't want and doesn't believe in.
But a little blackmail goes a long way. All it takes is a few underhanded moves by a tough ex-copy named Eppick to pull 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 pawn, he faces insurmountable odds. The purloined past of this precious set is destined to confound any strategy he finds on the board. Success is not inevitable with John Dortmunder leading the attack, but he's nothing if not persistent, and some gambit or other might just stumble into a winning move. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Classic Dortmunder Humor Offset a Slow First Half Plot, 25 Jul 2007
By Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)      
This review is from: What's So Funny? (Dortmunder Novels) (Hardcover)
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!

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