Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Book Review: Donald E. Westlake, Somebody Owes Me Money (1969)



Lightweight, pleasant for a while, tedious in the end--and the author knows it. Near the conclusion of the novel, one of our heroes asks, "Do you know this is ridiculous?" And then later she complains, "You wouldn't get away with that in a mystery story." This is not cutesy metafictional commentary; this is an author who feels compelled to apologize. But Donald E. Westlake is author enough to know that in his line of writing, you don't revise a failure. If want to keep the money coming in, you type THE END and move on to the next one. Grade: D+

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