Good Behavior by Donald Westlake

While escaping from a robbery attempt, Dortmunder falls through the roof of a convent. The cloistered nuns take this as a sign from heaven and tell Dortmunder (by writing notes) that they will not turn him in if he helps to return Sister Mary Grace to their convent. Sister Mary Grace is a young nun who is being kept in a tower apartment by her millionaire father, who is trying to deprogram her, but she is firm in her commitment to remain a nun. She is able to smuggle out the details of the high-rise's security system to Dortmunder, and the big escape plan begins.

Of course nothing really goes as planed as with most of Dortmunder's plans. He brings in the usual cast of characters to help him by promising them the king of heists. First he has to find a company that isn't quite on the up and up. He makes a deal with J.C. Taylor who owns several companies in one office. She gets a fee upfront and lets them use her office and shipping department to send out the stolen goods that will be sold to various fences. They can steal what can be mailed out of one of the shipping dept. Meanwhile why they are stealing various good Dortmunder goes to rescue the nun. In typical "nothing goes quite right" Dortmunder fashion. He gets off on the floor below the top floor and finds himself involved with a rebel group about to go and take a South American county. He manages to get himself rescued by the nun but is found hiding in a dishwasher. The gang at first decides to leave Dortmunder on his own but then come up with their own plan to rescue him. The police are brought in to arrest the rebels but unfortunately are doing a search to look for any other stolen goods hence backing the gang into a corner. A hilarious scene in which the nuns are brought in and all the guys dress up like nuns to escape.

I alway laugh when I read a Dortmunder novel and I managed to miss this one. So I'm glad that I went back to catch up on this one.