Thieves' Dozen by Donald E. Westlake

11 wonderful short stories featuring my favorite crook, Dortmunder.
This was a delightful set of stories and I enjoyed reading Westlake's introduction.

My favorite was "Too Many Crooks" in which Dortmunder and Kelps break into a bank vault from the building next door to discover that some other bank robbers have already robbed the bank and locked everyone inside the vault. When the bank robbers open up the vault, Dortmunder and Kelp for once think fast on their feet and blend in with the other hostages. They decide to use Dortmunder as the negotiator and we know what happens then. Hysterical.

I also enjoyed the final story "Fugue for Felons" about a totally differently named crew who have alot of similar characteristics of our favorite robbers.

Westlake has this knack of making you like his characters and I laugh out loud as I read. Great collection.