Saturday, May 10, 2008

Road to Ruin by Donald E. Westlake

Dortmunder and his gang are approached by a friend of Kelp's - disgruntled former driver for Monroe Hall. He wants revenge on Hall and to hit him where it hurts. In order to do the heist of Hall's classic car collection they hire on as live-in staff on his secluded ranch as a way to get access to, and ultimately steal, his collection of antique cars.

Hall has recently been caught robbing his own company blind and is now in seclusion within his sprawling compound with his wife, security guards and various collections that include cuckoo clocks, chess sets, rare books and music boxes. In fact, the man collects just about everything. The only thing he seems unable to collect is servants who don't want anything to do with him - after all, he's a pariah.

Hall has ruined many people and some of those people want revenge. Mac, Buddy and Ace are some blue collar employees who were laid off when Hall's company went under; Mark and Os are investors who lost a lot of money when the stock collapsed. They team up with the intent of kidnapping Hall and forcing him to transfer money out of his "secret" off-shore accounts. But unlike Dortmunder and his crew, these folks are strictly amateurs.

Then things start to crumble, as they tend to do around Dortmunder. Not his fault, of course. Who could know that three other sets of people are also plotting revenge on this same crook? Or that these other bozos would kidnap the crook, thereby bringing the police onto the scene just at the wrong time? And who could have predicted that Dortmunder would be kidnapped right along with the boss?

Enjoyed this fun read but I think that there were too many voices as we hear Dortmunder, Hall, plus the bumbling amatures that wreck havoc on Dortmunder's carefully crafted plan. Still Westlake has a gift for the comedic relief and you are rooting for Dortmunder until the very end.