Get Real

Starred review from May 4, 2009
The late Donald Westlake's final crime caper features his bungling crook, John Dortmunder.
Get Real
Donald E. Westlake
. Grand Central
, $23.99 (288p) ISBN 978-0-446-17860-0

A reality-show company aptly titled Get Real recruits the delightfully understated John Dortmunder and his merry men for a heist in this clever Dortmunder novel (after What's So Funny?
), a worthy final word from Westlake (1933–2008). The producer of the prospective series, Doug Fairkeep, reveals himself to be both cynical and naïve, a combination that makes him an excellent foil for the guys. Naturally, the gang has to make this gig pay more than what's offered, as much for the fun of it as for the extra cash. While Get Real helps them map out a “real” robbery, the boys are mapping out a real
robbery—of some of the company's “hidden assets.” The thinking is that Get Real can hardly come after them to retrieve cash that it can't admit that it has. The game plan changes nearly hourly, and the outcome is anything but certain. The assorted idiosyncrasies of the group's members and the interactions among them will rouse chuckles from even jaded readers.

May 1, 2009
Dortmunder's last caper.

When Stan Murch's mom, a New York cabbie, pitches her son's role as a gang's getaway driver to a fare, a reality-TV executive, he suggests that they take a meeting. After Stan talks it over with the rest of the gang—Dortmunder, Kelp, Tiny and the Kid—Doug Fairkeep offers big money to film them planning and executing a heist. They needn't worry about legal retribution, he promises, because none of their faces will be shown. Still, Dortmunder insists they steal something from Fairkeep's company so they can say the bosses knew about it if things go awry. They settle on burgling the company's Varick Street warehouse. As usual with Dortmunder, there are complications. For one thing, Fairkeep has inserted a real actor in the script to act as a mole, along with a gun moll for sex appeal. As the set designer replicates the gang's meeting place on the upper floor of the warehouse, Fairkeep's boss keeps renaming, then canceling, then reinstating the project. Kelp keeps entering Fairkeep's apartment without benefit of a key. And a production assistant keeps writing dialogue for the gang's ad-libbed scenes. Holes are drilled, alarms are cut, lies are told and, for once, Dortmunder and his pals waltz off with a nice payday.

Westlake, who died this past New Year's Eve, left 14 Dortmunder capers. This one is as beguiling as the rest (What's So Funny, 2007, etc.), with the bonus of exquisitely placed jibes at reality TV.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from May 15, 2009
Westlake's final Dortmunder novel is a winning send-up of our current fascination with reality TV. When Dortmunder and his associatesokay, his criminal gangare offered a role on a reality show dramatizing their exploits, they initially think it's a terrible idea. However, they soon see it as an opportunity to aid in their usual criminal pursuits. While the producers of their show believe that the group is staging a small-time robbery, they're actually working on a way to find what they believe is a large amount of money being housed by the production company. What's not expected is that they begin to enjoy their TV careers, an outcome that contributes a couple of laugh-out-loud scenes. Dortmunder, Andy Kelp, Stan Murch, and the other members of their inner circle are perfectly drawn, and their interactions make for excellent comedy. Westlake, who died last New Year's Eve, will be sorely missed, but he has left a fine last work that will add to his legacy. Highly recommended.Craig Shufelt, Fort McMurray P.L., AB

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2009
The late, lamented Westlake was in top form with the fifteenth and final installment of this series of comic capers that began with The Hot Rock in the 1970s. Dortmunder and his camera-shy band get mixed up with a reality TV show that is even more fraudulent than its felonious subjects. Get Real productions will pay them $20K apieceplus per diemto film a real heist. Reluctant wage slaves, the gang attempts to sweeten the deal with a little supplementary larceny, but when the producers swell their ranks with a corn-fed telegenic gun moll and a crook from central casting to spy on them, whos two-timing who? As cameras roll all around them, can the crooks avoid incarceration, or worsecancellation? With brilliant restraint and perfectly pitched deadpan dialogue, Westlake keeps his characters dancing precariously along the knifes edge of absurdity. Reading his ever-more-colorful descriptions of the gangs gargantuan muscleman, Tiny (with a head that didnt make you think of Easter Island so much as Halloween Island), isa sheer delight, only tempered by the knowledge that this is last callat the OJ Bar & Grillone final round of Amsterdam Liquor Store bourbon (Our Own Brand) for the road. Heres to crime: how sweet it is!(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)