Here’s how you know you’re in the hands of an old pro, as you are with Donald E. Westlake’s SOMEBODY OWES ME MONEY: By the end of the eighth page — and yes, that’s eighth, not 80th — the entire story has been set up.
The protagonist of this little mystery — reissued by Hard Case Crime for the first time since its original publication in nearly four decades — is Chester “Chet” Conway, a New York City taxi driver who lives with his dad and tries to make ends meet with the occasional play at the ponies. He gets a tip on a long-shot horse that ends up paying big. Too bad when Chet goes to collect his winnings, his bookie lay on the floor, murdered.
I need not tell you that as Chet dials the police for help, the bookie’s wife walks in, finds her husband, and immediately suspect our mild-mannered cabbie as the culprit. The neighbors and investigating detectives think as much, but to Chet, that’s all more of an inconvenience as he tries less to prove himself innocent and more to find who can the $930 he’s got coming to him — hence the title.
In his investigation, Chet enters a dangerous world of gangsters, gamblers and gals — including Abbie, the vengeful sister of the dead bookie. Westlake’s effortless knack for humor is faultless as always (Chet describes the bookie’s corpse as “spread out on the floor, sunny side up. With the yolk broken”), but even then, SOMEBODY is not representative of his best plots.
Fast-moving, yes, but too many hoods spoil the soup. It’s increasingly less funny as it goes on and the threat to lives grows more real. I hate to say it, but the abrupt, explain-it-all-in-a-pinch ending has a Borscht Belt feel to it. Given it’s Westlake, it’s better than most, but there are better of his out there — some of them from Hard Case. —Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• ASK THE PARROT by Richard Stark
• THE AX by Donald E. Westlake
• COPS AND ROBBERS by Donald E. Westlake
• DIRTY MONEY by Richard Stark
• KILLTOWN by Richard Stark
• LEMONS NEVER LIE by Richard Stark
• THE MAN WITH THE GETAWAY FACE by Richard Stark
• PITY HIM AFTERWARDS by Donald E. Westlake
• POINT BLANK by Richard Stark
• THE SOUR LEMON SCORE by Richard Stark
• 361 by Donald E. Westlake
• WHAT’S SO FUNNY? by Donald E. Westlake
• WHAT’S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN? by Donald E. Westlake
