Donald E. Westlake, where have you been all my reading life? I loved your novel Watch Your Back!

You're as funny as Carl Hiassen, no, funnier. And unlike Hiassen your humor is dry and understated. It's the kind of playfulness you stumble across on the page, ponder, then laugh. Clearly you had fun writing this book.

I picked up Watch Your Back! (complete with New York-style exclamation point!) when I was searching for something to read on the plane. A good crime novel can make up for the ignominies of coach. But WHICH crime novel?

Clue: Westlake has been writing for a very long time, so he has fans who not only think he's good but are willing to pay money to read him. Also, he's won Edgar awards and the odd doctorate or two.

So I figured, how bad could Watch Your Back! be? And it was much better than that.

I've always admired writers who produce books and send them out into the world, then do it again, and again. That is so far from the one-novel-wonder or the three-novel-phenomenon. Creating great characters and running them through a series is an art to be savored and appreciated.

Writers like Westlake work on behalf of readers who will read anything as long as it's good, and we know good when we come across it in the airport.

The cover proclaims this one A Dortmunder Novel. John Dortmunder, "a free man, not even on parole" and his sidekick in minor crime Andy Kelp, "standing in an elevator with a bunch of people he didn't know" have enjoyed numerous previous adventures.

Pondering the paperback in my hand, I suspected reading Westlake now would be like arriving late to someone else's party.

"Many years ago," Westlake says, "I made a mighty vow that I would never write two novels about John Dortmunder in a row, but would always write at least two books about other people and other things in between. The reason was, I didn't want to overwork John, me or the reader. So far, I think the system has worked pretty well.

"So what happened? After The Road to Ruin, clearly, I was supposed to write two non-John novels, and yet, Watch Your Back! is absolutely about Dortmunder, Kelp and all the rest of them. And what happened was, this was the only story I could think about. I resisted, I tried to come up with something else, but the brain refused to move until I had cleared it of this idea. So I hope it's gonna be all right. I leave it to the reader to judge."

I knew none of this when I discovered Mr. Westlake on a low shelf at SFO. (Anyone with a last name beginning with W X or Z is going to live on a low shelf. It's the way of the alphabet, and bookstores.)

Subtle, writerly touches make this novel extra enjoyable. Bad guys drive around in a Lexus Enorma or Chrysler Consigliere. The bad guys are in fact straight shooters, moral in their own way, like the Guys in "Guys & Dolls." The real bad guys are persons commonly considered good guys because they have money and power. But they are bad, and that's good, in a novel like this.

So, the good bad guys, Dortmunder, Kelp and friends, plan a daring deed, which is not legal but not particularly immoral either; and the bad good guys do deeds that are quasi-legal, but not moral. A majorly bad good guy gets run through a Florida swamp naked except for a bright red swimming suit and his Rolex. The good bad guys, stay with me here, manage to get even with some REALLY bad guys, organized types, and also get their neighborhood bar back, and also a bit of cash, too.

It's a funny and absorbing story. You have to start somewhere with an author who has more than 40 novels to his real name, and another 24 or so under the pseudonym Richard Stark plus five by Tucker Coe plus four by Samuel Holt plus four by Edwin West plus screenplays and short stories and teleplays and...

You have to start somewhere, and could hardly do better than pick up a copy of Watch Your Back! in the airport.

Aired Sunday February 25, 2007 at 10:55 am and Wednesday February 28, 2007 at 1:00 pm

Orders/Information:

Westlake's personal web site is unusually chatty, and Westlake is generous with reading samples. He says, "When I have a new book coming out, I'm happy to put its first chapter here, to give a sample, help you decide if this is the special timewaster you've been searching for."

If you want to check this out for yourself go to www.donaldwestlake.com

Watch Your Back! by Donald E. Westlake. Warner Books paperback $7.50. ISBN 0446617121

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