The Hot Rock (original 1970; edition 1971)

With financial backing by Major Patrick Iko, the UN Ambassador from Talabwo, John Dortmunder puts together a team to steal the Balabamo Emerald from the exhibition at New York Coliseum. When the first attempt at the heist comes unstuck, and one of the team ends up in jail, so there are a succession of fresh attempts.

Iko has agreed to pay each member of the team a daily retainer and a final amount. He also agrees to supply whatever guns etc Dortmunder requires. As the plot progresses, attempts to retrieve the emerald become more bizarre, the resulting equipment requests become even more bizarre. Dortmunder's determination to retrieve the emerald becomes stronger with each phase of the plot. For Dortmunder, the emerald becomes an albatross around his neck, his destiny. He must get it.

To me it seemed that HOT ROCK had been written with an eye to a film script. There are passages that owe a lot to slapstick comedy, and yet at the same time the scenarios feel like serious attempts to resolve conundrums. How do you break into a prison? How do you raid a bank vault?

I read HOT ROCK because next week contributors to Pattinase's Friday's Forgotten Books are paying tribute to the work of Donald E.Westlake.
It occurred to me that it was likely I had never read any of his books. Various participants suggested that I begin with THE HOT ROCK. I have enjoyed the book and may even read another at some time. ( )

My favorite Weslake book. Persistence gets you somewhere, but not always a happy ending. Good NYC atmosphere. Interesting characters that most people would like. And yes, funny.

A most excellent airport or transit book, field tested. A caper, or series of capers, which makes you keep thinking, "This was made to be a movie." Which of course it was, though I haven't seen it. And if this is a Dortmunder series, there should be more movies. They'd be better than the weaker Ocean's 11 series, which I bet Westlake inspired.

As other reviewers have noted, it feels dated. Not from the time of actual publication either. Feels more like the 1950s, a very male dominated New York. ( )

As professional criminals go, Dortmunder is the nebbish counterpart to to Westlake's hard boiled brute- Parker.
A soft, 3 stars on this. Amusing, but at times a little far fetched and dated -it 's definitely a 'G' read,as opposed to the 'M' read of the Parker books. There's much more of an emphasis here on quirky, eccentric characters and less on the procedural elements, which are an important part of what makes the Parker novels so interesting.. A number of decisions made for the movie make that a better telling of the story. So IMO, the book is still worth a read, it's fun in parts, but the movie is actually better! ( )

Dortmunder gets out of jail, and thanks to watchful prison warding, is skint. Therefore a very difficult job to steal a large emerald is more attractive that it might have been.

Things do not go as planned with this jewel of dodgy country provenance.

It becomes 'an albatross around his neck' as his puts it later.

This was ok, but that was about it.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2009/09/hot-rock-donald-e-westlake.html ( )