Good Behavior

Dortmunder falls into a convent full of silent nuns who, despite just about everything about him, see him as a Godsend, just the man they need to rescue their sister, kidnapped by her obscenely wealthy father and held for deprogramming on the top floor of a Manhattan skyscraper. This is not the sort of thing John does. It's not even the sort of thing John approves of, but he hatches a scheme and puts together a string and before you know it there's burgling and rescuing going on and everything might even work out for the best. Except the obscenely rich father is planning a coup in a South American country and figures the floor below the top floor is as good a place as any to keep his mercenary army for the weekend before flying them show more out. And that's what Dortmunder's got to get through to get to the nun and then back down through again to get her out, and soon the nun's rescuing John and everyone's rescuing each other and there's mercenaries and security guards and cops everywhere and a ton of loot and one nun and Dortmunder and pals all wondering who's going to rescue them.

All-time classic comedy crime caper. You cannot do better for lifting rainy-day blues. show less

I’m a huge fan of Westlake’s books featuring hapless burglar John Dortmunder, but this one is special. Thieves, nuns (silent nuns, no less), a Trump-esque evil businessman, a cult deprogrammer, and a private army of mercenaries combine with an insane plot to rescue a kidnapped novice nun to make one of the funniest books I’ve ever read.

This might be the best Dortmunder novel I've read yet. Hugely entertaining caper about how our at times incompetent serial criminal gets roped into breaking a nun out of captivity.

Dortmunder, while running from the police after a botched robbery, falls into a convent nuns, all of whom have taken a vow of silence! In exchange for the nuns silence with the police, John agrees to rescue a nun who has been kidnapped by her wealthy father in his attempt to get her to leave the convent. And at the same time, he and his 'gang' are going to rob many of the business in the building she is being held captive! What could go wrong?

Another fun book from the Dortmunder series, with a few new characters to spice things up! I liked this one quite a bit, and enjoyed the way some of the plot details are wrapped up in letter form in Chapter 50! A nice ending for John and May too! Well deserved!

Dortmunder and his gang get in over their head again, this time involving a convent full of nuns on a vow of silence. Dortmunder was raised by nuns but these ones are the friendly kind and so he is inclined to help them.

Not particularly memorable by Dortmunder standards but an amusing enough crime caper if you have time that needs passing.

Dortmunder gets roped into breaking a nun out of an office building. It's a fun read, and introduces some much-needed new characters, but is nothing special.

After all of these years, John Dortmunder finally wins one. I cheered out loud. This is the most satisfying of a great series of stories that I have followed for years. Read it and enjoy.