Bank Shot

“Tell me,” Dortmunder said.
“We steal the bank,” Victor said.

That simple. Well, only if you make sure no one’s in it when you do! Especially guards!

I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again - I’d love to hang out at the O. J. Bar and Grill with this cast of characters! And I love their dialogue! For example, “… when you knock over a bank, you don’t live in it after you knocked it over, you go someplace else.”

Of course, I also love that nothing goes as planned in these books, and their overall luck isn't very good. I'll give them credit where credit is due, they did, in fact, steal the bank! But then...

Master criminal planner Dortmander is reduced to selling encyclopedias to the housewives living on Long Island when his friend Kelp tells him about a “sure thing.” Seems Kelp’s nephew Victor is a former FBI agent who has noticed a perfect opportunity – a local bank is undergoing major renovation and so operations have been temporarily moved to a mobile home in a nearby vacant lot. All they have to do is hitch the trailer to a truck and they can steal the entire bank!

Westlake created a wonderful character with Dortmander – a master planner of elaborate crimes who is cursed with a gang of not-quite-competent accomplices. If anything can go wrong with Dortmander’s perfect plan, it will. The only thing that seems to save show more Dortmander and his friends is that the police are equally (or more) inept than the crooks. I just find myself cheering for Dortmander’s crew, sharing their frustrations, shaking my head at their obvious mistakes, chuckling at their mishaps. This comic caper is the perfect antidote to a gray dreary day. I’ll be smiling for hours just thinking about it. show less

More or less pure enjoyment from beginning to end. Westlake was both prolific and clever, but I wonder if he really knew what he had come up with after Hot Rock, or if he didn't really get it until about here. They're called "Dortmunder" novels, and that's fair enough, but it's really the whole cast that sells it, especially Kelp, May, Murch, Murch's Mom.

Wish there were a few more of these.

We all miss Donald Westlake, the creator of so many delightful books of which this is a fine example in the Dortmunder series. Dortmunder is a thief and con-man (he's been collecting deposits on encyclopedias when he runs into a little trouble). This time he's approached by his friend Kelp, who, with his his ex-FBI agent nephew, Victor, have the perfect bank robbery all lined up. It seems while a new branch bank building is being built, the bank has moved across the street to a mobile home. The bank usually doesn't worry about theft since cash is in the safe (damn those credit cards and checks) only Thursday nights and with seven guards and a sophisticated alarm system, what's to worry. Well you no doubt can guess their plan. It's to show more install wheels and drive off with the entire building.

As is typical with Westlake caper books, just as things seem to be going right, they go off the rails. The ending is worthy of slapstick comedy; in fact, this could make a great movie. ("Could" being operative word. Apparently they tried with George C Scott and Joanna Cassidy, but it was a bomb.) . The charm of these books has less to do with plot than the conversations and interplay between the characters, not to mention sarcastic portrayals of certain professions, mundane examples of how we move through life. show less

Bank Shot is the second book in the Dortmunder series of crime stories where professional crook John Dortmunder attempts to successfully complete various crimes but something usually goes wrong. In this case the crime is a bank robbery, and since the bank is housed in a temporary home, the plan is to take the whole bank. The usual inept gang is gathered together and plans are made to hook up the huge mobile trailer and haul it away.

Of course nothing goes as planned. Much to my enjoyment, the author throws one humorous situation after another into the mix that Dortmunder and his gang need to work through. Their dreams of a mobile home full of money slowly slips away. Leaving Dortmunder vowing never to work with these clowns again (until show more next time).

From the idea, to the planning to the execution Bank Shot was a fun read. If you are in the mood for a well written comedy caper, this book entertains. show less

This is the Book that hooked me on Dortmunder. If you have never read a comic crime caper then you must read this book. The string is not all here, as Tiny does not reappear until Drowned Hopes, but Herman makes a decent sub and he supposedly can do locks as well. Stan and Andy are here and both May and Murch's Mom actually help in stealing the bank. A crook's dream. Pity they used water-based paint.

It took me a little bit to get into it, but once it got rolling, I was in. I just love Dortmunder. What a fabulous character. "His luck was never all good, but it was never all bad either. It was a nice combination of the two, balanced so exactly that they canceled each other out."