{"id":79,"date":"2001-12-27T11:13:54","date_gmt":"2001-12-27T16:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog-test\/?p=79"},"modified":"2001-12-27T11:13:54","modified_gmt":"2001-12-27T16:13:54","slug":"westlake_donald_1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/2001\/12\/westlake_donald_1\/","title":{"rendered":"Westlake, Donald E.: (10) Bad News"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> <\/a> <\/p>\n

One of the best ways to unwind is with one of Donald E. Westlake’s Dortmunder books. I finished a nice leisurely re-read of Bad News<\/cite><\/strong> a few days ago, but haven’t had time to update this since.<\/p>\n

I don’t have much to add to what Chad said about it<\/a>, so I’ll just leave you with part of one of my favorite scenes from the book. It’s Thanksgiving dinner, and the gang is trying to figure out what scam they’ve stumbled into.<\/p>\n

\n

Dortmunder said to J.C., “I don’t think we got enough information yet.” To Kelp, he said, “There’s another partner, right?”<\/p>\n

“That’s what he says,” Kelp said, and to Anne Marie, he said, “This stuff is really great, hon, we oughta eat like this every night.”<\/p>\n

“We do, Andy,” Anne Marie said.<\/p>\n

J.C. said, “So maybe the other partner is what’ll tell you.”<\/p>\n

Dortmunder said to Anne Marie, “Great gravy, really great gravy, goes with the turkey like they were meant for each other.” Then he said to J.C., “We’ll find out tomorrow morning at eleven o’clock.”<\/p>\n

“Speaking of which,” Tiny said, “that’s a very tight schedule, Kelp.”<\/p>\n

“I didn’t want to give them a chance to booby-trap us.”<\/p>\n

“Tight for us<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Dortmunder said, “No, I think Andy’s right. We’re not trying to blow them up, just talk to them. Doesn’t take that much preparation.”<\/p>\n

“Maybe,” Tiny said, and patted Anne Marie, to his right, on the arm—she flinched—and said, “This is a great meal, Anne Marie. Every bit of it. I’m gonna be around for seconds.”<\/p>\n

“Good,” Anne Marie said, smiling at him and favoring her other arm.<\/p>\n

Kelp said, “It would be nice if we had a car with a remote control. And a bomb, you know? Send it out there, see what happens. If nothing happens, then we go out there with the other car.”<\/p>\n

J.C. said, “You’re going to have to give me the recipe for these creamed onions, Anne Marie. Isn’t she, Tiny?”<\/p>\n

“Yes,” Tiny said, and turned to Kelp to say, “Hand grenade and duct tape.”<\/p>\n

Kelp looked at him. “You’d be willing to do that?”<\/p>\n

“I done it before,” Tiny said. “It always makes people switch over to Plan B, every time.”<\/p>\n

“Okay, good,” Kelp said. “You got the grenade?”<\/p>\n

“I know where to get it.”<\/p>\n

Dortmunder said, “I think I should find us some guns, too.”<\/p>\n

“Okay,” Kelp said. “And in the morning, I’ll go steal us a car.”<\/p>\n

“You know,” Anne Marie said, “Thanksgiving dinner conversation in Lancaster, Kansas, wasn’t at all like this.” And she smiled happily around at her guests.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the best ways to unwind is with one of Donald E. Westlake’s Dortmunder books. I finished a nice leisurely re-read of Bad News a few days ago, but haven’t had time to update this since. I don’t have much to add to what Chad said about it, so I’ll just leave you with … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Westlake, Donald E.: (10) Bad News”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,66,6],"tags":[433],"class_list":["post-79","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-dortmunder","category-mystery","tag-westlake-donald-e"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}