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calimacThieves' Dozen by Donald E. Westlake.
I didn't even know there were any Dortmunder short stories until recently when I happened to come across some of them listed in The Locus Mystery Short Fiction Index. I was contemplating the task of tracking them down, when suddenly a book appeared. (Now also listed in the Index, of course.)
In his introduction, Westlake describes one of the stories as amusing readers who knew the Dortmunder novels, but mystifying anyone else. That's about the size of this. These stories are amusing, but best read one at a time, and not for anyone who doesn't already know the character. The one about stealing a race horse was one of the best, but I had to wonder what Dortmunder and Kelp were doing in it: they seemed even more superfluous than in the otherwise amusing but unmemorably-titled novel Bad News.
I found out about the book from a reference in Terry Teachout's arts weblog, posted by his collaborator "Our Girl in Chicago". She provided a link to Amazon, but I did not buy the book from Amazon: I bought it at Kepler's. Support your local bookstore.
I'm now reading Alaska: Saga of a Bold Land by Walter R. Borneman, also from Kepler's. B. and I will be visiting the place this summer, and a good history is always a good place to start. I knew this was a book for me when I saw it had a chapter titled "Juneau, or Whatever Its Name Is," nicely referencing early disputes over the town's name.
Also recently read, Heat of Fusion and Other Stories by John M. Ford and New Magics edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden, and I'll post my reviews of these after Mythprint publishes them.
I didn't even know there were any Dortmunder short stories until recently when I happened to come across some of them listed in The Locus Mystery Short Fiction Index. I was contemplating the task of tracking them down, when suddenly a book appeared. (Now also listed in the Index, of course.)
In his introduction, Westlake describes one of the stories as amusing readers who knew the Dortmunder novels, but mystifying anyone else. That's about the size of this. These stories are amusing, but best read one at a time, and not for anyone who doesn't already know the character. The one about stealing a race horse was one of the best, but I had to wonder what Dortmunder and Kelp were doing in it: they seemed even more superfluous than in the otherwise amusing but unmemorably-titled novel Bad News.
I found out about the book from a reference in Terry Teachout's arts weblog, posted by his collaborator "Our Girl in Chicago". She provided a link to Amazon, but I did not buy the book from Amazon: I bought it at Kepler's. Support your local bookstore.
I'm now reading Alaska: Saga of a Bold Land by Walter R. Borneman, also from Kepler's. B. and I will be visiting the place this summer, and a good history is always a good place to start. I knew this was a book for me when I saw it had a chapter titled "Juneau, or Whatever Its Name Is," nicely referencing early disputes over the town's name.
Also recently read, Heat of Fusion and Other Stories by John M. Ford and New Magics edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden, and I'll post my reviews of these after Mythprint publishes them.
