Money for Nothing

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0892967870 ISBN 13: 9780892967872

Publisher: Mysterious Press, 2003

Seven years after he begins receiving mysterious checks that follow him as he moves through life, Josh Redmont, en route to a summer vacation, is approached by a stranger with information about Josh's identity. 35,000 first printing.

Review:

Proving the old adage that there's no such thing as the windfall promised by the title, Westlake starts this funny divertissement with an intriguing premise: Mr. American Everyman, young, ambitious, decent, honorable husband and father, has been receiving a check for $1,000 once a month from an unknown benefactor for seven years. Just when Josh Redmont has finally stopped worrying about where the money comes from or what it means, a stranger with a foreign accent approaches him on the Fire Island ferry and clues him in. Therein hangs the tale of who's behind Josh good fortune and what kind of bill has come due for all those tax-free dollars. Unbeknownst to our hapless hero, he's been a "sleeper agent" whose paymaster has awakened him just in time to play a big role in a political assassination. How Josh gets out of a mess he had no idea he was in drives the lively narrative to its breathless conclusion. Westlake is the undisputed master of the caper genre--although Money for Nothing may not be as deviously convoluted or sidesplittingly comic as some of his earlier novels (The Ax, Put a Lid On It), it's well worth the reader's attention and appreciation. --Jane Adams

About the Author:

Donald E. Westlake, the winner of three Edgar Awards and a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, lives with his wife in New York. PAGES: 320