"But what if I spun around like that, and the guy with the gun was Robert Mitchum?"

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	• Somebody Owes Me Money Donald E. Westlake Hard Case Crime, 2008 - 253 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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Vastly entertaining

I'm really glad that Hard Case Crime has chosen to reprint this early Donald Westlake novel, not only because Somebody Owes Me Money is a really good book, but also for a more personal reason. I've been reading his series books for so long -- whether under his own name, or the Richard Stark pseudonym -- that I had really forgotten how good Westlake could be at standalone comic crime novels.

The most eloquent cab driver in New York City, Chet Conway works nights so he can spend his days at the track (and he works days where there are no races). When he gets a tip on a horse instead of the usual spendable gratuity, Chet decides that a man who can calculate in his head the return on a $3.54 bet at 22-to-1 odds must know what he's talking about.

But when Chet goes to pick up his winnings ("Almost a thousand dollars! I was rich!"), he finds his bookie Tommy McKay "spread out on the floor, sunny side up. With the yolk broken." And suddenly people start thinking he did it. Tommy's wife Louise, the police, the syndicate, etc. But nobody seems to know where he can go now to collect his $930.00 payoff.

When Tommy's sister Abbie climbs into his cab, things take a definite turn for the worse. Chet gets shot in the head and has to recuperate at Tommy's place, where eventually every member of organized crime in the city treads through, wanting to know why Chet killed Tommy. Chet has to clear his name by figuring out the real killer.

Somebody Owes Me Money is one of the few actual mysteries put out by Hard Case Crime. Off the top of my head I can only think of three, but they all involve licensed private investigators, as opposed to this amateur. After all, Chet may be eloquent, but, like all good crime protagonists, he's also a little dim. (Truly smart people manage to avoid these situations.)

God Save the Mark is more wildly clever (it's Westlake's masterpiece, in my opinion), and any given Dortmunder book has more belly laughs, but Somebody Owes Me Money is still vastly entertaining (with an ending that is 180° from the typical whodunit) and yet another reason why every Donald E. Westlake book, even the lesser-known ones, should stay continuously in print.

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One of the best, back in print at last

I have to admit that The Kid got a little misty-eyed when he saw that Hard Case Crime had published SOMEBODY OWES ME MONEY by Donald E. Westlake. I had owned a copy of it the first time around but lost it in an ill-fated cross-country move in 1973. For the longest time it had been inexplicably out of print --- until now.

Westlake has been a master craftsman for so long that it's difficult to remember a time when he wasn't around and doing excellent work. In SOMEBODY OWES ME MONEY we meet Chet Conway, a cab driver who lives with his dad and likes to play the ponies with an off-track New York betting establishment consisting of a one-man operation named Tommy McKay. Acting on a tip, he improbably wins. However, when he goes to collect his prize, Conway finds McKay dead with no money to be had. The cops are suspicious, as are two groups of mobsters who are shooting first and asking questions later. Conway is not a tough guy and wants nothing to do with criminals or the police; he simply wants the money he won in the bet.

Conway does have one friend in this mess who has suddenly become his life: McKay's sister Abbie, an attractive, street-smart card dealer from Vegas who has flown to New York to avenge her brother's murder. She, too, initially blames Conway but soon settles down enough to try to find the real killer even as she is slowly but surely becoming attracted to him. The result is that they both wind up being pursued by rival gangs, each of whom thinks that Conway is in the other's employ.

Conway soon realizes that, in order to resume a peaceful life, he's going to have to solve McKay's murder. Interestingly enough --- and here is where Westlake's subtle brilliance shines through --- while it is Conway's gambling habits that get him into this jam, it's also his gambling that ultimately reveals the true killer's identity. And you can guess who it is if you pay very close attention and if, like Conway when he places his racing bet, you are very lucky.

I would be tempted to say that they don't write 'em like SOMEBODY OWES ME MONEY anymore, but that would be incorrect. Westlake continues to annually add to his incredible body of work. This treasure, once lost but now found, is a sheer joy from beginning to end.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

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"But what if I spun around like that, and the guy with the gun was Robert Mitchum?"

Like any good pulp novel, Someone Owes Me Money pulls the reader right into the plot with very few preliminaries. The book's protagonist is a likeable, unflappable New York City cab driver named Chet Conway, a man who became a cab driver so that he can indulge his first love--gambling. He can work "day shift when the track is closed, night shift when it's open." Chet admits this with an easy, frank style in the book's second paragraph, and when I read this, I knew I was hooked. Chet is a wonderful protagonist, and this character reminds me once again why I enjoy Westlake so much. At the same time, I admit that I don't enjoy ALL Westlake novels equally, but in Somebody Owes Me Money, Westlake is at the top of his game.

Gambling is at the core of Chet's life, and yet at the same time his 'hobby' isn't entirely out-of-control. While it dictates his life, for example how much he works and whether or not he has a love life, he still controls his gambling urges enough to reason through how much he can afford to lose. One day after driving a well-heeled fare to a swanky address, Chet is annoyed when he doesn't receive the normal tip. Instead the man tells Chet to bet money on an outsider horse named Purple Pecunia scheduled to race that day.

Methodically Chet chews over the information. And after dismissing his annoyance at being robbed of a tip, he decides that there was something different about this fare, and playing a "hunch" Chet calls his bookie, Tommy McKay and places thirty-five dollars on Purple Pecunia. When the horse wins at 27-1, Chet is set to collect $980. But when Chet goes over to Tommy's house to collect the loot, all he finds is a stiff "sunny side up" in the living room.

From this moment on, Chet stubbornly refuses to ditch the idea that someone somewhere owes him money, and he reasons that if he wants his winnings, he has little choice but to begin investigating the crime. Chet rapidly becomes the prime suspect in the murder, but what's even worse than that is he still hasn't managed to collect his dough. Plagued by Tommy's hysterical frumpy wife, a sexy gun-toting dame looking for revenge, and a slew of angry, competing Neanderthal gangsters, Chet's life may never be the same.

This novel isn't fluff, and Westlake's canny observations of human nature add a great deal of depth to the story. Laced with strong well-drawn characters, Chet's world is packed with colorful personalities from his weekly poker game, and we meet Chet's father--a man whose hobby is an obsessive search for the best insurance policy available. In his pursuit of a policy that contains a lucrative flaw, Chet's father displays "the faith and the obstinacy of a man with a roulette system," and it's through this relationship that Chet's gambling addiction begins to make sense.

Written with a wry sense of humor, Somebody Owes Me Money is a wonderful escapist read and a superb addition to the Hard Case canon. There's one perfect scene in the book when Chet imagines, just for a moment, that he's Robert Mitchum. Chet notes, "there's a touch of Robert Mitchum in all of us," and for noir/crime fans, that is most definitely true.

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You can't go wrong with Westlake

Baseball, football and basketball all have their Halls of Fame. The equivalent among mystery writers would be the Grand Masters, a title awarded once a year to honor the lifetime achievement of a particular writer. The Grand Masters are the best of the best, and one of their most shining examples would be Donald Westlake.

Westlake has been writing crime stories for over four decades, both under his own name and his pseudonym, Richard Stark (he has had other pseudonyms such as Tucker Coe that have long since been retired). As Stark, he writes the classic Parker novels featuring the thief with a heart of steel. Under his own name, he has written Oscar-nominated screenplays (The Grifters) and a whole string of novels that are often, but not always, comic. Somebody Owes Me Money, the latest Hard Case Crime book to feature Westlake, is one of those comic novels.

The narrator of Somebody Owes Me Money is cab driver Chet Conway, an ordinary guy who likes to play the ponies, never getting seriously in debt but also never getting ahead. One of Chet's fares gives him a real tip: not money, but some inside information on a longshot that is certain to win. Conway takes a chance and on a small bet wins $930 (which in 1960's New York can go a long way).

Unfortunately, when he comes to collect from his bookie, the man is dead, leaving Chet in a bind. For one thing, the police are now regarding him with suspicion; for another, he doesn't know who to collect his winnings from. What's worse, it turns out that the bookie was entangled with two rival gangs, both of which suspect Chet of the killing, as does the bookie's beautiful blonde sister. For self-preservation - and to get his money - Chet will have to try and solve this crime himself.

As always, Westlake is a master of both suspense and humor, making this book a delight to read. If you're expecting one of Hard Case Crime's typical gritty pulp novels, this will be a bit of a surprise but no disappointment; you will get a nice example of what makes Westlake one of the very best in the business.

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