Books: What's the Worst that Could Happen? By Donald E. Westlake (1996)

“Dortmunder is in the midst of a routine burglary of a Long Island mansion when who shows up toting a gun but the owner, nasty billionaire Max Fairbanks. Worse, Fairbanks takes Dortmunder's supposedly lucky ring. Highly insulted, Dortmunder and his gang execute their own peculiar reign of terror, and although they acquire quite a bit of Fairbanks' swag, they never quite get the ring back. Which leads Dortmunder to wonder precisely what sort of luck the ring carries.”

It’s a thin premise to hang a novel on, but there is some charm and wit within What’s the Worst that Could Happen? to make it worth the read. Like a lot of Westlake’s books, there is a lot of conveniences and coincidences that make the story flow, sometimes iy makes the reader wonder at the conceit of it all. The set up and the heist are not as intricate as previous Dortmunder (or Parker) tales (though, again, could this be Westlake’s take on Ocean’s 11?) but I still liked it. I do question Dortmunder’s male ego though –after all it is a silly, inexpensive ring. As noted in earlier reviews of previous books, this ninth volume was released in 1996, some twenty-six years after The Hot Rock started this franchise and no one’s aged a day. Westlake takes advantages of the technology, like the early use of mobile phones, but while time moves on, Dortmunder and his crew seem stuck in the 1970s. Still, the crew is always likable and even if one tale seems weaker than others, you also know that Donald E. Westlake has many more books to get it right.

 Note:

There was a loosely-based movie version of this book, same title, and released in 2001 that starred Eddie Murphy, Danny DeVito, John Leguizamo, Glenne Heady, Bernie Mac, Larry Miller, Nora Dun, William Fichtner, Anna Gasteyer and Richard Schiff. The film was reviewed poorly, with Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times giving the film an unfavorable review, stating that there were "too many characters, not enough plot, and a disconnect between the two stars' acting styles". Even Marc Shaiman, who scored the film, told Playbill Magazine that the "worst job" he ever had was "scoring a hideous movie called What's the Worst that Could Happen? I'm not kidding.” It grossed only $38 million on a $60 million budget.