The bad news is that now having finished reading Bad News I am that much closer to the end of the Dortmunder capers written by Donald Westlake. It is number ten in the series and I only have four to go.
Of course, Mr. W. penned many stand-alone capers and mysteries, some not always humorous, but I have a certain fondness for John Dortmunder and his cohorts.
In this tale John and his boys conspire with a couple of con artists trying to lay claim to the ownership of a casino run by two Indian tribes near the Canadian border. This involves trying to prove that one Little Feather Redcorn is the last living descendant (she's not) of a third tribe that once shared in the profits of the casino. Along the way there is the digging up of bodies, the switching of headstones, and DNA tests. The cast includes high-powered New York attorneys, a small town judge who has seen enough 'stupidity' in his courtroom to last a lifetime, and the public defender appointed to defend Little Feather, actually a former Las Vegas showgirl and blackjack dealer, when the casino owners have her arrested for extortion.
Oh, yes. There is also the theft of a snow plow and the stealing of some valuable and fenceable objects from a historic home. Only Dortmunder could plan a successful robbery that depended on a blizzard.
As usual, it is all great fun and Westlake writes his characters in and out of situations faster than you can spin a roulette wheel.
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