God Save the Mark

Donald E. Westlake

Jul 2010 · Rosetta Books

About this ebook

This Edgar Award winner is a “raucously funny” novel of crime, con artists, and a poor sucker caught in the middle, by the author of the Dortmunder series (Kirkus Reviews).
 
If there is a scam operating anywhere, sooner or later it will find Fred Fitch. The pure-hearted, gullible man seems to get taken every time he turns around. At this point, he’s been ripped off so many times he’s got a regular contact at New York’s bunco squad.
 
Now Fred’s late Uncle Matt, who he never even heard of before, has willed him $317,000. Along with the inheritance comes the devoted Gertie Divine, Uncle Matt’s old friend who is all too willing to become Fred’s new friend—and a host of other mysterious characters who are willing to get chummy with Fred in hopes of getting their hands on that fortune.
 
But soon it’s not just Fred’s money that’s in danger but his life, in this “high-spirited farce” (The Washington Post) by the master of comic crime fiction—starring a character the New York Times called “unforgettable . . . Everybody’s favorite loser.”
 
“Masterful.” —Publishers Weekly

About the author

Donald E. Westlake began his career at the Scott Meredith Literary Agency in the late 1950s where he published short stories in the Alfred Hitchcock, Ellery Queen and other mystery magazines. His first novel, The Mercenaries, was published by Random House (1960) and was a finalist for the Edgar. His short story, Too Many Crooks, won the Edgar in 1992, and Westlake received the MWA Grandmaster Award in 1997. Westlake has worked in both television and film, winning an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for The Grifters in 1992, and many of his novels have been the basis of films, among them, The Hot Rock, The Bank Shot, Cops and Robbers, Why Me?, The Busy Body, and Point Blank. Point Blank, based upon the novel The Outfit was one of a series of hardboiled suspense novels written as "Richard Stark" and was remade as Payback starring Mel Gibson in 1998.