The Hot Rock by Donald E. Westlake aka Richard Stark is the first of fourteen Dortmunder mystery novels. Like all others in the series, The Hot Rock has Dortmunder pulling a heist where everything goes comically wrong.
Not to spoil anything but this heist involves a hypnotist, a train, a stolen truck, a few cars with MD plates, and a train. All this to get the Balamobo emerald, a jewel important to two small African countries and coveted by the one it does not belong to.
Dortmunder assembles a crew to get the emerald and does. Unfortunately, he does so again and again, the emerald being determined to stay free. Freeing the emerald comically involves just about all form of transportation invented by man.
Donald E. Westlake is in fine form in this first Dortmunder thriller and takes the reader along for a very entertaining ride.
The Hot Rock
Donald E Westlake
A Dortmunder mystery
The Mysterious Press
Originally published 1970
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