Trust Me on This

I've read about a half dozen Westlake books--including several Dortmunder capers. They're fun & a bit ironic. I like this book the best, however, even more than God Save the Mark: A Novel of Crime and Confusion which was quite good. This one is very unusual--providing humorous, though sometimes horrid, views of tabloid "journalism" at its worst. Interwoven with a newbie's introduction to this land of lies--and her reactions to it--is a mystery that almost gets lost in the shuffle. But not quite. The ending is superb, IMHO--though I did figure out the culprit. The author plays fair with the reader--dropping subtle hints here & there throughout the book. Some of the incidents are quite humorous--bordering on the absurd. The characters have a very wide range of points of view: for example--p. 60: "I never would have married him except my mother hated him" to p. 218: "He who has nothing to lose has already won"--from cynicism to the profound. This is one terrific mystery novel. Indeed, it's difficult to limit it to just that narrow genre. Bravo Mr. Westlake!

TRUST ME ON THIS is one of those books I can read over and over again and not get bored with it. As a journalist, I appreciate the scenes at the tabloid, which are funny as hell. However, Westlake also does a great job blending in the mystery and romance aspects, and has created a believable and likeable character with the heroine, Sara. This is a must read. Trust me.

This was a very funny book. It had the usual Westlake shenanigans and completely outlandish behavior, but the twist is how the newspaper in the story is modeled after The National Inquirer. It made good fun of the "excessive news" industry and added a new concept: the body in the box. This is the holy grail of excessive news stories in this book. The protagonists try to take a picture of a dead famous person in his coffin. Absolutely hilarious! The female protagonist is naive and personable, very believable. The male lead is also believable as a cad who just wants stories that sell. I highly recommend this one to fans of Lawrence Block, Elmore Leonard, and Janet Evanovich (as well as Westlake fans).

This is one of my annual must-reads. I have read it every year since it first came out and I still laugh uproariously at it. Westlake is famous for his comedy capers and this is the best of the bunch.

If you're a Westlake fan, you'll really like this one. If you haven't tried him yet, you're in for a treat. Think about what a loony bin a tabloid like the National Enquirer must be like, and then multiply it by ten, throw in a murder and Westlake's as-always warped perspective, and you will be rolling on the floor. While this isn't great literature, I was literally gasping for breath as I kept cracking up. -David S. Rose