Money For Nothing (2003) by Donald E. Westlake. If you haven’t read anything from Mr. Westlake, or Richard Stark an alias of his, then you have been missing out on a lot. This novel from 20 years ago stands well the test of time. The title refers to the $1,000 checks Josh Redmont is, and has been getting every month for seven years. At the start he had no idea where it was coming from. Yes, they did say United States Agent on the front and K Street, Washington, but there was no street number to send them back to. The phone number so nicely added to the check, when dialed, was never answered. Being a young man struggling in New York City, Josh debated with himself then finally put the check into his meager account.
Forward seven years and Josh is married with a two year old son and a job at an advertising firm. Things are going great and the checks no longer matter to him until the day he is waiting for the ferry out to where his wife and child are staying for the summer. A man sits next to him and says “You are activated” and Josh’s world goes topsy-turvy.
It seems he has been paid by a foreign government all those years and now they want some assistance from him. Josh is quickly backed into a corner and not knowing just what to do, feeling the threat to him and his family this controller from a foreign land emits, just barely agrees.
Then things begin to spiral rapidly out of his control. His weekend empty apartment is used for transient foreigners, then a femme fatale spy is housed with him during the week he is in town. He discovers the sinister plot that has entrapped him, and realizes there is almost no hope for his own survival. Or that of his family.
As things get darker, more and more amusing events occur to our hero and an unlikely accomplice. Mr. Westlake is a past master at writing about people in the worst situations, but with a witty take to it all. Just read one of his Dortmund novels like The Hot Rock or Why Me? and you will understand
This is a treat where you know things will manage to turn out well, but you’re not certain of that until the last chapter or two. And even the last two pages deliver surprises. I can’t believe I missed this great comic-thriller tale on its first go round. If you get a chance, grab it up and enjoy. ( )

Sympathique ballade en "improbablistan" ( )

Westlake is so entertaining. Money for Nothing is so fresh, so readable yet so clever, how does the man do it? As with most script-writing authors, there is so much just below the surface you are forced to read every chapter twice over for fear you've missed something. Brilliant stuff.

Loved the doggerel of the nineteenth century poet: Thou shalt not kill, but need'st not strive/Officiously to keep alive. (Chapter 50) ( )

Josh Redmont has been recieving a $1,000 check every month for no apparent reason for 7 years. Then one day Josh is approached and told he's now active. This starts a spy story with plenty of Westlakes trademark humor. A fun read. ( )

Westlake is fun. I read his books quickly and sometimes they are just the 'thing' one needs in between more serious books. ( )