Your friend it is.”So the three of us. Fun, but I'm confused why this ended up on the list of Best Mystery novels over some of Westlake's other, tighter books. 1.5k comments. I'm leaving my copy at the outpost library so that our men and women in uniform can find a well-needed laugh. New York City as here portrayed is crawling with con men (or was crawling with them in the sixties, when the book was first published), and all of them seem to intutively recognize Fred as an easy target. So when Fred inherits half a million dollars from an uncle he never knew he had, he becomes an even more attractive target, and not only to con men. Brilliant! I have to separate my books like Graham Greene into Entertainments and Serious Lit. NOTHING TOO COMPLICATED BUT ENOUGH SUSPENSE TO MAKE YOU WANT TO KEEP ON READING IT. It goes: * mark n. Fred FitchWhat, you ask, is a Fred Fitch? “I see,“ he said. “I gave him twenty.”Mr. User account menu. He looked at me, looked at Mr. Grant, looked at Mr. Grant’s napkin, looked at Mr. Grant’s fork, looked at Mr. Grant’s shrimp, looked back at me, and said, “Eh?”I said, “Excuse me, sir, but did someone named Clifford come to see you this afternoon?”“Your roommate,“ he said, pointing his pen at me. Which was a case of sweets to the sweet, Mr. Grant being a meek curled-shrimp of a man himself, balding, given to spectacles with steel rims, employed as a history teacher at some high school over in Brooklyn. It has excellent dialogues, the writing is very crisp and witty and the book moves very fast. 82% Upvoted. best. He's sort of the con-man's version of Go: Pass Fred Fitch, collect two hundred dollars, and move on. You’ll find out here. New York: Forge, 2004. “That was the con. It's amusing and enjoyable from beginning to end. God Save the Mark - Ebook written by Donald E. Westlake. Being a smart man and relatively self-aware, he knows this (but never realizes he's being conned until it's too late). Nick Jainschigg's blog All the latest wordy news, linguistic insights, offers and competitions every month. We all three were bachelors, quiet and sedentary, and not given to disturbingly loud noises. Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2010. God Save The Mark - Donald Westlake. 100% Upvoted. Add to this the fact that Uncle Matt was murdered, by person or persons unknown, and that someone now seems determined to murder Fred as well, mix in two daffily charming beauties of totally different types, and you have a perfect setup for the busiest fictional hero since the well-known one-armed paperhanger. by Donald E. Westlake. There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. He realizes that he will need to solve Uncle Matt's murder case himself because he can't even trust the police anymore. Forge, together with the Mystery Writers of America, launches a reprint series of Edgar winners with Donald E. Westlake's masterful tale of a hapless chump who's every con man's favorite patsy, God Save the Mark: A Novel of Crime and Confusion (1967). * mark n. An easy victim; a ready subject for the practices of a confidence man, thief, beggar, etc. Library, but probably I'd drop it just cause I've got better examples of him doing this kind of thing. Cash on delivery.”“But there wasn’t any package,“ I kept telling him. The Physical Object Format Paperback Dimensions 9 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches Weight 1.4 pounds ID Numbers Open Library OL9360334M Internet Archive godsavemark00dona ISBN 10 I can totally see Mr. Bean playing Fred Fitch, one of the most gullible people ever, the perfect mark. Close. In spite of himself, Fitch comes out on top at the end, but there are amusing and suspensful twists and turns along the way. My parents were mystery readers. Lucky for me Westlake was a prolific writer. We went on up to the second floor.This block of West 19th Street consisted almost entirely of three- and four-story buildings with floor-through apartments sporting fireplaces, back gardens, and high ceilings, and how the entire block had so far missed the wrecker’s sledge I had no idea. COUNTDOWN: Mid-20th Century North American Crime. “You don’t even know this man?”“That’s right,“ I said.“But he came from your apartment.”“Yes, sir. Grant swallowed bile. Feels like you are short changed with such a abrupt, convenient ending. He wore red sleeve garters with his blue shirt, a green eyeshade was squared off on his forehead, and in his ink-stained right hand he held an ancient fountain pen. Close. Light and bouncy, fun but loose ends tied up too quickly at end. 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