A review by nigellicus
The Hot Rock by Donald E. Westlake

5.0

John Dortmunder has to steal a rock six times. Or rather, the rock sets of a chain of six heists all geared towards securing said rock. There are complications, so many complications that it's easy to miss what a a miracle of clear, uncluttered efficient story-telling a book with six heists in it is, while at the same time being a minor comic masterpiece, most of it character-driven with its collection of lovable prosaic lowlives hatching schemes and executing complex plans that invariably go wrong, or don;t go wrong but still leave them empty-handed. Robert Redford played Dortmunder in the adaptation and it's such a weird piece of miscasting, but if you've only read this, the first in the series, before you've become truly familiar with the drab, downcast, put-upon little mastermind, then it isn't quite such a bad fit.