Westlake,
Donald E. Money for Nothing. Mysterious. April 2003. c294p.
ISBN 0-89296-787-0. $24.95. Fiction.
For seven years, Josh Redmont has been
receiving $1000 a month from an untraceable source called United
States Agent. One day on a dock in Bay Shore while Josh waits
for the Fire Island ferry, a stranger sits down next to him
and tells him he is now “active.” Active, it turns
out, in a plot to assassinate the premier of Kamastan, a fictional
breakaway state from the former Soviet Union. Josh soon learns
that his problems began with a foreign spy’s scam to
enrich himself at his nation’s expense. With the corrupt
spy discredited, a new control expects Josh to do as asked
or his wife and kids will come to harm. But Josh knows he and
his family are slated for execution anyway at the operation’s
conclusion. His challenge as an amateur against professionals
is to thwart the assassination, survive, and save his family.
The prolific, Edgar Award-winning Westlake, author of numerous
comic crime capers and other mysteries (The Ax) sketches an
engaging tale with unexpected twists and turns and a dash of
wit throughout. Highly recommended for popular fiction collections.