A few thoughts on Cops and Robbers, by Donald Westlake:
Well, reading this one after finishing The Savage Detectives is like eating cotton candy after a rich meal - it’s light, frothy, you kind of like it and kind of get irritated at it’s nothingness after what went before.
On the other hand, you can never have too much of Westlake’s trademark writing style - whether he’s being his typical ebullient self as in these books, or grim and sarcastic as in the Parker books.
Cops and Robbers is about two cops, Joe and Tom, who decide to actually rob a financial exchange and sell the stolen bearer bonds to a mafia don. It takes them almost the first third to convince themselves to do it (multiple incidents where cops are shouted at/ignored/taken for granted). Finally they decide to take advantage of the fact that no one would assume policemen could be robbers, and actually do the robbery.
There are a couple of interesting twists to the story - no, scratch that, there’s just one sudden twist, and all the rest kind of falls into place with a happy ending to it all.
I was kind of disappointed by the happy ending, actually, because these kinds of stories glory in ending in a weird way.
Probably one of Westlake’s low-effort entries. It was fun while it lasted, but I wouldn’t read it again.
Then again, I’d be happy to read the rest of his books :).
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