Somebody Owes Me Money is Donald E. Westlake’s first comic caper novel. A Manhattan cabbie wins a longshot bet on the ponies. When he arrives at his bookie’s apartment to pick up his winnings, he finds the guy with a gun by his side and a gaping wound in his chest. When the cops arrive, they find him covered with blood, the murder weapon in hand, and a woman screaming that he killed her husband. He naturally has to solve the case to get off the hook, a feat that may or may not get him paid.
As for style, I can’t do better than quote the first paragraph:
I bet none of it would have happened if I wasn’t so eloquent. That’s always been my problem, eloquence, though some might claim my problem was something else again. But life’s a gamble, is what I say, and not all the eloquent people in this world are in Congress.
If you like the patter, you will like the novel. ( )

Fun little crime novel by the Westlake. If you like his light crime stories then this one is fine. ( )

Can't go wrong with Donald Westlake when you're in the mood for something quick, easy, and charmingly familiar. All the tropes you expect from good crime fiction. The bumbling large but dumb bad guys, the shorter smooth brains of the mobsters, the blonde girl in trouble. And it all comes with it a wonderful trip back in time to 1960s New York City. A fun read for a rainy day. ( )

"Somebody Owes Me Money" by Donald Westlake was a hard case true crime book about a New York taxi driver named Chet who makes a bet on a horse and when he goes to collect the money from his bookie he finds the bookie dead. The cops think Chet did it, McKay's sister thinks Chet did it, and two rival gangs think Chet did it. Chet's in a big mess. It was pretty good, although the ending was so convoluted I'm not 100% sure who the killer was. ( )

Somebody Owes Me Money by Donald Westlake is a terrific, fun, comedic thriller involving a cab driver, a sexy card dealer from the Vegas strip, and two warring gangs of mobsters. Westlake wrote this in a great voice that is at once easy to follow and humorous. It is not immediately clear what time period this was written in except when you realize that there are no cell phones and no computers and the story is peopled with mobsters with trench coats and heavy-set jowls. In fact, if you didn't know that this was a reprint of a 1969 novel, you might think that Westlake wrote this especially for Hard Case Crime. In many ways, although the story involves mobsters and shootings and deaths, it is a light read for a crime novel. It is light and humorous, not dark and foreboding as a Goodis or Woolrich novel might be. For example, at one point, Chet (the cab driver and erstwhile hero of this tale) and Abby (the sexy siren from Vegas) are on the run from seven mobsters in the dead of winter and you just have to laugh as they are all running (sort of running) through snowdrifts and everyone stops to catch their breath, holding their sides.

All in all, I found this to be an excellent book. ( )