STEAL this BLOG

by Steve Steinbock

A few weeks back, JLW queried me as to the total number of Dortmunder short stories by Donald E. Westlake. I don’t know if I ever responded (sorry, Jim) but I don’t know the answer.

The question, however, compelled me to pull Get Real off the shelf and read it. Get Real was the final Dortmunder novel by Westlake before his recent passing. In the novel, John Dortmunder and his gang of thieves are hired to perform in a reality program about a gang of thieves doing what they do. As in any Westlake novel, there are humorous complications.

From Westlake I went to Wodehouse, and read Leave it to Psmith, which involved plots by various parties at Blandings Castle to steal Lady Constance’s diamond necklace. Again, larceny has a way of begetting humorous complications.

I’ve just begun reading a collection of short stories by Maurice Leblanc featuring the gentleman thief Arsène Lupin. I plan to report on them in the not too distant future.

Before Lupin, and long before Dortmunder, there was cricketer and amateur cracksman A. J. Raffles, who may have been the first to transform theft into an art form.

Now, I’m a fairly conservative guy in a lot of things, particularly crime. I mean, sure, I like the story of Robin Hood. But if I were a passenger in a horse-drawn coach in Fifteenth Century Sherwood Forrest, I’d be on the side of the Sheriff. I mean, the weed of crime bears bitter fruit, as the Shadow would say.

So why am I so attracted to Lawrence Block’s bookseller-burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr and Ed Hoch’s thief of valueless objects Nick Velvet? Dunno.

On the other hand, Arthur Conan Doyle was said to have been morally incensed at his brother-in-law Willie Hornung for creating Raffles and glorifying thievery. If the stories are true, I think perhaps Doyle was going overboard. In fact, when the great detective asked Watson if he minded breaking laws, the narrator answered, “Not in the least.”

Stay tuned for more on Lupin, on artistic larceny, and on Father Brown’s first recorded case.