Put a lid on it

Mystery and thriller · Comedy · Picaresque · Satire

First published: 2002
Print length: 290 pagesWarner Books, 2003

Description

Career burglar Francis Meehan is awaiting a possible life-without-parole sentence when a visitor posing as his attorney offers an extraordinary bargain. The man represents a presidential reelection campaign that needs Meehan’s criminal expertise—and can make his pending charges disappear. His assignment is to steal a compromising videotape before the opposition can turn it into a scandal capable of derailing the campaign. Moving from jailhouse negotiations into a covert political operation, Meehan must apply the habits of a professional thief to clients whose power makes them more dangerous than ordinary criminals. Donald E. Westlake builds the premise into a comic caper in which campaign strategy, institutional corruption, and burglary begin to look like different branches of the same trade.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Dialogue-driven · Direct · Witty

Pace

Brisk

Tone

Humorous · Irreverent · Satirical · Suspenseful

Structure

Linear

Focus

Mystery · Plot

Emotional intensity

2 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 2 / 5
Ideas: 2 / 5
Structure: 2 / 5
Background knowledge: 1 / 5

Themes

Crime and punishmentFreedomMoralityPolitics and ideologyPower

About Donald E. Westlake

Donald E. Westlake was a prolific American novelist who specialized in crime fiction, especially comic capers, while also working in science fiction and nonfiction. His plots often begin with professional planning: routes are studied, crews assembled, weaknesses identified, and institutions treated as systems that can be manipulated. He developed this method in two sharply different registers. Under the name Richard Stark, he wrote the Parker novels in spare, direct prose, following a relentless thief through robberies shaped by preparation, mistrust, and sudden violence. The Outfit expands Parker’s methods into a campaign against organized crime. The John Dortmunder books turn comparable ingenuity toward farce. In The Hot Rock, a carefully arranged jewel theft becomes a chain of recoveries, disguises, and improvised new schemes. Westlake also applied his controlled plotting and bleak humor beyond the series. The Ax follows an unemployed manager who treats rival job applicants as obstacles to be eliminated, using the language and logic of corporate competition to chart his moral collapse.