Money for Nothing, by Donald E. Westlake

Second book in a row by Westlake that was ridiculous. This one features an unintentional spy, a guy that cashed checks which later blackmailed him into betraying his country. As unbelievable as that sounds, it gets worse. The victim goes along with the plot because he is afraid either 1. nobody will believe him, or 2. the $80,000 collected over seven years will make him look guilty. Never mind that the two reasons contradict each other. When given the chance to escape, he doesn’t take it because he’d rather stop the bad guys—even though he knows they intend to kill him when everything is over. Utterly silly. I don’t think I’ll be reading much by Westlake in the future.

First Sentence:

When the first check came in, Josh Redmont, who was then twenty-seven, had no idea what it was for.

Put a Lid on It, by Donald E. Westlake

This was fairly silly. A group that is trying to get the President reelected decides to hire a criminal to steal an incriminating video that the opposition party is planning to release to the press. Sounds more like a sitcom plot than a novel, but it wasn’t really even that good. Every character is cartoonish at best and the plot has only one thread, no depth whatsoever. It wasn’t horrible, but it had the feel of something that a junior high kid would crank out for an English assignment. I expected more from an author as prolific as Westlake.

First Sentence:

The eleventh day Meehan was in the MCC, the barbers came around to 9 South; two barbers, a white one for the white inmates, a black one for the rest.