This โhigh comedy of errors [and] murderโ with a cat-and-mouse plot is โreal fun on the runโ from the Edgar Awardโwinning Grand Master of Mystery (Kirkus Reviews).
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Charlie Poole is a bum. His friends know it. His gangster uncle Al knows it. And Charlie himself knows it better than anyone. Heโs stuck with his meager lot, tending bar at his uncleโs Brooklyn dive, picking up the occasional packageย .ย .ย . and being a bum.
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But when two mob hit men show up out of the blue and inform him that his breathing days are over, Charlie doesnโt feel like a bum anymore. He feels like an extremely fast runner. Because not having much of a life is still way better than not having any life at all.
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Now, the hapless Charlie is on the lam with a pair of heavies on his tail. And over the next few days, he stumbles into a murder he gets blamed for, meets a gorgeous gal he could fall for, discovers what heโs willing to fight forโand finds out just why the hell anyone would want to kill a bum like himย .ย .ย .
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Praise for Donald E. Westlake
โWestlake has no peer in the realm of comic mystery novelists.โ โSan Francisco Chronicle
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โNo writer can excel Donald E. Westlake.โ โLos Angeles Times
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