Call Me A Cab

by Donald E. Westlake

Overview

The final unpublished novel by MWA Grandmaster – a wild, romantic road trip across America by taxi cab – demonstrates why this beloved author is so fondly remembered and so dearly missed.

“A book by this guy is cause for happiness.”
Stephen King


DONALD E. WESTLAKE

GOES OFF THE BEATEN PATH

In 1977, one of the world’s finest crime novelists turned his pen to suspense of a very different sort – and the results have never been published, until now.

Fans of mystery fiction have often pondered whether it would be possible to write a suspense novel without any crime at all, and in CALL ME A CAB the masterful Donald E. Westlake answered the question in his inimitable style. You won’t find any crime in these pages – but what you will find is a wonderful suspense story, about a New York City taxi driver hired to drive a beautiful woman all the way across America, from Manhattan to Los Angeles, where the biggest decision of her life is waiting to be made. From Pennsylvania to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Nevada on the way to California, the characters’ odyssey takes them through uncharted territory – on the map and in their lives. It’s Westlake at his witty, thought-provoking best, and it proves that a page-turner doesn’t need to have a bomb set to go off at the end of it in order to keep sparks flying every step of the way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781789098181
Publisher:	Titan
Publication date:	02/22/2022
Series:	Hard Case Crime
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	358,943
Product dimensions:	5.12(w) x 7.83(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Donald E. Westlake is widely regarded as one of the great crime writers of the 20th century. He won three Edgar Awards and was named a Grandmaster by the Mystery Writers of America. Many of his books have been made into movies; Westlake also wrote the screenplay for The Grifters for which he received an Academy Award nomination.

Editorial Reviews

12/20/2021

Fans of Westlake (1933–­2008), the late master of crime capers both comic (The Hot Rock) and hard-boiled (Point Blank!), will not be disappointed in this perceptive romantic suspense novel. It’s an ordinary day for New York City cabbie Tom Fletcher when he picks up beautiful Katharine Scott. To his surprise, she asks how much it will cost to drive her to Los Angeles; her plastic surgeon boyfriend, Barry Gilbert, wants to marry her and she intends to use the five-day trip to make up her mind. So Tom and Katharine start off on a cross-country odyssey in his yellow Checker Marathon. Along the way, they flirt, fight, get on one another’s nerves, and develop a mutual respect that could possibly blossom into something more. The suspense derives from the question of whom Katharine will end up with—the cabbie or the plastic surgeon. Westlake expertly proves the old adage that it’s better to travel hopefully than to arrive. Originally published in an abridged form in Redbook in 1978, the story is slight and dated (with references to the old Belmore Cafeteria and CB radios), but Tom and Katharine are charming leads. This entertaining story is as wistful as the theme from old episodes of Taxi. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Westlake proves that his signature wit and ability to turn out delightful banter can drive even a crimeless novel."
— Booklist

"Minor Westlake is still Westlake, and his many fans will turn the last page with a tear."
— Kirkus

"Fans of Westlake will not be disappointed in this perceptive romantic suspense novel...Westlake expertly proves the old adage that it’s better to travel hopefully than to arrive....This story is as wistful as the theme from old episodes of Taxi."
— Publishers Weekly

“As riveting as any of his previous brilliant works…  thoughtfully fascinating and deeply nostalgic… One of Westlake’s best”
— Borg.com

"It’s all high entertainment... You’ll be hard-pressed to find more fun in a single sitting."
— Book Reporter

"Westlake delivers his typical, engaging, page-turner story and dialogue and does so in a way that almost makes you forget that there’s no crime. He builds the suspense anyway, and the results are wonderful."
— Scoop


ACCLAIM FOR DONALD E. WESTLAKE:

"One of the great writers of the 20th Century."
— Newsweek

"A book by this guy is cause for happiness."
— Stephen King

"The novel’s deeper meditations will keep you thinking long after you’ve closed the book."
— USA Today

"Westlake is always original."
— Elmore Leonard

"Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible."
— Washington Post

"Westlake has a genius for comic strategy...a lunatic brilliance."
— New York Times

"Westlake is one of the best."
— Los Angeles Times

“Brilliant.”
— GQ

“Marvelous.”
— Entertainment Weekly

“Westlake is a national literary treasure.”
— Booklist

From the Publisher

2021-11-30
After a slew of posthumous novels and reprints, the sad day arrives for what publisher Charles Ardai calls “this last lost book of Don’s,” originally published in abridgment in Redbook more than 40 years ago.

Marriage is not a commitment to make lightly, and New York–based Katharine Scott is naturally feeling eleventh-hour jitters about whether she should accept Los Angeles plastic surgeon Barry Gilbert’s proposal. Despite his profession, Barry is clearly Mr. Right: handsome, well-off, intelligent, and truly in love with Katharine. But the five-hour flight from coast to coast isn’t enough time to make up her mind, so she makes a novel proposal to Thomas Fletcher, the cabbie driving her to JFK: She’ll pay him $4,000 plus expenses to turn the car around, head west, and drive her to California instead. The trip will take close to a week, but that’s the idea; somewhere along the line, something will make up Katharine’s mind one way or the other. What happens is a series of low-level encounters, most of them never rising to the level of adventures—the two trade stories of their romances; they detour to drive a stranded woman in labor to a nearby hospital; they stop at three Kansas City airports before finding the one where a messenger with documents for Katharine to sign will be waiting; they share a pub crawl along the Kansas-Colorado border with an overgalvanized husband and wife who seem to have come straight out of a Prohibition musical—in between nights at a series of interchangeable Holiday Inns (with a single notable exception) until Katharine, delivered to Barry, can’t stall any longer.

Minor Westlake is still Westlake, and his many fans will turn the last page with a tear.

Kirkus Reviews