Donald E. Westlake, The Road to Ruin; Thieves’ Dozen

A mystery writer of too many pen names to count (at least eight), we love Westlake best when he writes under the nom de crime Richard Stark. His series about the amoral and ruthlessly efficient thief named Parker is top of the line. But Westlake’s also a master of lighter stuff, and this month brings two books featuring his best comic creation, the sad-sack burglar John Dortmunder. Thieves’ Dozen collects all the Dortmunder short stories for the first time (all, ahem, eleven of them). Meanwhile, the new novel Road to Ruin has John and his crew out to steal a fleet of automobiles from a corrupt CEO—bringing a new meaning to the term “getaway car.”