Enough

by Donald E. Westlake
Category: "Fiction - Mystery"
Pages:288
Year of Publication:1977
Date Added:08/19/2008
Date Read:09/22/2004
Notes:Two short novels

A Travesty. — Carey Thorpe accidentally kills his girlfriend, then has to commit a bank robbery and murder two more people to cover his tracks. Stapes, the cop investigating the first crime, things Carey is innocent. But when he discovers that Carey is having an affair with his (Staples') wife, he frames Carey for the murder (which he really committed but the cop things he didn't).

Ordo. — Ordo Tupikos finds out that the movie star Dawn Devayne used to be Estelle Anlic, whom he was married to for a short time years before. He visits her to find out how she changed so much. He has a short fling with her and discovers that the way she changed was to "kill" the person she used to be by pretending that person never existed.
My Rating: 6

Reviews for Enough

Review - Enough

A Travesty Rating: 8

Carey Thorpe gets in a fight with Laura, one of his girlfriends. He hits her. She falls and hits her head and dies. Carey covers his tracks and leaves.

What he doesn’t realize is that Laura’s husband had hired Edgarson, a private detective to track her. He photographs Carey leaving Laura’s apartment and blackmails him for the money. Carey sells everything he owns and robs a bank to come up with the money. He follows Edgarson to the agency to make sure he turns in the right report, then demands his money back. Edgarson has to give it to him or be arrested as an accomplice.

Staples, the cop covering Laura’s murder, doesn’t suspect Carey because of Edgarson’s report. He and Carey become friends. Staples invites Carey along to several murder scenes and it develops that Carey has a natural talent as a detective. He manages to solve three murders that had the police stumped.

Edgarson wants his money back and starts sending anonymous notes to the police. Carey has no choice but to kill him too. He ships the body to Seattle.

Staples introduces Carey to his wife, Patricia, and she and Carey have an affair. Meanwhile, Carey’s other girlfriend (are you following all this?) Kit, has become a suspect in Laura’s murder (with jealousy as a motive) and decides to investigate herself. She figures out that Carey killed Laura, so Carey has to kill Kit too. He covers this murder by trying to make it look like the killer tried to kill him also by turning on his gas.

Unfortunately, he falls asleep and his house blows up, almost killing him. While he’s recuperating, Patricia comes over for a visit. Staples is watching the house because he things the murderer will make another attempt at Carey. He finds out about Carey and Patricia. He gets back at Carey by framing him for Laura’s murder (which Carey really did but Staples thinks he didn’t) by planting Laura’s key in Carey’s house.

The story was a farce, of course. Carey is the hero even though he kills three people, two deliberately. But there’s no malice. It was actually a great deal of fun to read.

Ordo Rating: 5

When Ordo Tupikos was a young sailor, he married Estelle Anlic. Estelle, it turned out, was only 16, and when her mother caught up to them, she had the marriage annulled. Ordo tried a few different things without success, then went back into the Navy.

Sixteen years later, a shipmate sees Ordo and Estelle’s wedding picture in a magazine. It seems Estelle is now the movie star Dawn Devayne. He goes to see one of Dawn’s movies and can see nothing of the young girl he was married to. He gets to wondering: how can it be that he hasn’t changed at all while she is completely different. He takes a leave and goes to find out.

He contacts Dawn’s agent, and Dawn invites him to her house. He immediately becomes a houseguest and travels to her current movie set each day. They have a fling. But he still can’t see any of Estelle in Dawn. Then Dawn’s mother visits. When she finds out who Ordo is, she begins insulting him. Dawn, reminded of her past, gets angry, then goes silent. Ordo realizes he’s no longer wanted and goes back to the Navy and soon marries a girl he’s been seeing. He realizes that the only way a person can change as much as Dawn has changed is to kill the person she used to be.
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