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Call Me A Cab
The final unpublished novel by MWA Grandmaster Donald E. Westlake - a wild, romantic road trip across America by taxi cab -- demonstrates why this beloved author is so fondly remembered and so dearly missed.
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. 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.
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. 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.
259 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 2022
183 people are currently reading
684 people want to read
About the author
Donald E. Westlake
434 books967 followersDonald E. Westlake (1933-2008) was one of the most prolific and talented authors of American crime fiction. He began his career in the late 1950's, churning out novels for pulp houses—often writing as many as four novels a year under various pseudonyms such as Richard Stark—but soon began publishing under his own name. His most well-known characters were John Dortmunder, an unlucky thief, and Parker, a ruthless criminal. His writing earned him three Edgar Awards: the 1968 Best Novel award for God Save the Mark; the 1990 Best Short Story award for "Too Many Crooks"; and the 1991 Best Motion Picture Screenplay award for The Grifters. In addition, Westlake also earned a Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1993.
Westlake's cinematic prose and brisk dialogue made his novels attractive to Hollywood, and several motion pictures were made from his books, with stars such as Lee Marvin and Mel Gibson. Westlake wrote several screenplays himself, receiving an Academy Award nomination for his adaptation of The Grifters, Jim Thompson's noir classic.
Some of the pseudonyms he used include
• Richard Stark
• Timothy J. Culver
• Tucker Coe
• Curt Clark
• J. Morgan Cunningham
• Judson Jack Carmichael
• D.E. Westlake
• Donald I. Vestlejk
• Don Westlake
Westlake's cinematic prose and brisk dialogue made his novels attractive to Hollywood, and several motion pictures were made from his books, with stars such as Lee Marvin and Mel Gibson. Westlake wrote several screenplays himself, receiving an Academy Award nomination for his adaptation of The Grifters, Jim Thompson's noir classic.
Some of the pseudonyms he used include
• Richard Stark
• Timothy J. Culver
• Tucker Coe
• Curt Clark
• J. Morgan Cunningham
• Judson Jack Carmichael
• D.E. Westlake
• Donald I. Vestlejk
• Don Westlake
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 134 reviews
August 19, 2022
As much as I love the folks at Hard Case Crime, I feel compelled to point out that a lot of people will be mislead and perhaps disappointed by this novel. It's by Donald Westlake, one of the true masters of crime fiction. It's published by Hard Case Crime, an imprint noted for publishing hard-boiled crime novels. It's got a great cover reminiscent of the pulp novels of the 1950s with a sexy woman posed at a phone booth, wearing a skirt up to "there" and a blouse unbuttoned down to the other "there." The tease says, "She promised him she'd get there. She didn't say how."
Logically, then, a reader might have expected a fairly hard-boiled crime novel akin to all of the other novels published under this imprint. However, such a reader would be wrong. This is not a hard-boiled novel, and it's not even a crime novel. As a practical matter, it's (almost) not even a novel. Rather it's a project that started out as a lengthy article in Redbook magazine nearly fifty years ago.
After publication of the novelette version, Westlake apparently fooled around with the project and produced several different versions of it before his death in 2008, leaving bits and pieces of it in his files. Then, fourteen years later, Charles Ardai, the major domo of Hard Case Crime, cobbled together this "final" version of the manuscript, which was published in 2022. We are left to wonder what Westlake would have thought about this, especially since he apparently chose never to attempt a book-length treatment of this material himself.
Okay, enough grousing.
Although this book was not remotely what I expected (nor remotely what was advertised on the cover), I thoroughly enjoyed it. I will always revere Westlake for the VERY hard-boiled novels that he wrote under the name Richard Stark, and I have never been very fond of his lighter work, like the Dortmunder series. This book is the exception to the rule.
The plot is very simple: a woman named Katherine is on her way from New York to California to meet the man of her dreams. He has proposed marriage and she has been stalling him because she can't make up her mind whether she actually wants to marry the guy or not. She has promised to give him her final answer when she arrives in California.
On a street in New York Katherine hails a cab, driven by a guy named Tom. She tells him to take her to the airport, but then she has a brainstorm. If, instead of flying to California, she just took the cab all the way, that would give her several additional days in which to make up her mind. Tom agrees to this bizarre request, and off they go, across the country.
This is hardly the first novel to be based on a long road trip, but what sets this apart and makes the story work is that the two characters are so charming and compelling. Along the way Katherine and Tom get tangled up in all of the social and cultural issues that were roiling in the mid-1970s when the book was written, particularly the women's liberation movement. Katherine is a successful person in her own right--a talented landscape architect who wonders what will happen to the freedom she now enjoys if she should go ahead and get married. Thus there is a fair amount of suspense involved as Katherine tries to make up her mind--will she or won't she marry Barry?
This is very much a book of its time, and it's a lot of fun revisiting the United States of half a century ago. It's also interesting to watch these two very captivating characters work through all of these issues, both personal and societal, while spending days on the road and night after night (in separate rooms) in identical Holiday Inns, one after another. In the end, Call Me a Cab is not at all the book I was expecting, but I'm very happy I found it.
Logically, then, a reader might have expected a fairly hard-boiled crime novel akin to all of the other novels published under this imprint. However, such a reader would be wrong. This is not a hard-boiled novel, and it's not even a crime novel. As a practical matter, it's (almost) not even a novel. Rather it's a project that started out as a lengthy article in Redbook magazine nearly fifty years ago.
After publication of the novelette version, Westlake apparently fooled around with the project and produced several different versions of it before his death in 2008, leaving bits and pieces of it in his files. Then, fourteen years later, Charles Ardai, the major domo of Hard Case Crime, cobbled together this "final" version of the manuscript, which was published in 2022. We are left to wonder what Westlake would have thought about this, especially since he apparently chose never to attempt a book-length treatment of this material himself.
Okay, enough grousing.
Although this book was not remotely what I expected (nor remotely what was advertised on the cover), I thoroughly enjoyed it. I will always revere Westlake for the VERY hard-boiled novels that he wrote under the name Richard Stark, and I have never been very fond of his lighter work, like the Dortmunder series. This book is the exception to the rule.
The plot is very simple: a woman named Katherine is on her way from New York to California to meet the man of her dreams. He has proposed marriage and she has been stalling him because she can't make up her mind whether she actually wants to marry the guy or not. She has promised to give him her final answer when she arrives in California.
On a street in New York Katherine hails a cab, driven by a guy named Tom. She tells him to take her to the airport, but then she has a brainstorm. If, instead of flying to California, she just took the cab all the way, that would give her several additional days in which to make up her mind. Tom agrees to this bizarre request, and off they go, across the country.
This is hardly the first novel to be based on a long road trip, but what sets this apart and makes the story work is that the two characters are so charming and compelling. Along the way Katherine and Tom get tangled up in all of the social and cultural issues that were roiling in the mid-1970s when the book was written, particularly the women's liberation movement. Katherine is a successful person in her own right--a talented landscape architect who wonders what will happen to the freedom she now enjoys if she should go ahead and get married. Thus there is a fair amount of suspense involved as Katherine tries to make up her mind--will she or won't she marry Barry?
This is very much a book of its time, and it's a lot of fun revisiting the United States of half a century ago. It's also interesting to watch these two very captivating characters work through all of these issues, both personal and societal, while spending days on the road and night after night (in separate rooms) in identical Holiday Inns, one after another. In the end, Call Me a Cab is not at all the book I was expecting, but I'm very happy I found it.
October 16, 2024
call me a cab 🚕
“Call Me A Cab” is a situation in which Hard Case Crime publishes a novel by Westlake who has been gone a few years (and has not come back yet) which has no crime in it, not one iota. But, ladies and gentlemen, it’s Donald Westlake and it’s Hard Case and it has the most awesome retro cover of this sexy dame in heels and the taxicab in the middle of the Utah desert. The novel was once published in Redbook magazine, but abbreviated as it may be. So this full version has never before hit the bookshelves.
The story is quite simple. Tom is a cab driver. He drives a New York City checker cab. Katherine (no Kat or Kathy, always Katherine) hails the cab and they head for Kennedy Airport, but on the way there she explains that she is heading to California to give Barry, her longtime fiance, her decision, but she has not yet decided. Then, the brainstorm hits her. Boom! If she hires the cab to drive her to Los Angeles, she’ll have a week to think it over. After a little haranguing with dispatch, an agreement is reached and they cross the George Washington and head off through Jersey and Pennsylvania.
What follows is a cute novel about two people crossing the country together. If you will, it is Westlake’s answer to Kerouac’s On the Road. It offers us Westlake’s trademarked clever sense of humor and takes us back to a time when the interstates did not go all the way through and the exits were dotted with Holiday Inns, each one refreshingly identical in every way, which was at the time an improvement on the broken down run-down tourist courts that were mismanaged everywhere. It offers us diners, with the same six things on the menu and two people debating the merits and demerits of matrimony.
It is not a crime novel and barely even a suspense novel unless you count the long-awaited answer to Barry’s question. Remember Barry? But it is an enjoyable jaunt.
“Call Me A Cab” is a situation in which Hard Case Crime publishes a novel by Westlake who has been gone a few years (and has not come back yet) which has no crime in it, not one iota. But, ladies and gentlemen, it’s Donald Westlake and it’s Hard Case and it has the most awesome retro cover of this sexy dame in heels and the taxicab in the middle of the Utah desert. The novel was once published in Redbook magazine, but abbreviated as it may be. So this full version has never before hit the bookshelves.
The story is quite simple. Tom is a cab driver. He drives a New York City checker cab. Katherine (no Kat or Kathy, always Katherine) hails the cab and they head for Kennedy Airport, but on the way there she explains that she is heading to California to give Barry, her longtime fiance, her decision, but she has not yet decided. Then, the brainstorm hits her. Boom! If she hires the cab to drive her to Los Angeles, she’ll have a week to think it over. After a little haranguing with dispatch, an agreement is reached and they cross the George Washington and head off through Jersey and Pennsylvania.
What follows is a cute novel about two people crossing the country together. If you will, it is Westlake’s answer to Kerouac’s On the Road. It offers us Westlake’s trademarked clever sense of humor and takes us back to a time when the interstates did not go all the way through and the exits were dotted with Holiday Inns, each one refreshingly identical in every way, which was at the time an improvement on the broken down run-down tourist courts that were mismanaged everywhere. It offers us diners, with the same six things on the menu and two people debating the merits and demerits of matrimony.
It is not a crime novel and barely even a suspense novel unless you count the long-awaited answer to Barry’s question. Remember Barry? But it is an enjoyable jaunt.
November 5, 2023
Donald Westlake is one of my favorite writers of crime and caper novels. I especially enjoy his series of comic crime novels featuring Dortmunder, a thief whose capers always manage to go awry. He is also the author of the much more gritty series featuring Parker which he wrote under the pen-name Richard Stark. Westlake died in 2008 but he left behind some manuscripts and unfinished novels that have since been published in the Hard Case Crime series. CALL ME A CAB is the last of these posthumous novels according to the publisher.
This one was actually written in the 1970s but sat on Westlake's shelves in various versions for over forty years. An abridgment of the novel did appear in Redbook Magazine but it was drastically cut down. So CALL BE A CAB is a suspense novel without any crime in it. The story is about a New York cab driver, Tom Fletcher, who picks up a beautiful woman, Katharine Scott, as a fare to Kennedy Airport. Katharine is on her way to Los Angeles to meet up with her boyfriend, a plastic surgeon named Barry. Barry has proposed to Katharine but she is not sure if she should accept. So she decides to hire the cab for $4,000 plus expenses to take her all the way to LA, a trip of five days or so. This will give her time to think about whether or not to accept Barry's proposal. Along the way, Tom and Katharine 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; the cab breaks down at one point; and they spend one night at an outdated tourist camp with a very amenable older couple (the other nights they spend at very similar Holiday Inns). Of course Tom has pretty much fallen for Katharine along the way but eventually they do meet up with Barry. So what will Katharine's decision be??
Even though this was not a crime novel in the usual vein of Westlake, I did enjoy it a lot. It kind of reminded me of TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY, Steinbeck's superb travelogue with his dog. This novel did show its age: pay phones and Checker cabs are things of the past. But Katharine is portrayed as a very independent woman back when women's lib was just coming about. I'm glad Westlake was such a prolific writer (he wrote more than 100 books, many under various pseudonyms) — I have hardly scratched the surface of his output so I'll definitely be reading more!
This one was actually written in the 1970s but sat on Westlake's shelves in various versions for over forty years. An abridgment of the novel did appear in Redbook Magazine but it was drastically cut down. So CALL BE A CAB is a suspense novel without any crime in it. The story is about a New York cab driver, Tom Fletcher, who picks up a beautiful woman, Katharine Scott, as a fare to Kennedy Airport. Katharine is on her way to Los Angeles to meet up with her boyfriend, a plastic surgeon named Barry. Barry has proposed to Katharine but she is not sure if she should accept. So she decides to hire the cab for $4,000 plus expenses to take her all the way to LA, a trip of five days or so. This will give her time to think about whether or not to accept Barry's proposal. Along the way, Tom and Katharine 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; the cab breaks down at one point; and they spend one night at an outdated tourist camp with a very amenable older couple (the other nights they spend at very similar Holiday Inns). Of course Tom has pretty much fallen for Katharine along the way but eventually they do meet up with Barry. So what will Katharine's decision be??
Even though this was not a crime novel in the usual vein of Westlake, I did enjoy it a lot. It kind of reminded me of TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY, Steinbeck's superb travelogue with his dog. This novel did show its age: pay phones and Checker cabs are things of the past. But Katharine is portrayed as a very independent woman back when women's lib was just coming about. I'm glad Westlake was such a prolific writer (he wrote more than 100 books, many under various pseudonyms) — I have hardly scratched the surface of his output so I'll definitely be reading more!
January 2, 2024
Not a crime caper but still a good Donald Westlake humorous caper. New York to Los Angeles by taxi! His last book.
August 28, 2024
This couldn't have come at a better time in my life. Being the indecisive human being that I am, a fellow wonderer of what my future holds and the ability--or lack thereof of deciding what I want to do with it, this book shows I'm not the only one. But there comes a time when you need to make a decision and sometimes you have to come up with an answer quick.
That is not this time.
This book follows a New Yorker named Katharine, who was proposed to by a man way over in Los Angeles. She cannot make up her mind over the short plane ride it takes to get there, so she steps into the vehicle of a "New York cabdrivuh" and requests a long journey to LA, hoping that over all that time, she can come up with a sure fine answer to the question of all questions.
Despite being a Hard Case Crime entry, there is little to no crime throughout the book. And yet, I was fascinated the whole way through, with both the characters and story. The late Donald E. Westlake always knew how to pull a reader in and keep hold of them, long after the pages stopped turning.
Highly recommended
That is not this time.
This book follows a New Yorker named Katharine, who was proposed to by a man way over in Los Angeles. She cannot make up her mind over the short plane ride it takes to get there, so she steps into the vehicle of a "New York cabdrivuh" and requests a long journey to LA, hoping that over all that time, she can come up with a sure fine answer to the question of all questions.
Despite being a Hard Case Crime entry, there is little to no crime throughout the book. And yet, I was fascinated the whole way through, with both the characters and story. The late Donald E. Westlake always knew how to pull a reader in and keep hold of them, long after the pages stopped turning.
Highly recommended
January 5, 2022
I received this from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
"What does a caper look like without a caper?" According to the afterword, that's the question Donald Westlake asked that lead to this book. It looks like this: well-developed characters in an interesting situation, driving across the country, and learning who they are.
I love stories like this. Simple, thoughtful, and elegant in its prose. Easy to put myself into the story and into the mind of the characters.
Great way to start 2022. Five stars!
"What does a caper look like without a caper?" According to the afterword, that's the question Donald Westlake asked that lead to this book. It looks like this: well-developed characters in an interesting situation, driving across the country, and learning who they are.
I love stories like this. Simple, thoughtful, and elegant in its prose. Easy to put myself into the story and into the mind of the characters.
Great way to start 2022. Five stars!
March 10, 2022
Don't let the cover fool you. This is very much the opposite of some sleazy, hardboiled crime novel - instead, it's a heartfelt, even pure, ride across America with a quite forward-thinking (for its time) view on men/women relations. A slow burn romance, with very little sex, but all the better (and erotic, if you're keen on that sort of thing) for it! A realistic (ish) and poignant ending, with lots of good-humored moments, throughout. Sparely elegant prose and some old-fashioned wit makes this a genuine page-turner. Would've benefitted from a more appropriate cover, though, since I'm sure many will approach this book with the expectations of some crime/mystery to solve. There's only a cabbie, a beautiful woman, an impending marriage, and the problems (and excitations) therein.
February 26, 2022
Another fine tale by Don Westlake! A fresh and forward thinking suspense novel with zero crime.
July 25, 2022
Call Me a Cab is a novel written by Donald E. Westlake.
A business woman hails a cab in New York City for transportation to the airport. Katherine’s fiancé has given her a ultimatum that she must determine if she wants to marry him by the time she arrives in Los Angeles. Katherine finds a loophole that he didn’t determine how she had to arrive, so she asks the cabbie to take to LA while she makes the decision that will determine the rest of her life.
Legendary mystery author Donald E. Westlake attempts to write a suspenseful crime story without the crime. It works perfectly. This is the first Westlake novel I have read, but it won’t be the last. I loved this book. While the book focuses on Katherine’s decision, it is told from the cabbie’s, Tom, point of view. Their interactions as their relationship grows feels so natural. The character creation and development was fantastic a well as the suspense that is built over the will she or won’t she say “Yes.” And to top it all off it is classic Americana road-trip adventure that really just sucks you in the story. I’m falling in love with the Hard Case Crime imprint of classic hard boiled style of noir fiction and can’t wait to read more.
A business woman hails a cab in New York City for transportation to the airport. Katherine’s fiancé has given her a ultimatum that she must determine if she wants to marry him by the time she arrives in Los Angeles. Katherine finds a loophole that he didn’t determine how she had to arrive, so she asks the cabbie to take to LA while she makes the decision that will determine the rest of her life.
Legendary mystery author Donald E. Westlake attempts to write a suspenseful crime story without the crime. It works perfectly. This is the first Westlake novel I have read, but it won’t be the last. I loved this book. While the book focuses on Katherine’s decision, it is told from the cabbie’s, Tom, point of view. Their interactions as their relationship grows feels so natural. The character creation and development was fantastic a well as the suspense that is built over the will she or won’t she say “Yes.” And to top it all off it is classic Americana road-trip adventure that really just sucks you in the story. I’m falling in love with the Hard Case Crime imprint of classic hard boiled style of noir fiction and can’t wait to read more.
March 12, 2024
This delightfully breezy romance road comedy would have been very hackneyed (it is only sort of) had it not Westlake's strong charm and ability to develop full fledged likeable characters. The smiles per page rate was strong in this one, so pick it up if you need a pick me up in your literary diet.
March 18, 2025
A brilliant book. I loved and cherished every second spent reading this one. I didn't want the journey to end. Great characters, dialog, and storytelling. One of my new all-time favorite books. I will definitely be rereading this one down the road.
August 16, 2022
This was an ... interesting read, especially in juxtaposition to/with Westlake's "Forever and a Death", which I recently read, just before his "Help I Am Being Held Prisoner". The latter was more of a farce, along the lines of his crime caper Dortmunder series, while this one was something else entirely. It was written after "Brothers Keepers", but in the same non-crime vein.
In this one, we have a not-quite-Picaresque novel, a travel/adventure story, a sort-of romance novel, but altogether something that defies pigeonholing. It involves a cross-country taxi cab ride (!) during the course of which, the female passenger must decide whether to accept a marriage proposal from her beau in greater-L.A.
The outcome is of a lesser import than the journey. I related on multiple levels. I was in all fifty (50) states and most of the Canadian provinces between early-June 2006 and late-August 2008, mostly on trains and buses with a few flights thrown in, all because I do not drive. I also worked as a taxi dispatcher for the now-defunct Yellow Taxi here in Lancaster and I know several drivers who would have salivated at the opportunity to make this trip. I related well to the cookie-cutter aspect of motel/hotel-chain rooms as well as to the ease in which one can fall into the fast food trap.
It was a good, quick read, but if you are looking for crime, look elsewhere.
In this one, we have a not-quite-Picaresque novel, a travel/adventure story, a sort-of romance novel, but altogether something that defies pigeonholing. It involves a cross-country taxi cab ride (!) during the course of which, the female passenger must decide whether to accept a marriage proposal from her beau in greater-L.A.
The outcome is of a lesser import than the journey. I related on multiple levels. I was in all fifty (50) states and most of the Canadian provinces between early-June 2006 and late-August 2008, mostly on trains and buses with a few flights thrown in, all because I do not drive. I also worked as a taxi dispatcher for the now-defunct Yellow Taxi here in Lancaster and I know several drivers who would have salivated at the opportunity to make this trip. I related well to the cookie-cutter aspect of motel/hotel-chain rooms as well as to the ease in which one can fall into the fast food trap.
It was a good, quick read, but if you are looking for crime, look elsewhere.
July 28, 2025
Call Me a Cab is a work of fiction, an answer to a challenge to author a story without crime from crime-suspense novelist Donald Westlake.
Narrated by a New York City taxi driver as he drives his fare from Manhattan to Los Angeles allowing her to make a life altering decision over the course of the week rather than in a few hours if she were to fly there the same day. They encounter a few wacky characters along the way with a whole lot of dialogue in between.
After having read and enjoyed a couple books in the Dortmunder series (The Hot Rock), I tried this since it was readily available. Although it held my attention early on, it slowly begins losing its charm the last thirty percent. Not that I ever considered not finishing it. It was more that I was ready for them to “arrive” and dispense with the buildup, just blurt out the decision already! Nevertheless, it is the same intriguing direct writing style that I associate with Westlake and appreciate.
Narrated by a New York City taxi driver as he drives his fare from Manhattan to Los Angeles allowing her to make a life altering decision over the course of the week rather than in a few hours if she were to fly there the same day. They encounter a few wacky characters along the way with a whole lot of dialogue in between.
After having read and enjoyed a couple books in the Dortmunder series (The Hot Rock), I tried this since it was readily available. Although it held my attention early on, it slowly begins losing its charm the last thirty percent. Not that I ever considered not finishing it. It was more that I was ready for them to “arrive” and dispense with the buildup, just blurt out the decision already! Nevertheless, it is the same intriguing direct writing style that I associate with Westlake and appreciate.
February 27, 2022
Donald E. Westlake's final unpublished novel is a superb work of suspense in which no crime occurs. Except maybe illegal parking and occasional speeding. It begins with a beautiful young woman --- of course --- hailing a cab in New York City. Taxi driver Tom musters all his powers of mental persuasion to get his potential fare, Katherine, to say the magic word: “Kennedy.” He is rewarded for his cranial efforts.
A smiling Tom sits back for the long drive to the airport, happy in the knowledge of a lucrative trip with a good-looking woman. Until he realizes something isn’t quite right with her. Come on, he doesn’t need trouble, and the lady in the backseat is beginning to look a lot like trouble: mumbling to herself, running her hands through her hair, frowning and making faces. So before she can do something unpleasant in his cab, Tom asks, essentially, “What’s up with you?”
Katherine blurts out the story of her perfect boyfriend, Barry, waiting in Los Angeles to meet her when her flight lands. She had promised him by then that she would give him an answer to his proposal of marriage. Tom, naturally, can’t see why this is an issue, but apparently his fare can’t seem to make up her mind, and five hours on an airplane is far too little time to decide. Well, it’s not Tom’s problem, so he lets her stew about it for a bit, which actually lasts a very short period before she comes up with a brilliant idea. At least in her mind. You see, she promised Barry that she would give him an answer once she reached LA. She didn’t say how she’d get there. So if she doesn’t fly but goes by cab, that would give her several days to decide what to tell him.
Is she serious? Indeed she is. After almost no consideration, Tom says he’s game. So, cleared for departure, the driver and his fare head west and the adventure begins. At first, Katherine shows signs of relief at not having to make up her mind in the next few hours. She sleeps and broods and watches the landscape change. You know that, while crossing the entire United States, they can’t avoid talking. Katherine discovers that Tom has been married, so she wants to pick his brain. Maybe she can learn from his experience. What she learns is that it doesn’t work that way. Marriage is different for every individual. She must figure out what’s right for her.
As each day passes, driver and passenger become more familiar with each other. And more fond of each other. Eventually, Tom finds it hard to keep things platonic, but at the end of each day, Katherine checks them into separate rooms at the Holiday Inn.
Katherine also has difficulties on the journey, but probably not the same as Tom’s. The reader is the one who has a totally delightful experience. Tom’s conversational style is witty with quick comebacks, making everything he says worth anticipating. And Katherine’s responses slide in perfectly. The people they encounter, the troubles they have, the good and the bad --- it’s all high entertainment. And the ending? Well, there’s the suspense.
Stephen King said, “A book by this guy is cause for happiness.” It is indeed. You’ll be hard-pressed to find more fun in a single sitting.
Reviewed by Kate Ayers
A smiling Tom sits back for the long drive to the airport, happy in the knowledge of a lucrative trip with a good-looking woman. Until he realizes something isn’t quite right with her. Come on, he doesn’t need trouble, and the lady in the backseat is beginning to look a lot like trouble: mumbling to herself, running her hands through her hair, frowning and making faces. So before she can do something unpleasant in his cab, Tom asks, essentially, “What’s up with you?”
Katherine blurts out the story of her perfect boyfriend, Barry, waiting in Los Angeles to meet her when her flight lands. She had promised him by then that she would give him an answer to his proposal of marriage. Tom, naturally, can’t see why this is an issue, but apparently his fare can’t seem to make up her mind, and five hours on an airplane is far too little time to decide. Well, it’s not Tom’s problem, so he lets her stew about it for a bit, which actually lasts a very short period before she comes up with a brilliant idea. At least in her mind. You see, she promised Barry that she would give him an answer once she reached LA. She didn’t say how she’d get there. So if she doesn’t fly but goes by cab, that would give her several days to decide what to tell him.
Is she serious? Indeed she is. After almost no consideration, Tom says he’s game. So, cleared for departure, the driver and his fare head west and the adventure begins. At first, Katherine shows signs of relief at not having to make up her mind in the next few hours. She sleeps and broods and watches the landscape change. You know that, while crossing the entire United States, they can’t avoid talking. Katherine discovers that Tom has been married, so she wants to pick his brain. Maybe she can learn from his experience. What she learns is that it doesn’t work that way. Marriage is different for every individual. She must figure out what’s right for her.
As each day passes, driver and passenger become more familiar with each other. And more fond of each other. Eventually, Tom finds it hard to keep things platonic, but at the end of each day, Katherine checks them into separate rooms at the Holiday Inn.
Katherine also has difficulties on the journey, but probably not the same as Tom’s. The reader is the one who has a totally delightful experience. Tom’s conversational style is witty with quick comebacks, making everything he says worth anticipating. And Katherine’s responses slide in perfectly. The people they encounter, the troubles they have, the good and the bad --- it’s all high entertainment. And the ending? Well, there’s the suspense.
Stephen King said, “A book by this guy is cause for happiness.” It is indeed. You’ll be hard-pressed to find more fun in a single sitting.
Reviewed by Kate Ayers
July 26, 2023
Was only published as a shorter magazine piece decades ago. Edited and published as a book after Westlake’s death. Could have been left in the drawer.
July 7, 2024
This is now my favorite road trip book, a perfect summer read. Katharine Scott has a difficult decision to make and maybe she can give herself time and space to make it by persuading New York cabbie Tom Fletcher to drive her to Los Angeles. The resulting weeklong trip becomes a chance for the two strangers to get to know one another; the story in this long-buried manuscript is also a trip back in time for the reader, to the 1970s, complete with identical Holiday Inns, CB radios, diners, drinking, and midcentury feminism. Apparently, this crime-free book was a departure for Donald Westlake—I’ve never read anything else by him—but his keen observations, smart humor, and subtle characters didn’t need crime to make it suspenseful. Does the guy get the girl, or is that even the point? I loved this story.
March 27, 2022
I've read a couple of the Parker novels, but I don't think I've read a Westlake novel before this and it's just like me to grab one where he plans to eschew crime.... That said, I really enjoyed this novel of a cross-country trip where I kept waiting for the other shoe to fall: when will the narrator fall for the femme fatale, and when will she spring her trap.
Along the way, there's a really interesting look at America in the 70s, as well as some talk about gender roles that is probing and interesting. Throughout, Westlake writes sentences and makes funny observations that you immediately want to read to someone else.
A really enjoyable read. I grabbed another Westlake from the library to see what he's like when he's leaning more into his home style.
Along the way, there's a really interesting look at America in the 70s, as well as some talk about gender roles that is probing and interesting. Throughout, Westlake writes sentences and makes funny observations that you immediately want to read to someone else.
A really enjoyable read. I grabbed another Westlake from the library to see what he's like when he's leaning more into his home style.
June 15, 2024
Absolutely delightful! A cross country trip in a Checker cab allows a young woman to ponder and discuss with her driver whether she should marry “Mr. Right”, waiting for her in Los Angeles. Hilarious in parts and philosophical in others, this book just rolls along through one surprise after another. Donald Westlake at his entertaining best!
January 12, 2025
This was a surprisingly great book. Totally not something I usually read but very fun.
May 4, 2025
I really enjoyed the story. Easy read. Feminist novel. Oddly suspenseful. And I enjoy character driven stories. Just two people talking for most of the book working to figure things out.
June 23, 2022
When I told a friend I was going to read Donald E Westlake’s Call Me a Cab he laughed and said “Ok you’re a cab.” That was very nearly the only enjoyment I got out of this book-it was written in 1977 and remained unpublished till this year, so technically this is now historical fiction. I was alive in 77 so this really took me back-Women’s Lib, the CB craze…it’s all there. The novel concerns a colossal flibbertigibbet who cannot decide if she should marry someone-so she hires a cab to drive from New York to Los Angeles so she will have time to think. Have you figured out how the story ends yet? I wager you have. The characters did start to grow on me so I’m going to give this book a grudging three stars.
July 15, 2023
Tom Fletcher has lost his management job at a New Jersey tech firm to the ‘70’s recession (“stagflation” and “malaise” were two of the terms I remember from the time) and also lost his marriage. He has moved back to Manhattan from New Brunswick, New Jersey, and is driving his father’s cab, quite happily living a temporary lifestyle, which he figures will take him through the balance of his working life. His perceptions change when he picks up a fare, Ms. Katharine Scott, who asks to be driven to Los Angeles, to give her time to work out whether or not to marry her “Mr. Right”. And there we have the set-up.
Some wonderful set pieces ensue (especially the Holiday Inn guest traumatized by the malignant Magic Fingers in his bed: I was sniggering so hard a customer at Caffe Trieste crossed to room to ask me what I was reading). The book very much captures a particular time: I hadn’t thought of orange juice from frozen concentrate in 40 years or so, and Ms. Scott (Nancy, not Katharine) was the name of my 5th Grade teacher. To me, this shaggy dog story feels like a love letter to Westlake’s wife, Abigail Adams: the dedication reads “For Abby - fellow traveler”.
Some wonderful set pieces ensue (especially the Holiday Inn guest traumatized by the malignant Magic Fingers in his bed: I was sniggering so hard a customer at Caffe Trieste crossed to room to ask me what I was reading). The book very much captures a particular time: I hadn’t thought of orange juice from frozen concentrate in 40 years or so, and Ms. Scott (Nancy, not Katharine) was the name of my 5th Grade teacher. To me, this shaggy dog story feels like a love letter to Westlake’s wife, Abigail Adams: the dedication reads “For Abby - fellow traveler”.
March 25, 2023
I enjoy the way Donald Westlake writes. It makes for easy reading and always contains a good amount of humor.
The premise for this tale is a good one: a lady unsure about getting married to a guy she's been dating for years decides to further delay her decision by opting for a cross-country cab ride as opposed to a the more convenient transcontinental flight option. In the process, her and the cab driver find themselves in the company of some interesting characters, encounter strange situations, and learn more about themselves and each other bit by bit.
The story ends up being somewhat of a feminist tale. So it's a shame that it's told through the lens of the male cab driver. I think an improved version would have included interwoven narratives, switching perspectives chapter by chapter.
But based on the epilogue, it seems that this book is a posthumous release scrambled together by the publishers of Hard Case Crime from a myriad of manuscripts that Donald Westlake developed around the concept. So, given that, I think they did a pretty good job. And I personally am grateful to have been able to read it.
The premise for this tale is a good one: a lady unsure about getting married to a guy she's been dating for years decides to further delay her decision by opting for a cross-country cab ride as opposed to a the more convenient transcontinental flight option. In the process, her and the cab driver find themselves in the company of some interesting characters, encounter strange situations, and learn more about themselves and each other bit by bit.
The story ends up being somewhat of a feminist tale. So it's a shame that it's told through the lens of the male cab driver. I think an improved version would have included interwoven narratives, switching perspectives chapter by chapter.
But based on the epilogue, it seems that this book is a posthumous release scrambled together by the publishers of Hard Case Crime from a myriad of manuscripts that Donald Westlake developed around the concept. So, given that, I think they did a pretty good job. And I personally am grateful to have been able to read it.
November 19, 2023
Interesting book - a story written by a crime writer with no crime in it.
It's a book about two people getting to know each other in a cab.
It kept my interest, but the three stars are because ultimately, not a lot happens and they could have had the excellent dialogue they had through them experiencing something together.
It's a book about two people getting to know each other in a cab.
It kept my interest, but the three stars are because ultimately, not a lot happens and they could have had the excellent dialogue they had through them experiencing something together.
February 21, 2025
What a delightful book. A romantic comedy road-trip novel written by a famous mystery author. No crime. Just a few thousand miles with two smart, funny, immediately likable characters who make wonderful company. It takes a great author to pull that off without letting the reader get bored. This was my first Westlake; it won’t be my last.
April 12, 2024
I suppose taxi cab is one way you could get from New York to LA.
May 13, 2024
Westlake was a genre genius, equally capable of producing the hardest of hard-boiled crime fiction, exquisite political satire, and caper novels that are laugh out loud funny. ‘Call Me A Cab’, published posthumously by the Hard Case Crime imprint forty-odd years after Westlake wrote it (it only ever appeared as a much-truncated novella in a magazine serialisation), is probably his most uncharacteristic novel: a sort-of suspense thriller without a hint of crime and utterly bereft of action set-pieces. And yet, in its laconic prose style, evocation of time and place, and big-hearted sympathy for its mismatched characters, it’s pure Westlake. Lovely stuff; highly recommended.
February 20, 2024
Läste den i somras på en kort roadtrip, mysig faktiskt.
July 18, 2022
It’s taken me a beat to figure out what’s missing from this book…and why what’s missing is why it’s stuck with me now a week.
The pitch for the book is “a suspense novel without a single crime.” That’s what I dove in looking for, and that is entirely missing. There’s no suspense and THAT’S what’s stuck with me. Why then was it a page turner? I think the answer Westlake's suggesting is found in his epigraph:
"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive" - Robert Louis Stevenson.
Westlake is telling his reader right out the gate that the ending isn't what you're reading his book for; so "Call me a Cab" is not building to suspense to its ending. It's the middle, it's the journey, and with two clearly drawn and complex characters of good ethics and morality, the suspense comes not from any activity of breaking their personal codes or violating each other's trust, but from seeing how in sticking to their personal values they can both achieve personal happiness, better self-awareness, and ultimately true friendship, without taking shortcuts. So they take a bunch of "long cuts" in their cross-country drive.
The plot is a simple--should she or shouldn't she marry the great guy she's driving NY to LA to answer his proposal? The honest diversions the two make on their journey gives Westlake the opportunity to throw three versions/outcomes of marriage into their path and we get to join them in how they interact with each and what they come away with, individually and as a pair, from these encounters. One's a cliche--but used effectively. The second is highly original, funny, poignant, and existentially a bit sad and scary, and the last is subtle and sweet and Westlake knows it.
The pitch for the book is “a suspense novel without a single crime.” That’s what I dove in looking for, and that is entirely missing. There’s no suspense and THAT’S what’s stuck with me. Why then was it a page turner? I think the answer Westlake's suggesting is found in his epigraph:
"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive" - Robert Louis Stevenson.
Westlake is telling his reader right out the gate that the ending isn't what you're reading his book for; so "Call me a Cab" is not building to suspense to its ending. It's the middle, it's the journey, and with two clearly drawn and complex characters of good ethics and morality, the suspense comes not from any activity of breaking their personal codes or violating each other's trust, but from seeing how in sticking to their personal values they can both achieve personal happiness, better self-awareness, and ultimately true friendship, without taking shortcuts. So they take a bunch of "long cuts" in their cross-country drive.
The plot is a simple--should she or shouldn't she marry the great guy she's driving NY to LA to answer his proposal? The honest diversions the two make on their journey gives Westlake the opportunity to throw three versions/outcomes of marriage into their path and we get to join them in how they interact with each and what they come away with, individually and as a pair, from these encounters. One's a cliche--but used effectively. The second is highly original, funny, poignant, and existentially a bit sad and scary, and the last is subtle and sweet and Westlake knows it.
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