The best comedy thrillers

One of the first comedy thrillers I ever read. And one of the best. The Hot Rock features John Archibald Dortmunder. A guy with brains, but no luck. Though the failure of some of his jobs might have more to do with his crew. A collection of loveable losers who you can’t help but root for. The overly optimistic Andy Kelp. Stan Murch who lives with his mom in Canarsie. Man mountain Tchotchkus Bulcher. They’re all after a valuable gem in the Brooklyn Museum and manage to steal it and lose it and steal it and lose it and steal it and…well, you get the idea. Westlake does an amazing job of keeping the thrills thrilling and the comedy crackling all the way through. Something I aspire to do in my own work.

I started with Elmore Leonard’s amazing westerns, but it was crime novels that really blew me away. He created the most surprising, vivid, weird, hilarious, and human characters. Maximum Bob is one of his best. He’s kind of modern Roy Bean, handing out insanely harsh sentences to the denizens of South Florida. His wife Leanne is a new-age nutcase who believes she is possessed by the ghost of a young slave girl. In a conversation with Martin Amis, Leonard talked about how it all starts with character for him. Each character auditions with their first conversation. Either they can talk or not and if they can’t, they’re out. Maximum Bob can talk. 

It was hard to pick just one book from the Hiaasen oeuvre. So I’ll pick the last one I read. Which I happen to think is one of his best. (Aren’t you impressed I used the word oeuvre?) Hiaasen creates very relatable characters who find themselves in insane situations. Though often the characters are just as crazy. In this case, he has fun with a badass female wildlife wrangler and a monstrous Burmese Python with a taste for Palm Beach high society. (What is it about Florida that makes it so perfect for comedy thrillers?) Squeeze Me also touches on the absurdity of our current political climate. Bottom line, it’s just flat out funny.

Again, it’s difficult to pick a favorite Vonnegut book. I think he may have influenced my writing more than any other author. More than Ian Fleming. More than Elmore Leonard or Raymond Chandler. Some might say he isn’t really a thriller writer. Some may classify him as a writer of sci-fi. And yeah, maybe. But he’s so much more than that. He’s a zany magician and mad scientist who can turn utter tragedy into very black comedy. Mother Night is about Nazis and spies and war crimes and white supremacists. All the elements of a thriller combined with Vonnegut’s patented absurdity. I find every one of Kurt Vonnegut’s books thrilling, thoughtful, and hilarious.  

I had a heck of a time narrowing this list down to five books. There are other comedy thrillers I had to set aside, but perhaps I’ll include them in a future list. The main character of my novel James Flynn has been described as cross between James Bond and Serge Storm, the driving force of Florida Roadkill. The comparison comes from the fact that Serge Storm is legally insane and medicated most of the time, but not all the time. He is endearing and hilarious and a killer. But he only takes out those who deserve it. His crew is just as crazy as he is and so are his enemies, real and imagined. Serge wasn’t as much of an inspiration for me as Don Quixote, but he was definitely an inspiration.