Books

The Switch

The Run Down.

Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara hit it off in prison, where they were both doing time for grand theft auto. Now that they're out, they're joining forces for one big score. The plan is to kidnap the wife of a wealthy Detroit developer and hold her for ransom. But they didn't figure the lowlife husband wouldn't want his lady back. So it's time for Plan B and the opportunity to make a real killing—with the unlikely help of a beautiful, ticked-off housewife who's hungry for a large helping of sweet revenge.

Published: 1978

Publisher: Bantam Books

Genre: Crime

Adaptation: Film (Life of Crime)

Location: Detroit

Characters: Ordell Robbie , Louis Gara , Melanie

He writes the way Hammett and Chandler might write today, if they sharpened their senses of ironic humor and grew better ears for dialogue

— Dallas Morning News

Crime Pays, Ask Mickey. She's Just Been Kidnapped.

Ordell Robbie

Ordell had four Richard Nixon rubber faces; four because he originally believed it would require four people and he thought it would be funny if they were all Nixon and there was a witness wondering maybe if one of them was real. He and Louis put on Nixon faces for a while and said, “Now I want to be perfectly clear on that,” and tried to drink beer through the faces. Louis said yes, it would be funny, but who was gonna laugh, the cops?

Life of Crime

Adapted for film from The Switch in 2013
Starring Jennifer Aniston — Directed by Daniel Schechter
Screenplay by Daniel Schechter