The fourth book in the DKA Files, 32 Cadillacs is, in my opinion, one of the best private investigator novels I’ve read for a number of reasons. Not only is it filled with seat of the pants action but the humour is sharp and the cons and scams are plentiful. Plus, there’s a wonderful Donald Westlake crossover to be enjoyed.

For the first time, the DKA Agency is pitted in a head-to-head battle with San Francisco's Gypsy community following a Gypsy scam that had netted a grand total of 31 Cadillacs. This is a once-in-a-lifetime job, recover the 31 Caddys for a nicely negotiated fat fee. But the Gypsies are crafty specialists of the long con and are exceedingly difficult to track down, so the recovery process will require the DKA team to use every resource available as well as every underhanded trick in the book.

To give you a head start, I'll introduce you to the central DKA characters. They are: Dan Kearny, Giselle Marc, Patrick O'Bannon, Larry Ballard and Bart Heslip. And two new characters are added to the staff, Trin Morales, a sleazy Latino who failed on his own as a PI, and Ken Warren, the genius carhawk with a killer speech impediment. Both bring tremendous dimension and entertainment to the DKA team.

But the real stars of the book are the Gypsies, colourful in character as well as in their various ingenious scams. Although they're such big thieves that they'd make a kleptomaniac look a saint, you can't help but them and hope that every now and then they'll catch a break.

Joe Gores is an author who has walked the walk, having been an agent in the real life DKA Agency. His first-hand knowledge and experience is apparent as his agents work through their cases. Rumour has it that the Larry Ballard character could very well be modelled on Gores himself.

As a final word, if there are any Donald E. Westlake fans out there who have read and enjoyed his Dortmunder book Drowned Hopes. I would urge you to read Drowned Hopes as soon as you’ve finished 32 Cadillacs to get both perspectives as a chapter in each of the books is devoted to a meeting between the crews.

This book was an absolute pleasure to read and, I know it's a much-overused catch phrase but I would term it a "must read book" for any fans of good PI crime fiction.private-detective13 s Jrobertus1,069 31

I recently read "Spade and Archer" and loved it. This novel is about a repo firm, trying to recover 32 Caddies scammed from dealerships in California by Gypsies. The story is based on an actual event, although the personal stories are, I'm sure, highly embellished. GOres is playing for laughs here, with ironic sub plots among the investigators and the Gypsy bands. It is pretty fun, but many of the incidents are so improbable that I could not buy into the story.2 s Cait435 14

This book might have been twice as good, if there had been half as many Cadillacs. 2 s Glenn BruceAuthor 45 books18

I was thinking about this book yesterday. I read it quite some time ago, but have to say it is one of most fun detective reads ever. The author was a real detective and worked on a similar case as I recall. He was an expert in American gypsies and it shows. The details about their lives and scams are intriguing, dark and just plain weird. He reveals several of their most common scams throughout this hilarious story of some detectives trying to recover (you guessed it) 32 (stolen) Cadillacs - in and of itself a gypsy scam feat of great proportion. This is a very fast and funny read with plenty of subplots (love, competition and law-breaking) to keep it lively the entire ride. I might even have to read it again and I almost never do that. If you a good, light detective novel in the Robert B. Parker vein, with some meat to it, my guess is you will enjoy this as much as both my wife and I did.1 Daniel Sevitt1,241 121

An absolute romp that leaned more towards humour than noir which felt a slight departure from the earlier books in the series. Checking back there was a 15 year hiatus between the third and this entry which tracks. Despite the good humour and the updated to the 90s period, this may still be a tough read as there is a whole bunch of racism built into the foundations here. On top of the usual cheap workplace jibes ribbing colleagues of colour, the major subplot features a group of villain who are all identified as Romany. There is distinct respect shown to the Romany people, but it tends to be for their skills as conmen, thieves and grifters... so not great.

There is plenty of fun to be had here, but I can't recommend the work as it there is just too much here that will offend.part-of-a-series Ward252 6

5 stars. The gypsy clans vie for leadership as their King is rumored I’ll and wants to be buried in a pink Cadillac. The clans are motivated and scams skyrocket. DKA is busy across the entire nation trying to repo 32 Cadillacs, of which only 1 is pink. The banks, car dealers, and high-end hotel are victimized. Don Gorman1,791 11

(2 1/2). Gypsies and repomen (or repopeople as their is a woman involved). What a combination. Destined for a high entertainment level, and for the most part, Gore delivers. The sub plots get so spread out that it is hard to keep track of everything going on at times, but recounts of some of the details are hilarious and otherworldly creative. A different kind of read. Pretty good stuff. Claudia Brogan69 1 follower

I just loved this one: completely drew me in to the context, setting and characters
Ernest HoganAuthor 39 books65

Talk about a wild ride! Crisscross country repo madness! Gypsy scams! Classic Americana! And things, and people, are often not what they seem to be. Judy557 1 follower

Funny , well-written, good characters and a scary, amazing look at the many ways gypsies cheat us and themselves. Rome Doherty544 1 follower

I'd give this book another star but for its dated sexist and racist content. I d it a lot, and it reminded me somewhat of Thomas Perry. 2020 mysteries-and-sci-fi Jeff232 1 follower

Glad to read this one. D447 10

32 Cadillacs opens with a preface in which Joe Gores claims that the bones of the titular scheme, in which hapless Bay Area dealerships are confidence-tricked out of a boatload of caddies, are rooted in his real-world repoman experiences. And he cautions the easily offended that they’ll find plenty of fodder, but that he can’t “sanitize the tough and lively world” he writes of.

My reactions were extremely mixed. Many of the grifts Gores details are entertaining, and even edifying. Gores’ prose is a little patchy, but sometimes evokes the s of Leonard or Westlake:
At the back of the lot he went up three wooden steps and into a little frame office strung with dismal glittery tinsel. Inside was a scarred wooden desk bearing a telephone, a heap of curly black hair the size of a Norway rat, and the shoes of a man reading a skin magazine.
Gores even pays homage to an author he’s indebted to with an homage I won’t spoil, but found delightful.

But the more clearly artificial elements of the plot are also a little clunky, particularly the belabored parallelism between a pair of Romani siblings and the Gadjo (non-Romani) they get involved with.

Although the novel features some tough, smart women, it’s scarcely feminist. And Gores’ characters use racial slurs with such casual ubiquity that it almost felt it should’ve been set in some pre-Civil Rights decade. (Gores humanizes most of his minorities, but the Romani get it with both barrels throughout.)

Of course, I have to temper my perception that the racism of the novel’s characters is anachronistic. The book was published in 1992, and that’s roughly when someone I thought of as a friend shocked me by casually and un-ironically deploying the N-bomb. And my hunger for a bit of balance inspired me to do a bit of reading about the Romani, and their persecution. Michael493 13 Read

Is there really a nationwide network of Gypsy con-men, pickpockets, and thieves that trace their trade back hundreds of years to Europe? A people called the "Rom"? I don't know. But I've heard of this before in another context, believe it or not. These people are famous, hereditary members of the circus. And that tradition is very old, ancient if you count Rome. As the Gypsies have stolen 32 Cadillacs at once, the story involves the people who repossess cars too. Which seems an almost equally low way to make a living to me. a lot of stories from the early 90's and before, it is made a little ridiculous by a gap in technology. No way anybody could get away with this stuff now. So much of the plot or scam depends on fooling the "man at the desk", passing bad checks, and assuming nobody could figure it out for a few days. These Gypsies would be on security cameras, background checks are instantaneous, bank transfers too, everyone has cellphones, etc. Also the amounts of money everyone in the book gets so worked up over are kind of laughable. Who would risk life and limb over 3 thousand bucks? I wouldn't anyway. An entertaining story. Wayne ZurlAuthor 42 books105

This is the second Joe Gores book I've read in the last year, the last being SPADE & ARCHER. I would have given 32 CADILLACS 3 1/2 stars, except for three reasons. It took a bit of time to get down to the light-hearted private-eye procedural it became almost 1/3 of the way into the book, I didn't get to know the characters until about then, and I wish Joe had written the book with at least 25% less words. BUT, I did the story. It was very well thought out and some of the information about the Gypsy car theives turned out to be fascinating. The Dan Kearny investigators aren't really acting as traditional detectives in this, they're car repo agents and turn out to be just as shifty as the Gypsies and con-artists in their own right. I compare this with Joe Wambaugh's police procedurals in that a whole bunch of vignettes which sooner or later come together provide an ending. Marcus with a C94 10

I got this book lent by my neighbour. I admit I would not have bought the book based in the back cover story. It's all about the king of Roma travellers giving out his last wish requesting to be driven to his own funeral in the same car that he used for his crowning ceremony. And then the story begins. Is splitting into several other leads, to come together again in a somewhat surprising end.
Personally there were a few stories that were not needed or were ending in too many detail. Coming to the last 60 pages I wanted to see how it will end as I couldn't imagine how the Good will win over the Bad. And it was a surprise ending. Therefore 3 out of 5 stars.2012 borrowed crime ...more James1,302 42

I started off enjoying this book as a solid three star with all the different cons and shenanigans in terms of stealing and restealing the cars. As the book went on though the plot got just got more wooden and repetitive and began to lose all link to credibility. The one shared chapter with Westlake was a highlight but not enough to rescue the book from 2 stars. Also this book pretty much recycles every single cliche about the roma there is.crime fiction Tom23 1 follower

A caper novel in the vein of Donald E. Westlake's Dortmunder series. In fact, This volume is linked with Westlake's Drowned Hopes. A scene involving both authors' characters was laid out, and each author wrote the scene from their characters' point of view. The plot involves Gores's DKA team recovering 32 stolen Cadillacs. Calton Bolick42 2 Read

Comic detective romp as the repo agents of Daniel Kearney Associates race to recover 32 Cadillacs stolen by gypsys in a single day from San Francisco Bay Area car dealers. Contains a bonus plot intersection with Donald E. Westlake's "Drowned Hopes." Karl73 7

Pretty fun that it shares a chapter with Donald Westlake's Drowned Hopes. (One of my long-time favorite books.) Mark Wright108 11

Enjoyed the San Francisco locations, but struggled to stay interested in the story. Too many chacters to keep track of. One has a speech impediment that renders his dialog nearly unreadable. Dave719 7

Very entertaining but too long. His treatment of Gypsies and other minorities is intense, maybe with an element of truth? Jim17

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