God Save the Mark

God Save the Mark is a crime novel by the American writer Donald E. Westlake, published in 1967. It was given the Edgar Award as the best novel of the year.

Fred Fitch is pure of heart and substance and utterly credulous. If there is a confidence trick operating anywhere near him, whether it is the General in his rooming house who needs a loan to print his revelation about the secret history of the government, or the Little Sisters of the Poor raising funds for the homeless in the street, Fred finds it or it finds Fred, and the outcome is much the same either way. He even has his own contact, Reilly, on the Bunco Squad at headquarters, who adds to an already enormous file on him every week.

Fred's life stops being merely complicated when a lawyer appears to tell him that his late Uncle Matt has died and left him three hundred thousand dollars. Fred has never heard of Uncle Matt.

Two things come with the inheritance. The first is Gertie Divine, an old friend of the dead man who is more than willing to become Fred's new friend as well. The second is a number of mysterious men who feel that their claims on the three hundred thousand dollars are far better than Fred's. The caper turns desperate when the pursuers appear to make serious attempts on Fred's life and Gertie's devotion becomes impossible to read: is she a new friend, or somebody else's cat's-paw?