Caper story - Definition and Overview

The caper story is a subgenre of crime fiction. The typical caper story involves one or more crimes (especially thefts, swindles, or occasionally kidnappings) perpetrated by the main characters in full view of the reader. The actions of police or detectives attempting to prevent or solve the crimes may also be chronicled, but are not the main focus of the story.

The caper story is distinguished from the straight crime story by elements of humor, adventure, or unusual cleverness or audacity. For instance, the Dortmunder stories of Donald E. Westlake are highly comic tales involving unusual thefts by a gang of offbeat characters — in different stories Dortmunder's gang steals the same gem several times, steals an entire branch bank, and kidnaps someone from an asylum by driving a stolen train onto the property. By contrast, the same author's Parker stories (published under the name Richard Stark) are grimly straightforward accounts of mundane crime — the criminal equivalent of the police procedural.

A caper may appear as a subplot in a larger work. For example, Tom Sawyer's plot to steal Jim out of slavery in the last part of Huckleberry Finn is a classic caper.

Examples of the caper story

Fiction

• The Ransom of Red Chief by O. Henry — two kidnappers find that the little boy they're holding for ransom is more dangerous than the law
• early stories of the Saint by Leslie Charteris
• The Taking of Pelham One-Two-Three by John Godey — a subway car is hijacked and held for ransom
• the Modesty Blaise stories of Peter O'Donnell
• The Light of Day by Eric Ambler (filmed as Topkapi)
• novels by John Boland such as The League of Gentlemen and The Golden Fleece
• the Dortmunder series and other novels by Donald E. Westlake
• Sledgehammer by Walter Wager

Film

• Ocean's Eleven, novel and screenplay by George Clayton Johnson and Jack Golden Russell (1960, remade 2001)
• The Thomas Crown Affair, screenplay by Alan Trustman (1968, remade 1999)
• The Italian Job (1969, remade 2003)
• Kelly's Heroes, screenplay by Troy Kennedy-Martin (1970)
• The Sting, screenplay by David S. Ward (1973)
• Bank Shot, screenplay by Wendell Mayes from the novel by Donald E. Westlake (1974)
• Hudson Hawk, story and screenplay by Bruce Willis, Robert Kraft, Steven E. de Souza, and Daniel Waters (1991)
• Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, written and directed by Guy Ritchie (1998)

See also

• Big caper movie