Dancing Aztecs

by Donald E. Westlake

Book Overview

From the master of the rolling scam, here is a hilarious crime caper set in New York. A hot hustler is searching for a million-dollar Aztec sculpture that is accidentally mixed with cheap plaster copies. From Harlem to Greenwich, a motley cast chases the lost piece. Out of print since 1978. Evans.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0445407174
• ISBN13: 9780445407176
• Release Date: August 1989
• Publisher: Mysterious Press
• Length: 318 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

Westlake's Best

One of Westlake's very best. A priceless pre-Columbian dancing Aztec is stolen and shipped to New York with a dozen copies. Naturally it gets mixed up with the copies and several groups try to recover it. A scene on a boat, when Mel puts his foot in the sand-washing bucket is priceless. The scenes with Pedro puking his gulpe all over the pilot, and many others are wonderful. And only a master would think of describing the mad scramble on I 80 from the vantage of a high-flying hawk.. A very rich cast and plenty of funny situations. The ending is a surprise. I am currently on my fourth reading and enjoying is a much as ever.

If only it was a movie

I still have the 10th printing, in paperback, circa 1978 0r '79, that I first read while visiting my future inlaws. After seeing me rolling on the floor, constantly laughing, with tears in my eyes, unable to make conversation without breaking into more laughter, they were sure their daughter was making a big mistake.This book is completely amoral, absolutely politically incorrect, totally true to human nature and wildly funny. Hollywood can't see making a movie like this--too many characters, too many subplots and what screenwriter could better Westlake's '70s masterpiece. Whenever I feel like laughing, I pull down my flimsy copy and read it again. It never fails

Westlake Is The Master Of The Hustle

Not only is this the book by which I judge every other comic crime novel I read, it is my favorite book, period. Westlake's writing is timeless in its humor, yet simultaneously, he manages to capture a snapshot of the culture about which he writes. A running theme of this novel is 'The Hustle,' the dance craze from the period in the 1970s in which it was written, as well as the more perfidious sort of hustle - a scam to smuggle one valuable artifact out of its native country in the midst of a box of fakes, and what happens when that scam goes wrong. Thick with a riot of vivid characters, I laugh and shake my head in disbelief every time I turn the page in this story. It is an amazing piece of work, and a brilliant testament to Donald E. Westlake's wit and craftiness.

A New York Dance...

I first read this book when I was thirteen years old - the UK version called "A New York Dance" - and I loved it so much that, in the following 15 years, I have re-read it more times than I care to mention. At some point I did lend my copy (Ok, my dad's copy) of the book to a friend and never saw it again, but luckily, I found a copy of "Dancing Aztecs" in a New York bookshop in 1997. Phew, I couldn't live without a copy of this book - an all-time favourite. It is has a pretty '70s feel to it, and no real meaningful message, but it certainly fuelled my love of kitsch Americana. Westlake never really bettered this book for me, but I do also love "Good Behavior" and "Help, I Am Being Held Prisoner".

stomach hurts from laughing!

OK, we have 16 Dancing Aztec Statues that are given out as awards. Then we have to recover them because one of them is the "REAL THING." Worth over 1 million dollars. Oh, the hilarity abounds. All the searchers have made me pause to collect my breath...I can't laugh that hard for so long. It hurts! This is probably the funniest book I have ever read. Yes, a plot; yes, mystery; yes, hysteria...I honestly had to stop for a while to regain my breath. Donald Westlake, you are my new hero. Please read it and weep from tears of laughter.