High Adventure: More Ta

by Donald E. Westlake

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0892961236
• ISBN13: 9780892961238
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Mysterious Press
• Length: 326 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

You're Always on a Natural High, After Reading Westlake's Comic Capers!

High Adventure is a fun comic caper revolving around the world of the con artist, marijuana use and smuggling, Mayan artifacts, South American culture and pure paranoia caused by mistaken identity. The end result is another great Westlake comic caper. It's a great read but not quite in the masterpiece level that his best comic capers are at. In High Adventure an American museum curator named Lemuel is conned by Kirby Galway to come to his land in Belize, where priceless Mayan antiques await his purchase to be smuggled back to the USA. Problem is Kirby has another set of marks, an antique dealer couple that he is parading through his fake Mayan pyramid at the exact same time Lemuel's message of his too excited to wait arriving in a few hours message outlines. Kirby can not have these three talking to each other and ruining his plan to bid them against each other for higher prices or the 'rare' stuff. Since there is only one hotel in the area, his solution is to warn them the other party is his drug smuggling contact and if they value their life, they should stay well clear. Since both parties lead lifestyles that mixing with common folk doesn't really happen, they fall for this no problem. This results in some very funny moments, including an hilarious restaurant scene and one of Westlake's funniest chapters ever written as everyone fears for their death from the evil drug smuggler! Throw in corrupt Belizean bureaucrats who always keep a close eye for opportunities arising from visiting Americans. One of these bureaucrats sold Kirby the land which he thought was worthless, thinking there is no way he missed a Mayan pyramid. A hot university graduate who believes her revolutionary new style of research proves there is in fact going to be Mayan architecture ruins in this part of Belize that no one has discovered yet, and by her calculations it should be right on Kirby's land. Plus a village of natives who are addicted to Kirby's deliveries of marijuana and help supply the goods of his scam, all this results in one fun adventure! If you haven't already done so also check out Westlake's other comic capers. The best four comic capers at an absolute masterpiece level are, Smoke, The Spy in the Ointment and a New York Dance (also published as Dancing Aztecs) and Cops and Robbers. Other great comic capers worth checking out too are Gangway!, God Save the Mark, Who Stole Sassi Manoon?, Help I am Being Held Prisoner, the Fugitive Pigeon, Enough and Somebody Owes Me Money, to name just a few! Of course you've also got to check out his absolute masterpiece The Ax.

Hilarious.

I have a copy of High Adventure and was thinking how much I enjoyed it. I've never lent it to anyone and now that I see it is out of print, I realize I made a sound decision.If you like a fun yarn with a con, a scam, and a sting then you should look for this book.