FFBL The Dancing Aztec’s by Donald Westlake

 The Dancing Aztec’s by Donald Westlake

I wrote previously about Westlakes Dancing Aztec’s here… but on this eve of the release of what by all accounts is his last unpublished work I think it’s worth revisiting. Set in late 70s NYC, the Dancing Aztec tells the tale of the theft and re-theft of a statue called…. Yep the Dancing Aztec. It’s a disco era farce where people get caught up in the story of the statue and who has it.

I read the Dancing Aztec because one of my high school English teachers recommend it when I posted about Westlake on facebook a couple of years back. She was an important teacher to me, because she could seemed understand me better than the other teachers. I recall running into her own day at Borders books (the original one on State Street in Ann Arbor) in the mystery section when I was still in high school. I seem to recall she had a short conversation about Robert Parker’s Senser books.  I hope that she’s going to get a chance to read this last Westlake and enjoy it… and sometime soon I hope to make my way back to the Dancing Aztec.

James Reasoner also covered it for a FFB HERE

FFB: The Man with the Iron On Badge by Lee Goldberg

The Man with the Iron on Badge was one of those titles that called to me from the shelves at the library. There was something about the title that called out to me and I was very happy to have taken the lead and checked it out.

 Harvey Mapes has a job working security at the gate of one of those concentration camps that rich people hide them selves away in. He spends his time reading classic PI novels and living the marginal life of a low wageworker. He get’s drawn into a real mystery when he’s asked to keep an eye on the wife of one of the 1% who’s gated community he guards… and things go from there. It’s a fun romp and I for one am wondering what happened to Harvey Mapes

Paul Brazill covered The Man with the Iron On Badge Here, and you can check out writer Lee Goldberg’s comments on the book Here.

FFB: The Mouse in the Mountain by Norbert Davis

The Mouse in the Mountain by Norbert Davis is a book that I read after reading about  Sally in the Alley by Davis (which I still haven’t gotten around to reading) and finding that I could get The Mouse in the Mountain via inter library loan. Davis had a strange touch that was part comic and part noir. Mouse is about  a missing treasure.

Evan Lewis covered it on  APRIL 2, 2010 you can find his review HERE