A South American dictator, who is being ousted by a coup, conceals millions of dollars worth of said (fictitious) South American valuables in his dismantled castle, which is being brought to Paris to be re-assembled. However, an international gang of thieves - with national eccentricities- set out to steal the castle.
Much of Castle in the Air is a
seemly attempt by Westlake to remake his much funnier and better Dancing Aztecs (with a homage to It’s a Mad
Mad World thrown in for good measure), except set in France. Westlake does his typical twist after twist to confound and
confuse everyone (including the reader) and there is a whole raft load of frenetic
slapstick action, but while the book climaxes in a mad chase around the canals
and roads of Paris, with the “loot” changing hands every few pages, it still
does not work. It’s overtly simple tale, with thinly drawn characters
and pointless humor about a gang of thieves who mostly don’t speak the same
language. In some ways, being a short book made my pain of reading it a little
better.
As a prolific writer Donald E. Westlake was, not every book is a brilliant masterpiece (even his Richard Stark books don’t always work). And Castle in the Air is pretty much a disappointment in my opinion.
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