2.5**

From the dust jacket: Is it still possible in this age of generation gap, counterculture, revolution and militancy to write a funny novel about Caribbean dictatorships, the FBI, American business, Women’s Lib, gun-running, Erwin Rommel, divorce, pot, police brutality, the new Morality and selling rifles to the Indians?

Jay Fisher is a major network television announcer/interviewer. He is quick to point out that he is not a journalist; his normal job is interviewing celebrities during lunch at a New York restaurant called The Three Mafiosi. When a friend gives him a tip about a major news story, he arranges a meeting for his friend with the head of the network. The story is given a “go” and Jay is given the assignment to film the interviews that will make up the story on the alleged secret invasion of the island of Ilha Pombo. Of course everything that can go possibly go wrong does, and Jay finds himself the scapegoat of the subsequent investigation.

I am a fan of Donald E Westlake, and his writing doesn’t disappoint in this book. He is a talented writer, with a particular gift for the comic crime caper. He has a way of describing implausible plots and colorful characters that just tickles my funny bone. But this book didn’t quite do it for me. I’m sure that is a function of the time span from when the book was written to when I am reading it. I kept thinking of Iran-Contra affair and Oliver North … but Westlake was writing a DECADE before all that hit the papers. It was entertaining and enjoyable … for about half the book. Then I got tired of the plot.

For a great Westlake comic crime caper read The Hot Rock. For a more contemporary take on how extended unemployment can drive a man to murder read The Ax. ( )