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emilyknap's review against another edition
3.0
This book was ok. I read it because I got it for a gift. Nothing too exciting about it but a good way to waste some time I guess.
reverenddave's review against another edition
3.0
Like most his later dortmunders the set up is strong but it’s almost like he loses interest and just wraps it quick as opposed to really playing around with the scenario.
mumblingmynah's review
This is the worst Dortmunder I've read so far. It's not bad, per se, but not as satisfying as the others. The fun part of the premise is to have Dortmunder and crew working as employees on the estate, but that doesn't happen until about 60% in.
dlwchico's review
4.0
Donald E. Westlake has written more books than your momma has eaten cupcakes. He’s a writing machine. And he writes good stuff. He writes under many names, the most famous is “Richard Stark” which he uses for the hard bitten Parker series (the movie Payback was based on the first Parker book). As hard boiled as the Parker books are the Dortmunder books he writes are funny. Dortmunder and his pals are crooks but something always seems to go wrong with their plans.
If you like funny caper type books, you should give some of these a shot. This one is pretty good.
If you like funny caper type books, you should give some of these a shot. This one is pretty good.
hopeevey's review
4.0
Another fun heist-gone-wrong story from Mr. Westlake :) The narration was excellent. I do find the lack of women as anything but side-kicks or set dressing trying, but that's hardly unique to this book.
sbisson's review
5.0
Recent Reads: Road To Ruin. Donald Westlake sends Dortmunder and crew to the estate of a disgraced billionaire, doing jobs to do a job. There are rare cars to be stolen, and a heist to plan. But others are out for revenge and plans are colliding. Fine crime caper comedy.
thetruthatallhazards's review
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
sarah42783's review
3.0
A fun, quick read. I really liked the characters (a team of ex-cons) and the very wacky conversations!
tony's review
2.0
It's a toss-up between this and [b:Drowned Hopes|603607|Drowned Hopes (Dortmunder, #7)|Donald E. Westlake|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1334434850s/603607.jpg|590176] for which has been the worst in the series so far. Drowned Hopes was overlong, often dull, and sometimes painful, but it at least felt like a Dortmunder. This one reads much more like one of those "continue the franchise" sequels, written after the original author's death by someone with enough acquaintance with what has come before to seem right on the surface, but insufficient understanding to really have it fit in.
The main characters are all here, but largely only in spirit. Much more of the book is taken up with two other groups who are also out to get the mark, and a few other minor characters who seem like they might turn out to be more important, but generally aren't — and everyone is just too thinly sketched, and often seemingly unfinished(at one point it looks like there's going to be a major twist when Dortmunder and the gang discover they actually quite like Hall, but this is simply overtaken by events and goes nowhere .
More problematically, there simply isn't enough of a caper, with little of the trademark snakes/chutes-and-ladders feel of the rest of the series.For example: when the gang all finally get close to being employed, but Hall has an argument with the agency, leading Cooper to declare that he won't be sending any more people over any time soon, a true Dortmunder novel would have had him declare that he wouldn't even send these ones over.
Assuming this wasn't ghosted by someone else, I can only hope that Westlake was simply distracted by something else when writing this, or was pushed into releasing it before it was quite ready … rather than a portent of the remainder of the series.
The main characters are all here, but largely only in spirit. Much more of the book is taken up with two other groups who are also out to get the mark, and a few other minor characters who seem like they might turn out to be more important, but generally aren't — and everyone is just too thinly sketched, and often seemingly unfinished
More problematically, there simply isn't enough of a caper, with little of the trademark snakes/chutes-and-ladders feel of the rest of the series.
Assuming this wasn't ghosted by someone else, I can only hope that Westlake was simply distracted by something else when writing this, or was pushed into releasing it before it was quite ready … rather than a portent of the remainder of the series.
thefourthvine's review
3.0
This book feels like half a Dortmunder novel. But half a Dortmunder novel is still a decent read.
This is by no means my least favorite novel in this series, but I had some problems with it - the science facts kept getting in the way (one of the central elements of the plot made no sense at all, for example). And then I realized I was nearing the end (three dots left on my Kindle), and Westlake was still adding plot complications, and was nowhere near resolving any. And then the book just kind of ended, at what felt like the halfway point. If I'd been reading a print copy, I would have been checking to see if some pages had fallen out of the novel.
But all the same - Dortmunder books are generally fun light reads, and this one is no different. The same familiar characters and elements are there, which can be a good thing or a bad thing. (I realize it's too late for this, but I do think maybe Westlake should have just written a book about a really evil rich guy; that seems to be his primary interest in the later Dortmunder novels, and he spends more time building a delightfully detestable rich target than he does on the actual caper. The thing is, I read Dortmunder novels for the capers and the criminals, not the targets.)
Basically, this one is for Dortmunder completists, and for anyone sad that there will never be another Dortmunder novel.
This is by no means my least favorite novel in this series, but I had some problems with it - the science facts kept getting in the way (one of the central elements of the plot made no sense at all, for example). And then I realized I was nearing the end (three dots left on my Kindle), and Westlake was still adding plot complications, and was nowhere near resolving any. And then the book just kind of ended, at what felt like the halfway point. If I'd been reading a print copy, I would have been checking to see if some pages had fallen out of the novel.
But all the same - Dortmunder books are generally fun light reads, and this one is no different. The same familiar characters and elements are there, which can be a good thing or a bad thing. (I realize it's too late for this, but I do think maybe Westlake should have just written a book about a really evil rich guy; that seems to be his primary interest in the later Dortmunder novels, and he spends more time building a delightfully detestable rich target than he does on the actual caper. The thing is, I read Dortmunder novels for the capers and the criminals, not the targets.)
Basically, this one is for Dortmunder completists, and for anyone sad that there will never be another Dortmunder novel.
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