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A review by tony
The Road To Ruin by Donald E. Westlake
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.