DANCING AZTECS

The frantic antics in Westlake's latest involve a million-dollar pre-Columbian statue which gets smuggled out of South America in a shipment along with fifteen plaster copies. Naturally, there's a mix-up at JFK after which the solid gold Aztec artifact falls into the hands of one of the members of a black activist group. Among the many attempting to hunt it down are Jerry Manelli, an ""almost respectable"" con artist living ""from hustle to hustle""; a Wall Street financier go-between and his NJ racketeer partner; an adulterous swimming pool salesman; an estranged harpist; and even aptly-named Pedro Ninni, the unworldly museum guard who ends up hijacking an ancient DC-3 because he unwittingly played a small role in the theft. Slick slapstick in the vein of that other hot rock.