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Parker #15
Plunder Squad
Hearing the click behind him, Parker threw his glass straight back over his right shoulder, and dove off his chair to the left. a job looks like amateur hour, Parker walks away. But even a squad of seasoned professionals can't guarantee against human error in a high-risk scam. Can an art dealer with issues unload a truck of paintings with Parker's aid? Or will the heist end up too much of a human interest story, as luck runs out before Parker can get in on the score?
Parker is refreshingly amoral, a thief who always gets away with the swag. Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly /P>
Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible.Washington Post Book World
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First published January 1, 1972
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December 29, 2011
“So Mr. Parker, how can our employment agency help you?”
“Things haven’t been going well with my old job, and I’m thinking about a career change.”
“Let’s take a look at your resume… It says here that you’ve been a professional thief most of your adult life. You’ve got some experience and skill with firearms, false identities, auto theft…. And you’ve done some very impressive jobs, Mr. Parker. I’m surprised you’re looking for another line of work.”
“I’ve had a terrible string of bad luck. A loose end I left breathing once upon a time came back and caused problems, and every heist I’ve tried lately has either fallen apart or been nothing but one headache after another.”
“Well, these little setbacks are sometimes what we need to make a change in our lives. Hopefully, we can find something that’s a good fit. We’ve got an opening for someone who negotiates the bids for a construction company. How do you feel about that?”
“I’ll give it a try.”
“I’m talking about a compromise here, and you know damn well that’s what I’m talking about.”
“But I don’t compromise,” Parker said. “My price is forty thousand dollars. Not thirty-five. Not even thirty-nine and a half.”
Petulant, Griffith said, “Never? Never in your goddamn life have you done anything for less than forty thousand dollars?”
“This job,” Parker said pointing straight down. “This job, my price is forty thousand.”*
“So I guess negotiating business deals isn’t for you, Mr. Parker. Let’s see what else I have available….Oh, how about this? This dry cleaner is looking for help.”
“There’s blood on the blanket.”
“Burn it,” Parker said.
“Forget the dry cleaner then. Don’t worry, Mr. Parker. There’s still plenty of good jobs out there. This seems right up your alley. Teaching self-defense classes to women.”
He switched his left hand grip to her face, thumb on one cheekbone and fingers on the other. He pulled her head forward an inch, then punched it back against the wall. Her eyes glazed, and he used both arms to lower her to the floor.”
“Oh, my. That didn’t work out at all. Don't get discouraged though. I talked the construction company into giving you another chance with their bids.”
"Pay me forty thousand,” Parker said, “and I’m in. Don’t pay it, and I’m out.”
“You won’t negotiate, damn it. How can I deal with you?”
“Maybe you can’t.”
“OK, so that’s a definite ‘No!’ on the construction job. But here’s something interesting; fire marshal.”
The lining caught all at once, and Parker was holding a handful of flame. He leaned way out of the window and tossed it into a second of the cardboard boxes.
“I have to admit that we’re running out of opportunities, Mr. Parker, but I still think we can find you something. This school needs a driving instructor.”
Parker was braced, one arm around the seat, the other hand on the steering wheel for guidance, both feet pressed on the floor, but it was still a jolt when the van crashed into the metal door.
“Hmmmm…. Animal control?”
Finished, he went back upstairs, took the dog by one leg, dragged it over to the cellar doorway, and pushed it downstairs.
“Mr. Parker, I have to admit that I’m about to give up on you. Here’s one last opening, and I hesitate to offer it to you, but we‘re out of options. Marriage counselor.”
“You’re married to a whore…Get used to it. Either put her on the street to bring home some money, or get rid of her. But stop trying to turn her into the little woman, it won’t work.”
“Well, Mr. Parker, I’m sorry to say that was the last job I had. I’m afraid I can’t help you.”
“Sure you can. Give me your wallet and watch.”
“You’re robbing me??”
“I’ve decided to go back to what I do best.”
* Items in italics are direct quotes from the book.
“Things haven’t been going well with my old job, and I’m thinking about a career change.”
“Let’s take a look at your resume… It says here that you’ve been a professional thief most of your adult life. You’ve got some experience and skill with firearms, false identities, auto theft…. And you’ve done some very impressive jobs, Mr. Parker. I’m surprised you’re looking for another line of work.”
“I’ve had a terrible string of bad luck. A loose end I left breathing once upon a time came back and caused problems, and every heist I’ve tried lately has either fallen apart or been nothing but one headache after another.”
“Well, these little setbacks are sometimes what we need to make a change in our lives. Hopefully, we can find something that’s a good fit. We’ve got an opening for someone who negotiates the bids for a construction company. How do you feel about that?”
“I’ll give it a try.”
“I’m talking about a compromise here, and you know damn well that’s what I’m talking about.”
“But I don’t compromise,” Parker said. “My price is forty thousand dollars. Not thirty-five. Not even thirty-nine and a half.”
Petulant, Griffith said, “Never? Never in your goddamn life have you done anything for less than forty thousand dollars?”
“This job,” Parker said pointing straight down. “This job, my price is forty thousand.”*
“So I guess negotiating business deals isn’t for you, Mr. Parker. Let’s see what else I have available….Oh, how about this? This dry cleaner is looking for help.”
“There’s blood on the blanket.”
“Burn it,” Parker said.
“Forget the dry cleaner then. Don’t worry, Mr. Parker. There’s still plenty of good jobs out there. This seems right up your alley. Teaching self-defense classes to women.”
He switched his left hand grip to her face, thumb on one cheekbone and fingers on the other. He pulled her head forward an inch, then punched it back against the wall. Her eyes glazed, and he used both arms to lower her to the floor.”
“Oh, my. That didn’t work out at all. Don't get discouraged though. I talked the construction company into giving you another chance with their bids.”
"Pay me forty thousand,” Parker said, “and I’m in. Don’t pay it, and I’m out.”
“You won’t negotiate, damn it. How can I deal with you?”
“Maybe you can’t.”
“OK, so that’s a definite ‘No!’ on the construction job. But here’s something interesting; fire marshal.”
The lining caught all at once, and Parker was holding a handful of flame. He leaned way out of the window and tossed it into a second of the cardboard boxes.
“I have to admit that we’re running out of opportunities, Mr. Parker, but I still think we can find you something. This school needs a driving instructor.”
Parker was braced, one arm around the seat, the other hand on the steering wheel for guidance, both feet pressed on the floor, but it was still a jolt when the van crashed into the metal door.
“Hmmmm…. Animal control?”
Finished, he went back upstairs, took the dog by one leg, dragged it over to the cellar doorway, and pushed it downstairs.
“Mr. Parker, I have to admit that I’m about to give up on you. Here’s one last opening, and I hesitate to offer it to you, but we‘re out of options. Marriage counselor.”
“You’re married to a whore…Get used to it. Either put her on the street to bring home some money, or get rid of her. But stop trying to turn her into the little woman, it won’t work.”
“Well, Mr. Parker, I’m sorry to say that was the last job I had. I’m afraid I can’t help you.”
“Sure you can. Give me your wallet and watch.”
“You’re robbing me??”
“I’ve decided to go back to what I do best.”
* Items in italics are direct quotes from the book.
Read
December 17, 2020
Plunder Squad lines up as #15 of 24 Parker novels by Donald E. Westlake writing under the name of Richard Stark.
Plunder Squad is one rambling, shambling tale featuring multiple heists (two of which never actually come off) and Parker on a manhunt, a novel chock-full of Parker action and memorable scenes in places like the mountains of California, posh apartment overlooking Central Park, Pop art exhibit in Indianapolis.
The highlight reel on this one includes:
Georgie Porgie
"He didn't have a gun on him, and the first thing to do was get away from the guy who did." The guy without a gun is Parker; the guy with the gun is George Uhl. In the opening scene of Plunder Squad, Uhl shoots at Parker's head. Stark fans will remember George Uhl from The Sour Lemon Score where Parker didn't kill Uhl when he had the chance. Recall I mentioned Plunder Squad features Parker on a manhunt. I bet you can guess who Parker will be hunting down.
Foxy Sharon
"She was almost the parody of a suburban slut. Slender to the point of skinniness except for oversized breasts, she had the small narrow foxlike face of a tenement upbringing....The only good thing about her was that she didn't seem to be in active agitation." There she is - Sharon, wife of Bob Beaghler, the gent organizing a California heist. Parker immediately smells unending troubles with slut Sharon (you gotta love Stark's description: "face of a tenement upbringing') but Parker is running a string of bad luck and he NEEDS THE MONEY so he'll stick around to at least find out what Beaghler has in mind.
Man's Best Friend
You never know what can happen when you break into someone's house at two in the morning when they're not at home. Parker does so in Plunder Squad. "He heard the clicks on linoleum and saw the dark shape hurtling at him just an instant before it hit, slamming into him at chest height and knocking him flat on his back on the floor." Just so happens Blackie the Doberman Pinscher's final act of heroism saves someone's life.
Parker the Aesthete - Not!
Reading between the lines, there's a strong element of humor when Parker attends an exhibit of Pop art currently on a city to city tour. Predictably, much more than the Andy Warhol-style 60s art on display, Parker makes a careful study of the private guards and armed guards guarding all those pricey treasures. Parker also makes a mental note of the price tag next to each painting. The last thing Parker is interested in having at the art gallery is an aesthetic experience. Understatement!
Parker gets the once over from two cops sitting in their car both when he enters and when he exits the building where the exhibit is being held. I bet he did! It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out Parker would be a tad out of place among all the Pop art.
Intense Interview
Griffith deals in art, one of his prime advantages: he negotiates for a living and he's good at it. One of the highlights of Plunder Squad: watching Griffith deal with Parker's demands.
"But I don't compromise," Parker said. "My price is forty thousand dollars. Not thirty-five. Not even thirty-nine and a half"
Petulant, Griffith said, "Never? Never in your goddam life have you ever done anything for less than forty thousand?"
"This job," Parker said, pointing straight down. "This job, my price is forty thousand."
When Parker walks out of Griffith's office, any guesses how much Griffith agrees to pay Parker for this job?
Beaghler's Mighty ATV
Bob Beaghler is mighty proud of his mighty all-terrain vehicle. Parker and Beaghler travel through some mighty tough mountainous terrain to track down George Uhl. When the boys near Uhl's hideout, Beaghler offers Parker a rifle. Parker declines; he'll take the Colt since, as he tells Beaghler, he knows handguns better. Why would Parker not want to take that rifle, the ideal weapon for shooting at long-range? You'll have to read for yourself. But I will say: this California mountain episode counts as one of the more memorable ones in the entire Parker series - and for good reason.
Stan Devers
Stark fans will remember young, blonde, resourceful Stan Devers from The Green Eagle Score where Stan was the inside man (what the outlaw world calls "the finger") for a score at an Air Force military base (a month's payroll in $200,000 cash).
Stan is now a full-time outlaw, constantly changing identities, constantly moving around the country to avoid serious prison time. When we meet up with Stan in Plunder Squad, he's pulling his own one-man heist of a salesman's Mercedes. A smooth operation that speaks to Stan's confidence and hard-won experience.
Tommy & Noelle
Ah, to be young and randy and a heister on a job with Parker. What part will young gal Noelle and young guy Tommy play in a big-time heist? For starters, they attract the attention of two Illinois state troopers:
"We'll check it out," Trooper Jarvis said, making the turn to stop beside the Chevrolet, and damn if there wasn't a couple screwing on a blanket next to the car.
"Son of a bitch!" Trooper MacAndrews said.
The bare ass of the boy stopped humping when the light hit it, and he stared over his shoulder in astonishment at the car two yards back of his feet. He was as shaggy and hairy as a mountain goat.
"One of them hippies," Trooper MacAndrews said.
Plunder Squad was originally published in 1972 when hippies were still hippies - a constant threat to conventional, good ole apple pie USA. The scene with Tommy, Noelle and the state troopers sizzles.
Final Thought
Plunder Squad scores high with avid Parker fans. What a doozy of a novel. While reading, I wondered if Donald E. Westlake might have privately and somewhat comically thought of his book as Blunder Squad.
Why, you ask? Parker the wolf is forever the professional. But the rest of us poor homo sapiens frequently are lacking when it comes to that sapiens part.
American author Donald E. Westlake, 1933-2008
February 11, 2021
“Never leave a guy alive who'd like to see you dead”—Stark
The pulpily-titled Plunder Squad is one of the top five or six (of 24) Parker books. Yes, even with that dopey title. Or maybe because of it? One of the cool things about this book is that it shares a scene with characters from a novel by Donald Westlake/Richard Stark's friend Joe Gores, Dead Skip, so that's kind of cool that he's working in conversation with his buddy on their craft, right?
It begins with this first line, so you get right into it:
"Hearing the click behind him, Parker threw his glass straight back over his right shoulder, and dove off his chair to the left.”
The first plan is a hijacking, a job that goes bust when a guy Parker had decided not to kill, George Uhl, shows up. He's the guy from above, that great line to live by, kids. So anyway, gunfire happens, and the deal is messed up. This story continues the bad luck Parker sometimes has to go through, alas. A second caper, an art heist, faces money troubles, people struggling to get the money together, among other things. It also goes south. This is how Parker feels about money:
"Pay me forty thousand,” Parker said, “and I’m in. Don’t pay it, and I’m out.”
“You won’t negotiate, damn it. How can I deal with you?”
“Maybe you can’t.”
Stephen King says,"Parker is refreshingly amoral, a thief who always gets away with the swag," but let's just say, even King can be wrong.
The final attempt at a heist in this book is to steal some Pop-Art as it is being transported from one show to the next. In the process the buyer mistakenly thinks—hearing it on the radio--that all of the thieves have been caught, and he kills himself! Then Parker is double-crossed, and he goes home to Claire, to lick his wounds?
I know, this review fails to convince that this is really one of the best, but it’s pretty much non-stop action, with send-ups of both hippies and the art world. Stark is by this point in the series at the top of his game.
The pulpily-titled Plunder Squad is one of the top five or six (of 24) Parker books. Yes, even with that dopey title. Or maybe because of it? One of the cool things about this book is that it shares a scene with characters from a novel by Donald Westlake/Richard Stark's friend Joe Gores, Dead Skip, so that's kind of cool that he's working in conversation with his buddy on their craft, right?
It begins with this first line, so you get right into it:
"Hearing the click behind him, Parker threw his glass straight back over his right shoulder, and dove off his chair to the left.”
The first plan is a hijacking, a job that goes bust when a guy Parker had decided not to kill, George Uhl, shows up. He's the guy from above, that great line to live by, kids. So anyway, gunfire happens, and the deal is messed up. This story continues the bad luck Parker sometimes has to go through, alas. A second caper, an art heist, faces money troubles, people struggling to get the money together, among other things. It also goes south. This is how Parker feels about money:
"Pay me forty thousand,” Parker said, “and I’m in. Don’t pay it, and I’m out.”
“You won’t negotiate, damn it. How can I deal with you?”
“Maybe you can’t.”
Stephen King says,"Parker is refreshingly amoral, a thief who always gets away with the swag," but let's just say, even King can be wrong.
The final attempt at a heist in this book is to steal some Pop-Art as it is being transported from one show to the next. In the process the buyer mistakenly thinks—hearing it on the radio--that all of the thieves have been caught, and he kills himself! Then Parker is double-crossed, and he goes home to Claire, to lick his wounds?
I know, this review fails to convince that this is really one of the best, but it’s pretty much non-stop action, with send-ups of both hippies and the art world. Stark is by this point in the series at the top of his game.
August 6, 2025
"'Pay me forty thousand and I'm in. Don't pay it and I'm out.'" -- Parker
"'You won't negotiate, damn it. How can I ever deal with you?'" -- Griffith
"'Maybe you can't.'" -- Parker, on page 66
When I read & reviewed the previous Parker paperback (say THAT three times fast) Slayground a few months back I recall noting a fatigue setting in with the series and/or story arcs. Unfortunately, that sentiment continues with its merely good follow-up Plunder Squad, the penultimate book before author Stark (pseudonym of Donald E. Westlake) took a 20+ year sabbatical with this character. While I really enjoyed the initial dozen or so entries in the series - which were published throughout the 1960's - it seems to me that when the 70's arrived some of the spark had noticeably dissipated from these books, in only in my opinion. The plot this time is stock-standard Parker - that terse master thief inevitably looking for the next big score - involving a heist of some valuable artwork, with the expected complications, while it is being motored from Indianapolis to St. Louis. (The author even makes an inconceivable geographic error at one point, placing Parker in Pittsburgh in pursuit of a murderous antagonist, but moments later either confusingly mentions the setting is inexplicably now Philadelphia, OR that Parker has reached this other bailiwick in a mere 30 minutes. As a Pennsylvania native I can attest that these two cities are 300+ miles and several hours apart.) Even more frustrating was that Hard Case Crime head honcho Charles Ardai - who I got to hear as a guest speaker at the 2025 American Library Association annual conference in June, and he just knocked it out of the park enthusiastically talking about the grittily dependable joys of crime fiction - composed a glowing foreword here, and it was arguably a bit more enjoyable than the book itself.
"'You won't negotiate, damn it. How can I ever deal with you?'" -- Griffith
"'Maybe you can't.'" -- Parker, on page 66
When I read & reviewed the previous Parker paperback (say THAT three times fast) Slayground a few months back I recall noting a fatigue setting in with the series and/or story arcs. Unfortunately, that sentiment continues with its merely good follow-up Plunder Squad, the penultimate book before author Stark (pseudonym of Donald E. Westlake) took a 20+ year sabbatical with this character. While I really enjoyed the initial dozen or so entries in the series - which were published throughout the 1960's - it seems to me that when the 70's arrived some of the spark had noticeably dissipated from these books, in only in my opinion. The plot this time is stock-standard Parker - that terse master thief inevitably looking for the next big score - involving a heist of some valuable artwork, with the expected complications, while it is being motored from Indianapolis to St. Louis. (The author even makes an inconceivable geographic error at one point, placing Parker in Pittsburgh in pursuit of a murderous antagonist, but moments later either confusingly mentions the setting is inexplicably now Philadelphia, OR that Parker has reached this other bailiwick in a mere 30 minutes. As a Pennsylvania native I can attest that these two cities are 300+ miles and several hours apart.) Even more frustrating was that Hard Case Crime head honcho Charles Ardai - who I got to hear as a guest speaker at the 2025 American Library Association annual conference in June, and he just knocked it out of the park enthusiastically talking about the grittily dependable joys of crime fiction - composed a glowing foreword here, and it was arguably a bit more enjoyable than the book itself.
July 22, 2012
Richard Stark's amoral protagonist, known only as Parker, is low on cash and looking for work. Parker specializes in planning and executing elaborate heists and this inevitably involves working with others. Sadly, not all criminals are as talented and trustworthy as Parker and this means that his first task in planning any job is ensuring that those around him are dependable and up to the task.
This can occasionally be a problem, and that's certainly the case as this book opens. A man Parker knows principally as a driver has come up with a plan to heist some valuable art work. But this is the first job that the guy has devised himself, and the plan is not even half-baked. If that weren't problem enough, the driver has a sexpot of a wife who seems determined to complicate matters by making a play for Parker. Parker's got to figure out if he can make a realistic plan out of the driver's idea, while at the same time steering clear of the wife. He's also forced to deal with an old protagonist who's suddenly turned up determined to remove the danger that Parker poses to him.
To say any more would be to say too much, but the premise sets Parker off on another absorbing journey through the dangerous underworld that is his natural habitat. Writing as Richard Stark, the Edgar Award-winning Donald Westlake has created one of noir fiction's great protagonists and this, his fifteenth entry in the series, will delight fans old and new.
This can occasionally be a problem, and that's certainly the case as this book opens. A man Parker knows principally as a driver has come up with a plan to heist some valuable art work. But this is the first job that the guy has devised himself, and the plan is not even half-baked. If that weren't problem enough, the driver has a sexpot of a wife who seems determined to complicate matters by making a play for Parker. Parker's got to figure out if he can make a realistic plan out of the driver's idea, while at the same time steering clear of the wife. He's also forced to deal with an old protagonist who's suddenly turned up determined to remove the danger that Parker poses to him.
To say any more would be to say too much, but the premise sets Parker off on another absorbing journey through the dangerous underworld that is his natural habitat. Writing as Richard Stark, the Edgar Award-winning Donald Westlake has created one of noir fiction's great protagonists and this, his fifteenth entry in the series, will delight fans old and new.
August 9, 2011
A hijacking job goes south when George Uhl rears his ugly head. On top of that, Parker gets involved in an art heist. Can Parker deal with George Uhl and pull off the art heist?
Parker's run of bad luck continues in this one. The first heist goes bad, Parker has to take care of Uhl AND another guy, and the art dealer who hired Parker and company turns out to be in some serious money trouble. Poor Parker. The guy is as unlucky as Dortmunder in the last few books.
The action is fast and furious in this one, as are the double crosses and complications. Parker is as relentless as ever, seeing as how he doesn't intend on making any more mistakes like letting George Uhl live. For once, there wasn't a weak link in the men on the job, just in the financier. It was good to see Stan Devers again. There haven't been many recurring characters since Handy retired and Salsa bought it. Since Parker's funds are running low, I can only imagine the tension level in Butcher's Moon.
The Plunder Squad was definitely in the Parker top five. Now I'm in a holding pattern until the University of Chicago reprints Butcher's Moon.
Parker's run of bad luck continues in this one. The first heist goes bad, Parker has to take care of Uhl AND another guy, and the art dealer who hired Parker and company turns out to be in some serious money trouble. Poor Parker. The guy is as unlucky as Dortmunder in the last few books.
The action is fast and furious in this one, as are the double crosses and complications. Parker is as relentless as ever, seeing as how he doesn't intend on making any more mistakes like letting George Uhl live. For once, there wasn't a weak link in the men on the job, just in the financier. It was good to see Stan Devers again. There haven't been many recurring characters since Handy retired and Salsa bought it. Since Parker's funds are running low, I can only imagine the tension level in Butcher's Moon.
The Plunder Squad was definitely in the Parker top five. Now I'm in a holding pattern until the University of Chicago reprints Butcher's Moon.
November 8, 2024
An almost melancholic story of the burdens and pitfalls of Parker's chosen profession which feels like a study in the myriad ways jobs can go sideways and compassion can backfire. Being relentlessly professional, ever vigil, and blessed with a sixth sense for sniffing out troublesome people and situations aren't enough to break his string of bad luck.
September 27, 2021
Man, Mr Stark sure knows how to keep this series fresh: constantly putting his favorite thief in unfamiliar, seemingly impossible-to-get-out-of situations and seeing (writing) whatever the hell happens!
Parker has been on a run of awful luck his last few jobs, and as his stash keeps dwindling he is forced to take on new, riskier jobs he would never consider during flush times.
Sounds like a dangerous recipe, right? SO WHO'S HUNGRY?!?!?!?!
Four Stealthily Stolen Stars
runoutandgetyousomeofthisherefunkystuff
Parker has been on a run of awful luck his last few jobs, and as his stash keeps dwindling he is forced to take on new, riskier jobs he would never consider during flush times.
Sounds like a dangerous recipe, right? SO WHO'S HUNGRY?!?!?!?!
Four Stealthily Stolen Stars
runoutandgetyousomeofthisherefunkystuff
October 13, 2018
While planning a job, a man Parker should have finished in an earlier confrontation, tries to kill him, putting himself in Parker's crosshairs for retribution. Meanwhile, Parker needs a score and after looking over a couple of opportunities, agrees to an art heist while a heavily guarded exhibit is in transit. Working with an experienced crew, things actually go well ... during the heist; however, their buyer gets himself in big trouble, which naturally spills over onto the crew. P.S. It's hard to believe anybody can be as unlucky as Parker.
November 12, 2011
The penultimate of the original Parker novels.
Plunder Squad has quite a few things going on in it. Unlike other Parker novels this one has some side stories going on aside from the usual heist that is the focus of the novels.
An old enemy returns to try to kill Parker. A couple of jobs fall through and another one is executed. Some characters from past novels return, actually some surprising characters, or at least ones I didn't think were necessarily that memorable the first time around to think they would be joining up with Parker again.
The rest of this review is going to be something of a spoiler for this novel, I've written too many Parker reviews to not just write about spoilers at this point. Read on at your own risk.
Stephen King has a quote that is on the back of all the recent reissues,"Parker is refreshingly amoral, a thief who always gets away with the swag."
What a lie, Mr. King.
This is the second in a row, and in a way the third or fourth (depending on how you want to count them) Parker novel that is a fail in terms of getting away with the 'swag'.
In Slayground Parker was forced to leave the money from the heist behind and escape with his life from the mob-run fun park he found himself trapped in. Now in the follow up novel Parker is feeling his dwindling reserves of money and he's looking for some job to help fill the near empty coffers.
A relatively straight forward job is mucked up in the planning stages when an enemy from a past job shows up and tries to kill Parker. The resulting gun fight leaves Parker and his adversary alive but draws enough attention to where the heist was being planned that the job gets nixed.
A second job, an improbable hijacking of some statues in transit along a road in Big Sur also gets mucked up when the drivers whorish wife causes some trouble and makes Parker think twice about the job. I was a little saddened to see this job get tossed aside, I was curious about how Stark was going to have them execute the job.
The final attempt at a heist in this book is to steal some Pop-Art as it is being transported from one show to the next. The job is done but with a bit of a problem that makes the buyer of the 'swag' mistakenly think that everything got mucked up and he kills himself. This leaves Parker and his cronies with twenty one valuable paintings and no one to give them money for them. Parker finds the one buyer lined up to get six of the paintings and makes a deal to sell them to him but he gets double crossed when the mob loan sharks who had lent the first buyer the money to finance the heist decide they want to take the paintings for themselves.
(this is sounding almost like an actual book report, with some details missing)
The book ends with Parker escaping with his life but without the money for the job, disproving Stephen King's statement about the universal trajectory of all the Parker novels.
It goes unsaid in the novel, but I can imagine this leaves Parker in even more dire financial straits and even more desperate for a 'good' job that will help get him back on track. I also imagine he is feeling angrier and bitter at the way things have been going lately. This state leads into the last of the original Parker novel, the epic sized Butcher's Moon. I'm sure the last one will be pretty awesome!
Plunder Squad has quite a few things going on in it. Unlike other Parker novels this one has some side stories going on aside from the usual heist that is the focus of the novels.
An old enemy returns to try to kill Parker. A couple of jobs fall through and another one is executed. Some characters from past novels return, actually some surprising characters, or at least ones I didn't think were necessarily that memorable the first time around to think they would be joining up with Parker again.
The rest of this review is going to be something of a spoiler for this novel, I've written too many Parker reviews to not just write about spoilers at this point. Read on at your own risk.
Stephen King has a quote that is on the back of all the recent reissues,"Parker is refreshingly amoral, a thief who always gets away with the swag."
What a lie, Mr. King.
This is the second in a row, and in a way the third or fourth (depending on how you want to count them) Parker novel that is a fail in terms of getting away with the 'swag'.
In Slayground Parker was forced to leave the money from the heist behind and escape with his life from the mob-run fun park he found himself trapped in. Now in the follow up novel Parker is feeling his dwindling reserves of money and he's looking for some job to help fill the near empty coffers.
A relatively straight forward job is mucked up in the planning stages when an enemy from a past job shows up and tries to kill Parker. The resulting gun fight leaves Parker and his adversary alive but draws enough attention to where the heist was being planned that the job gets nixed.
A second job, an improbable hijacking of some statues in transit along a road in Big Sur also gets mucked up when the drivers whorish wife causes some trouble and makes Parker think twice about the job. I was a little saddened to see this job get tossed aside, I was curious about how Stark was going to have them execute the job.
The final attempt at a heist in this book is to steal some Pop-Art as it is being transported from one show to the next. The job is done but with a bit of a problem that makes the buyer of the 'swag' mistakenly think that everything got mucked up and he kills himself. This leaves Parker and his cronies with twenty one valuable paintings and no one to give them money for them. Parker finds the one buyer lined up to get six of the paintings and makes a deal to sell them to him but he gets double crossed when the mob loan sharks who had lent the first buyer the money to finance the heist decide they want to take the paintings for themselves.
(this is sounding almost like an actual book report, with some details missing)
The book ends with Parker escaping with his life but without the money for the job, disproving Stephen King's statement about the universal trajectory of all the Parker novels.
It goes unsaid in the novel, but I can imagine this leaves Parker in even more dire financial straits and even more desperate for a 'good' job that will help get him back on track. I also imagine he is feeling angrier and bitter at the way things have been going lately. This state leads into the last of the original Parker novel, the epic sized Butcher's Moon. I'm sure the last one will be pretty awesome!
April 29, 2018
"Hearing the click behind him, Parker threw his glass straight back over his right shoulder, and dove off his chair to the left.”
January 29, 2023
Parker #15 out of 24 starts off a little disjointed with an initial heist going sideways but then Stark settles in to a more stable storyline focused on the grab and attempted sale of several pieces of art. All does not go as expected but navigating with Parker on the scene, as expected, is a fun ride.
🎙️
Joe Barrett does a great job narrating several characters, mostly gangsters, and gives the audio book a authentic, 70’s style mob feel.
📚
Looking forward to #16. It’s a little longer, read by the same narrator and includes a forward by Lawrence Block, creator of the Matt Scudder series and Bernie Rhodenbarr series (Burglar & Bookstore owner).
🎙️
Joe Barrett does a great job narrating several characters, mostly gangsters, and gives the audio book a authentic, 70’s style mob feel.
📚
Looking forward to #16. It’s a little longer, read by the same narrator and includes a forward by Lawrence Block, creator of the Matt Scudder series and Bernie Rhodenbarr series (Burglar & Bookstore owner).
June 20, 2022
What’s this? A Parker novel which doesn’t open with the word ‘when’? I needed smelling salts when I noticed.
Sometimes these books end on almost an anticlimax. The ending here does fit with the downbeat tone of the rest, but still it leaves you finishing an escapist thriller somewhat downhearted. Stark remains the master at this type of heist novel though.
Sometimes these books end on almost an anticlimax. The ending here does fit with the downbeat tone of the rest, but still it leaves you finishing an escapist thriller somewhat downhearted. Stark remains the master at this type of heist novel though.
July 17, 2021
Parker and the Art Heist
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (June, 2013) of the Random House hardcover (1972)
Richard Stark was one of the many pseudonyms of the prolific crime author Donald E. Westlake (1933-2008), who wrote over 100 books. The Stark pseudonym was used primarily for the Parker novels, an antihero criminal who is usually betrayed or ensnared in some manner and who spends each book getting revenge or escaping the circumstances.
Plunder Squad finds Parker and a team of heisters working on an art theft for a middle man who is hard pressed to raise the front money for the heist. Several past Parker characters make a return in this book, including George Uhl from The Sour Lemon Score and Stan Devers from The Green Eagle Score. The book also features a crossover scene with Dead Skip (1972) by Joe Gores, when Parker goes to the door of the squad's safe house in order to put off a skip tracer. The scene is repeated in Gores' book from the skip tracer's perspective.
Narrator Joe Barrett does a good job in all voices in this audiobook edition.
I had never previously read the Stark/Parker novels but became curious when they came up in my recent reading of The Writer's Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives (Sept. 2020) by Nancy Pearl & Jeff Schwager. Here is a (perhaps surprising) excerpt from their discussion with Amor Towles:
The 24 Parker books are almost all available for free on Audible Plus, except for #21 & #22 which aren't available at all.
Trivia and Links
There is a brief plot summary of Plunder Squad and of all the Parker books and adaptations at The Violent World of Parker website.
Unlike many of the 2010-2013 Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook editions which share the same cover art as the University of Chicago Press 2009-2010 reprints, this audiobook DOES include the Foreword by author Charles Ardai.
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (June, 2013) of the Random House hardcover (1972)
Richard Stark was one of the many pseudonyms of the prolific crime author Donald E. Westlake (1933-2008), who wrote over 100 books. The Stark pseudonym was used primarily for the Parker novels, an antihero criminal who is usually betrayed or ensnared in some manner and who spends each book getting revenge or escaping the circumstances.
Plunder Squad finds Parker and a team of heisters working on an art theft for a middle man who is hard pressed to raise the front money for the heist. Several past Parker characters make a return in this book, including George Uhl from The Sour Lemon Score and Stan Devers from The Green Eagle Score. The book also features a crossover scene with Dead Skip (1972) by Joe Gores, when Parker goes to the door of the squad's safe house in order to put off a skip tracer. The scene is repeated in Gores' book from the skip tracer's perspective.
Narrator Joe Barrett does a good job in all voices in this audiobook edition.
I had never previously read the Stark/Parker novels but became curious when they came up in my recent reading of The Writer's Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives (Sept. 2020) by Nancy Pearl & Jeff Schwager. Here is a (perhaps surprising) excerpt from their discussion with Amor Towles:
Nancy: Do you read Lee Child?
Amor: I know Lee. I had never read his books until I met him, but now I read them whenever they come out. I think some of the decisions he makes are ingenious.
Jeff: Have you read the Parker books by Donald Westlake [writing as Richard Stark]?
Amor: I think the Parker books are an extraordinary series.
Jeff: They feel like a big influence on Reacher, right down to the name. Both Reacher and Parker have a singular focus on the task in front of them.
Amor: But Parker is amoral. Reacher is just dangerous.
Jeff: Right. Reacher doesn't have a conventional morality, but he has his own morality. Parker will do anything he has to do to achieve his goal.
Amor: But to your point, Westlake's staccato style with its great twists at the end of the paragraphs, and his mesmerizing central character - these attributes are clearly shared by the Reacher books.
The 24 Parker books are almost all available for free on Audible Plus, except for #21 & #22 which aren't available at all.
Trivia and Links
There is a brief plot summary of Plunder Squad and of all the Parker books and adaptations at The Violent World of Parker website.
Unlike many of the 2010-2013 Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook editions which share the same cover art as the University of Chicago Press 2009-2010 reprints, this audiobook DOES include the Foreword by author Charles Ardai.
March 15, 2018
Well...if things keep up the way they've been going Parker may have to go on Welfare (or was it still called "Relief" then, I can't recall when it became "Welfare".) Anyway, with the last several jobs all going bad (following the books in order you get to see that) Parker has not only been expending a lot of effort for.... Oh wait that would be a spoiler as would the body count here.
So guess you'll have to read the book to see how bad things are getting for Parker. I'm still "enjoying" (I always wonder about saying I'm "enjoying" a book about an amoral thief who thinks little of killing people who are in the way or sometimes even superfluous...or become so.) anyway...I still like the books and plan to follow Westlake's (Stark's) later books.
Recommended if the carnage doesn't bother you.
So guess you'll have to read the book to see how bad things are getting for Parker. I'm still "enjoying" (I always wonder about saying I'm "enjoying" a book about an amoral thief who thinks little of killing people who are in the way or sometimes even superfluous...or become so.) anyway...I still like the books and plan to follow Westlake's (Stark's) later books.
Recommended if the carnage doesn't bother you.
February 13, 2011
This is the first Parker book I read where I had to put it down to read something else due to work. And I didn't bother to re-read the first part again, I just got into it right away. I love this Parker because everything turns out bad. Parker is still highly professional and deadly, but ....things are now more funky. In fact it is professional way of doing business saves him in the end of the day. Nevertheless people die, money doesn't get made, and things get worst. There is a humor strain that goes through this novel, but it is very dry - even brittle like. Remarkable.
August 28, 2021
Another brilliant noir read by the legendary Mr Westlake (aka Richard Stark). Parker is dealing with an unrelenting string of bad luck in this novel. Can his callous and cool demeanour and his utter disregard for the law bring him the much needed cash to extend his life of luxury with Claire? Or is this latest caper involving an art heist to be his last as a free man? Once again, highly recommended.
May 29, 2024
I've been bouncing around in Richard Stark's Parker series for awhile and I'm fully confident that, after finishing all of them, I could rob a bank, poker game, art museum, coin collection, armored car, etc....... In fact, as someone who has been involved in large projects for a big company, I appreciate the consistency of arch-criminal Parker's approach: evaluate (a heist), build a plan, construct the team, execute the plan, and clean up the inevitable mess afterwards. The 'Plunder Squad' is a great example of his 'process'.
This one begins with a false start. Parker, well-known in the criminal community for his planning prowess, is engaged to help with a plan cooked up by an acquaintance to steal several statues. He doesn't like the idea man or his wife so he bags that project and waits around for something better to come his way. He's put in touch with another gang that intends to steal valuable paintings from a traveling exhibit. Parker checks it out and talks to the money man, the intermediary between the robbers and the collector who'll end up with the paintings, and negotiates a bigger payout. The complicated plan, which involves hijacking the truck hauling the paintings between cities, is executed pretty well and Parker's group ends up with 21 paintings. What he didn't know, though, is that the money man, himself an art dealer, was in bad financial straights and had to go into debt with some unsavory characters to ensure the theft would take place. Suffice to say, 'cleanup on aisle 9' but the great Parker lives to steal another day.
I could knock out a Parker book every day and be a happy man, but I expect to stretch out my enjoyment of the series for a couple more years. Stark's writing (actually that's Donald Westlake's pseudonym) is lean as can be and the Parker character (the only one that really matters) is one of a kind. I love the straightforward pace of the novels in this series.
This one begins with a false start. Parker, well-known in the criminal community for his planning prowess, is engaged to help with a plan cooked up by an acquaintance to steal several statues. He doesn't like the idea man or his wife so he bags that project and waits around for something better to come his way. He's put in touch with another gang that intends to steal valuable paintings from a traveling exhibit. Parker checks it out and talks to the money man, the intermediary between the robbers and the collector who'll end up with the paintings, and negotiates a bigger payout. The complicated plan, which involves hijacking the truck hauling the paintings between cities, is executed pretty well and Parker's group ends up with 21 paintings. What he didn't know, though, is that the money man, himself an art dealer, was in bad financial straights and had to go into debt with some unsavory characters to ensure the theft would take place. Suffice to say, 'cleanup on aisle 9' but the great Parker lives to steal another day.
I could knock out a Parker book every day and be a happy man, but I expect to stretch out my enjoyment of the series for a couple more years. Stark's writing (actually that's Donald Westlake's pseudonym) is lean as can be and the Parker character (the only one that really matters) is one of a kind. I love the straightforward pace of the novels in this series.
October 23, 2014
Another good Parker novel. As usual, a lot happens & Parker is perfectly Parker. The beginning of the book had me wondering as there's quite a glitch in the dates, but otherwise it hung together well. Good reader & the audio volume was a lot better on this one than the last I listened to. i can't wait for the library to get more of the series.
July 23, 2017
This is the ultimate "can't get a break" Parker novel. Two false starts and one heist that goes predictably wrong. Start -- or rather Westlake -- is also starting to show reactionary responses to modern art and the effeminate men involved with it. Hippies are a squirrely lot as well.
September 4, 2013
3 ½ stars. Pretty good. Not the best in the series but worth reading.
Interesting the way Parker has no normal social interaction with others. A married woman knocks on Parker’s motel door, hoping to get something going with Parker. He won’t even answer the door. And then he packs and leaves the job. He won’t be part of a group that includes a woman like her.
The ending action scene was good - how he got out of a bad situation where he was outnumbered. There were two other good scenes where Parker reacted to someone trying to kill him.
THE SERIES:
This is book 15 in the 24 book series. These stories are about bad guys. They rob. They kill. They’re smart. Most don’t go to jail. Parker is the main bad guy, a brilliant strategist. He partners with different guys for different jobs in each book.
If you are new to the series, I suggest reading the first three and then choose among the rest. A few should be read in order since characters continue in a sequel fashion. Those are listed below (with my star ratings). The rest can be read as stand alones.
The first three books in order:
4 stars. The Hunter (Point Blank movie with Lee Marvin 1967) (Payback movie with Mel Gibson)
3 ½ stars. The Man with the Getaway Face (The Steel Hit)
4 stars. The Outfit.
Read these two in order:
5 stars. Slayground (Bk #14)
5 stars. Butcher’s Moon (Bk #16)
Read these four in order:
4 ½ stars. The Sour Lemon Score (Bk #12)
2 ½ stars. Firebreak (Bk #20)
(not read) Nobody Runs Forever (Bk #22)
2 ½ stars. Dirty Money (Bk #24)
Others that I gave 4 or more stars to:
The Jugger (Bk #6), The Seventh (Bk#7), The Handle (Bk #8), Deadly Edge (Bk#13), Flashfire (Bk#19)
DATA:
Narrative mode: 3rd person. Kindle count length: 2,812 (283 KB) 198 pages. Swearing language: moderate including religious swear words. Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: two referred to with no details. Setting: around 1972 various U.S. locations. Book copyright: 1972. Genre: noir crime fiction.
Interesting the way Parker has no normal social interaction with others. A married woman knocks on Parker’s motel door, hoping to get something going with Parker. He won’t even answer the door. And then he packs and leaves the job. He won’t be part of a group that includes a woman like her.
The ending action scene was good - how he got out of a bad situation where he was outnumbered. There were two other good scenes where Parker reacted to someone trying to kill him.
THE SERIES:
This is book 15 in the 24 book series. These stories are about bad guys. They rob. They kill. They’re smart. Most don’t go to jail. Parker is the main bad guy, a brilliant strategist. He partners with different guys for different jobs in each book.
If you are new to the series, I suggest reading the first three and then choose among the rest. A few should be read in order since characters continue in a sequel fashion. Those are listed below (with my star ratings). The rest can be read as stand alones.
The first three books in order:
4 stars. The Hunter (Point Blank movie with Lee Marvin 1967) (Payback movie with Mel Gibson)
3 ½ stars. The Man with the Getaway Face (The Steel Hit)
4 stars. The Outfit.
Read these two in order:
5 stars. Slayground (Bk #14)
5 stars. Butcher’s Moon (Bk #16)
Read these four in order:
4 ½ stars. The Sour Lemon Score (Bk #12)
2 ½ stars. Firebreak (Bk #20)
(not read) Nobody Runs Forever (Bk #22)
2 ½ stars. Dirty Money (Bk #24)
Others that I gave 4 or more stars to:
The Jugger (Bk #6), The Seventh (Bk#7), The Handle (Bk #8), Deadly Edge (Bk#13), Flashfire (Bk#19)
DATA:
Narrative mode: 3rd person. Kindle count length: 2,812 (283 KB) 198 pages. Swearing language: moderate including religious swear words. Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: two referred to with no details. Setting: around 1972 various U.S. locations. Book copyright: 1972. Genre: noir crime fiction.
June 20, 2017
The fifteenth Parker book is "Plunder Squad" and it's about old friends making new appearances and Parker hitting a string of bad luck with jobs going sour in ways that would even surprise the most dedicated Parker reader. George Uhl from "The Sour Lemon Score" reappears and duels Parker. "Stan Devers" from "The Green Eagle Score," where Parker raided an airbase reappears.
One job goes sour and another is worth doing. It is filled with Parkerisms, such as when he spots Sharon in the meeting place and almost calls off the deal right there. She was drama and sexual tension and would create problems between the men. "She was a disaster area with a lid on it."
Parker, we are reminded can't be bothered with small talk. He just wants to get the job done. At a fancy cocktail party which he has been invited to so he can discuss a job with the host, Parker refuses to mingle. Instead, he asks for a quiet room where he can wait.
There is more than one job going on here, including two fabulous art heists. The story has lots of good Parker action, including shoot outs and takeovers and doublecrosses.
It is a good solid Parker story, although not as pointed and discrete as some of the others.
One job goes sour and another is worth doing. It is filled with Parkerisms, such as when he spots Sharon in the meeting place and almost calls off the deal right there. She was drama and sexual tension and would create problems between the men. "She was a disaster area with a lid on it."
Parker, we are reminded can't be bothered with small talk. He just wants to get the job done. At a fancy cocktail party which he has been invited to so he can discuss a job with the host, Parker refuses to mingle. Instead, he asks for a quiet room where he can wait.
There is more than one job going on here, including two fabulous art heists. The story has lots of good Parker action, including shoot outs and takeovers and doublecrosses.
It is a good solid Parker story, although not as pointed and discrete as some of the others.
September 20, 2020
Parker in the Bay Area? Woo hoo! He’s looking for work and he’s looking for George Uhl.
This almost reads like a Dortmunder book, with all of the things that go wrong in it. Except it's Parker, who doesn't have the good humored nature of Dortmunder. At all. The big art heist is the main gig in here, and it has one of my all-time favorite distractions, provided by Tommy and his girlfriend! Crazy original!
This book ends fairly upbruptly, so I'm excited to read the next one! Love me some Parker!
This almost reads like a Dortmunder book, with all of the things that go wrong in it. Except it's Parker, who doesn't have the good humored nature of Dortmunder. At all. The big art heist is the main gig in here, and it has one of my all-time favorite distractions, provided by Tommy and his girlfriend! Crazy original!
This book ends fairly upbruptly, so I'm excited to read the next one! Love me some Parker!
June 12, 2011
Bound: A Six Pack of Kickass
A Half Dozen More Heist Books from Richard Stark
SunPost Weekly August 5, 2010 | John Hood
http://bit.ly/doqxmv
Gotta luv the folks at University of Chicago Press. Not only have they decided to bring back Richard Stark’s belovedly badass Parker novels, but they’ve been doing so in sequence, with a niftily packed series that smacks back to the ’60s beginning and — Zeus-willing — won’t let up till its 21st century end.
The beginning, for those few who don’t know, was The Hunter (1962), which was reissued two years ago alongside the next eight in the long and lauded run. It was no happy accident that the initial nine reprints coincided with the author’s death. (Stark, nee Donald E. Westlake, died on New Year’s Eve 2008). What was a happy accident though, as John McNally so helpfully pointed out in a Summer ’09 Virginia Quarterly Review piece on Parker called “A Stark World”, is the series itself, which simply began as a way for Westlake to publish more books.
As Westlake told Charles L. P. Silet in a 1996 interview:
“[T]here’s always been a belief in publishing that [a publisher] can’t publish more than one book a year from any one author. So I thought it would be interesting to have a pen name… to aim for a paperback original this time. So I did this book with the assumption that the bad guy has to get caught at the end . . . I sent [The Hunter] to Bucklin Moon at Pocket Books, who said, ‘I like this book and I like this character. Is there any way you could change the book so that he would escape at the end and then you could give me three books a year about him.’ And I said, ‘I think so.’”
Within two years Westlake, writing as Stark, would have three Parker novels in the pulp paperback racks. And by the time he was finished there’d be a total of twenty three. And while 23 books in 46 years might not sound like a whole helluva lot, remember Westlake was writing Parker as a sideline, and in addition to his Dortmunder series of capers (14 novels, beginning with 1970′s The Hot Rock), he left behind over 100 novels.
But we’re here to talk about Parker, the stoic, merciless, heist man. And it is Parker to whom pulpdom owes its love of bad guy heroes.
Or anti-heroes. Okay, so Jim Thompson did that bad-guy-as-hero thing before Westlake (or Stark) or anyone else. But as McNally also points out, though Thompson”took darkness to new depths, [he] used humor to offset the bleakness surrounding his characters’ lives.”
Not so Parker. In fact if there’s one instance where the man even smiles, I don’t remember it. And laugh? Forget about it. Though some of the hurdles he and his “string” have to heave over during the course of their various heists would be incredibly comic if they weren’t so damn absurd.
Then again when the heists are as daring as those Parker and his crew undertake, absurdity is pretty much a given.
Take The Seventh (1966) and its robbing of a college football game’s game day take. Or take The Handle (’66) and its knocking off of an entire island casino. Or take The Score (’64), where he and his endeavor to rob an entire town. Each begins as a brilliant plan. And each descends into a whirlwind of violence and vengeance. And through them all, Parker remains, resolute and ever ready to do whatever is required, without a hint of hesitation.
The six-pack of kickass that most recently racked consists of The Green Eagle Score (’67), The Black Ice Score (’68) and The Sour Lemon Score (’69), as well as Deadly Edge (’71), Slayground (’71) and Plunder Squad (’72). As you might suspect from their titles, the first three are pretty much straightforwardly crooked heist stories (the targets are, respectively, an Air Force base, an African nation’s treasures, and a bank). But not one heist goes off the way they were intended, and Parker is left to pick up — and often eliminate — the pieces.
Deadly Edge, too, is a heist story, and the rock concert Parker and company knock off gives it a decidedly different beat. In Plunder Squad Parker goes head-to-head with a former accomplice who soured things in The Sour Lemon Score and it’s got the giddy undercurrent of payback written right through it. Slayground, in contrast, finds Parker caught in an amusement park after knocking off an armored car, and the mobsters and cops who want what he’s got never get know what hits them, even as it — and him — stares them down in the face.
Any one of the above is a worthy romp through a remarkably different America, when crime was crime and criminals took some pride in its commission. And any one of the above will leave you itchy for more. Best though would be to begin at the beginning with The Hunter, so you can see just how circumstances created the man Parker would come to be. But whether you decide to hop on at the beginning, in the middle or at the end, you’re gonnawanna hold on. Because the Parker series doesn’t come with seat belts or safety nets, and it’s very easy to be thrown from this kinda wild ride.
BTW: If you dig this series — and you will, trust me — Hard Case Crime also has a buncha Stark/Westlake titles to choose from, including Lemons Never Lie (with Parker’s occasional sidekick, Alan Grofield) and The Cutie (Westlake’s debut, which was originally published as The Mercenaries).
A Half Dozen More Heist Books from Richard Stark
SunPost Weekly August 5, 2010 | John Hood
http://bit.ly/doqxmv
Gotta luv the folks at University of Chicago Press. Not only have they decided to bring back Richard Stark’s belovedly badass Parker novels, but they’ve been doing so in sequence, with a niftily packed series that smacks back to the ’60s beginning and — Zeus-willing — won’t let up till its 21st century end.
The beginning, for those few who don’t know, was The Hunter (1962), which was reissued two years ago alongside the next eight in the long and lauded run. It was no happy accident that the initial nine reprints coincided with the author’s death. (Stark, nee Donald E. Westlake, died on New Year’s Eve 2008). What was a happy accident though, as John McNally so helpfully pointed out in a Summer ’09 Virginia Quarterly Review piece on Parker called “A Stark World”, is the series itself, which simply began as a way for Westlake to publish more books.
As Westlake told Charles L. P. Silet in a 1996 interview:
“[T]here’s always been a belief in publishing that [a publisher] can’t publish more than one book a year from any one author. So I thought it would be interesting to have a pen name… to aim for a paperback original this time. So I did this book with the assumption that the bad guy has to get caught at the end . . . I sent [The Hunter] to Bucklin Moon at Pocket Books, who said, ‘I like this book and I like this character. Is there any way you could change the book so that he would escape at the end and then you could give me three books a year about him.’ And I said, ‘I think so.’”
Within two years Westlake, writing as Stark, would have three Parker novels in the pulp paperback racks. And by the time he was finished there’d be a total of twenty three. And while 23 books in 46 years might not sound like a whole helluva lot, remember Westlake was writing Parker as a sideline, and in addition to his Dortmunder series of capers (14 novels, beginning with 1970′s The Hot Rock), he left behind over 100 novels.
But we’re here to talk about Parker, the stoic, merciless, heist man. And it is Parker to whom pulpdom owes its love of bad guy heroes.
Or anti-heroes. Okay, so Jim Thompson did that bad-guy-as-hero thing before Westlake (or Stark) or anyone else. But as McNally also points out, though Thompson”took darkness to new depths, [he] used humor to offset the bleakness surrounding his characters’ lives.”
Not so Parker. In fact if there’s one instance where the man even smiles, I don’t remember it. And laugh? Forget about it. Though some of the hurdles he and his “string” have to heave over during the course of their various heists would be incredibly comic if they weren’t so damn absurd.
Then again when the heists are as daring as those Parker and his crew undertake, absurdity is pretty much a given.
Take The Seventh (1966) and its robbing of a college football game’s game day take. Or take The Handle (’66) and its knocking off of an entire island casino. Or take The Score (’64), where he and his endeavor to rob an entire town. Each begins as a brilliant plan. And each descends into a whirlwind of violence and vengeance. And through them all, Parker remains, resolute and ever ready to do whatever is required, without a hint of hesitation.
The six-pack of kickass that most recently racked consists of The Green Eagle Score (’67), The Black Ice Score (’68) and The Sour Lemon Score (’69), as well as Deadly Edge (’71), Slayground (’71) and Plunder Squad (’72). As you might suspect from their titles, the first three are pretty much straightforwardly crooked heist stories (the targets are, respectively, an Air Force base, an African nation’s treasures, and a bank). But not one heist goes off the way they were intended, and Parker is left to pick up — and often eliminate — the pieces.
Deadly Edge, too, is a heist story, and the rock concert Parker and company knock off gives it a decidedly different beat. In Plunder Squad Parker goes head-to-head with a former accomplice who soured things in The Sour Lemon Score and it’s got the giddy undercurrent of payback written right through it. Slayground, in contrast, finds Parker caught in an amusement park after knocking off an armored car, and the mobsters and cops who want what he’s got never get know what hits them, even as it — and him — stares them down in the face.
Any one of the above is a worthy romp through a remarkably different America, when crime was crime and criminals took some pride in its commission. And any one of the above will leave you itchy for more. Best though would be to begin at the beginning with The Hunter, so you can see just how circumstances created the man Parker would come to be. But whether you decide to hop on at the beginning, in the middle or at the end, you’re gonnawanna hold on. Because the Parker series doesn’t come with seat belts or safety nets, and it’s very easy to be thrown from this kinda wild ride.
BTW: If you dig this series — and you will, trust me — Hard Case Crime also has a buncha Stark/Westlake titles to choose from, including Lemons Never Lie (with Parker’s occasional sidekick, Alan Grofield) and The Cutie (Westlake’s debut, which was originally published as The Mercenaries).
March 14, 2019
The third times the charm? A heist plan is interrupted by an old enemy of Parker's. A second heist is ruined by the green-eyed monster called Jealousy. And the third heist is put on hold for a short time. We finally learn the outcome between George Uhl (The Sour Lemon Score) and Parker. Parker refuses to make the same mistake twice? And Devers from The Green Eagle Score makes an appearance. What does Parker have to do with Joe Gores' private detective Dan Kearny's search for a Dead Skip?
May 31, 2018
This is a long running series with the main character a tough criminal with a very tight code of honor. Always good tight stories.
July 21, 2016
One of the longer of the original 16 Parker books, this book weaves two smaller stories together: one in which Parker tries to correct a past mistake and kill George Uhl (from The Sour Lemon Score); and another in which we see Stan Devers (from The Green Eagle Score) join the string for a great heist story involving a truck full of paintings. I like that Richard Stark is pulling threads from previous books and taking care of loose ends (in George Uhl's case, anyway). Parker has a bad streak going, his cash reserves are low, and robbing a truck full of paintings might be the answer to his problems.
But we know better, right?
But we know better, right?
October 24, 2011
After taking a kind of vacation in Slayground, Parker gets back to work in Plunder Squad, and it is, as always, the kind of book that Starklake does best: a slice of life from the career thief. Whereas Slayground was a set piece, Plunder Squad is tangle of events from the ongoing story of Parker's criminal career. And it is, as well, the clearest evidence you could want that Parker is a pure sociopath: Any sane person would work in a McDonald's rather than deal with Parker's problems.
August 16, 2013
Classic Parker. Lucky to escape with his life from this heist. But if I were him, I would start to consider another career path given his on-going lack of success on the dark side of the pursuit of earning a living.
June 30, 2020
Excellent as always by Donald Westlake, aka Richard Stark. It's a short book and a quick read. I finished it in one day when I also played golf and mowed the yard. It seems Parker is having a run of bad luck. The first two jobs in this book fall apart before they even get started. The third one seems to be working out until it doesn't and along the way Parker has to take care of someone he should have taken care of a long time ago.
It seemed to make sense to read the first few books of this series in order, but after that it doesn't seem too important.
It seemed to make sense to read the first few books of this series in order, but after that it doesn't seem too important.
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