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Parker #13
Deadly Edge
Deadly Edge bids a brutal adieu to the 1960s as Parker robs a rock concert, and the heist goes south. Soon Parker finds himself—and his woman, Claire—menaced by a pair of sadistic, drug-crazed hippies. Parker has a score to settle while Claire’s armed with her first rifle—and they’re both ready to usher in the end of the Age of Aquarius.
214 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
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November 11, 2016
While Parker is off robbing the proceeds of a rock concert his girlfriend Claire has found them a quiet home near a lake. Parker may be a profesional thief and a stone cold killer when necessary, but even he has to bow to this simple truth: If the woman in your life decides that the time has come to buy a house then you might as well pick up your pen and get ready to sign the mortgage paperwork.
Before Claire can even get Parker to organize the garage or mow the lawn for the first time he gets a disturbing phone call. One of the guys from the robbery crew he just worked with is desperately trying to get in touch with him. Sensing trouble Parker leaves his new domestic bliss to find that someone is torturing and killing the guys he just worked with, and they're working their way towards him.
Any fears I had that Claire was making Parker soft are dispelled here. While Claire is one of the few people who can stand up to Parker without getting pistol whipped, and Parker is still as merciless and unemotional as he needs to be when going against some murderous punks. Richard Nixon probably would have appreciated Parker’s method of dealing with damn dirty hippies.
This volume also features an introduction from Hard Case Crime founder Charles Ardai, and he makes the interesting point that Stark (a/k/a Westlake) managed to take the same basic premise of Parker planning and committing a robbery and spin it off in a variety of different ways. This one is great twist on that central idea, and it’s another top notch Parker novel.
Before Claire can even get Parker to organize the garage or mow the lawn for the first time he gets a disturbing phone call. One of the guys from the robbery crew he just worked with is desperately trying to get in touch with him. Sensing trouble Parker leaves his new domestic bliss to find that someone is torturing and killing the guys he just worked with, and they're working their way towards him.
Any fears I had that Claire was making Parker soft are dispelled here. While Claire is one of the few people who can stand up to Parker without getting pistol whipped, and Parker is still as merciless and unemotional as he needs to be when going against some murderous punks. Richard Nixon probably would have appreciated Parker’s method of dealing with damn dirty hippies.
This volume also features an introduction from Hard Case Crime founder Charles Ardai, and he makes the interesting point that Stark (a/k/a Westlake) managed to take the same basic premise of Parker planning and committing a robbery and spin it off in a variety of different ways. This one is great twist on that central idea, and it’s another top notch Parker novel.
January 30, 2021
“That was the edge that Parker had. He knew that survival was more important than heroics.”
This is one of the top books in the Parker series, and experts say it is in the top 4-5. It might be my favorite so far. Halfway through the 24 books, a change occurs in the Parker books, and it happens here. Well, each book has explored different formal concerns, but in this one, things get darker, harder. Deadlier. The books all include standard heist features; there’s the planning, the execution, double-crosses, and a resolution generally in Parker’s favor.
Okay, for starters, over time, Stark/Parker saw that it was important for his stability to have “a woman,” a single, stable relationship—Enter Claire, but don’t get her too involved, was the idea. Just enough stability to humanize him a tad, and make for the possibility of catharsis in each book. We don’t want Parker to be too softened by this woman’s influence; we don’t need to know too much about her. So Stark/Parker now, even in the middle of planning a job, thinks briefly of her, calls her; she’s buying a home for them! How sweet!
This one features Parker and a group robbing a large venue rock club, almost ploddingly describing the successful heist, detail after detail, but this is just a set-up for the crazy action to follow. The heist goes off without a hitch; Parker visits the new home Claire has bought for them, la la la, but then things fall apart, and more than any other book in the series, things get darker, really brutal. Thus the title. The brutal part of this book involves two guys who want more of the take than their share, natch. And then Handy, Parker’s former partner, makes the mistake of giving out Parker's new home’s phone number, so Claire is—for at least the second time in the Parker books, in jeopardy. Two guys “visit” her new home, and they are very unpredictable. The resolution is all the more satisfying because there is some real fear involved in this one.
You want to know how to pull off a heist? Stark makes it clear you hire a number of trusted specialists. You need a professional level driver, you need an electrician (or some tradesman that is appropriate to the job), and Parker, so coolly unemotional before and after a job, is the person who gets to be the point person speaking to the various people affected by the heist; in this case cashiers, doormen, all of whom Parker gets to know by first name, keeping them calm. It is no advantage in a robbery to kill people, so you need to talk to people and make it clear what is going on and what is needed. Clarity, efficiency, low emotion; Parker is a kind of Calvinist in his adherence to principles.
There’s some principles for how to handle being robbed, too, in case you’re interested: Stay calm and be as cooperative as possible and you will increase your chances of emerging unhurt. Don’t be a hero; don’t fight it when you are being tied up and gagged, because someone will eventually come and release you. In every book Stark/Parker teaches these lessons.
One interesting aspect of this book: When Stark began this series, it was all jazz and Scotch, and now it’s a time of rock and drugs. August 1969 was the time Charles Manson and his “girls” murdered Sharon Tate and others. “Murdering drug-crazed hippies,” was a common description. In this book we have two murderers in bell bottoms, into rock, and one takes some hard drugs, maybe acid or stp. Is this harsh view of these two killers Stark’s commentary on the sixties? Maybe. Stark prefers cocktails and jazz and his women in dressing gowns at dinner to drugs and psychedelic shirts and rock.
I am going to give this four stars, but when I am done with the series will five-star my favorite books; I suspect this may well be among them.
This is one of the top books in the Parker series, and experts say it is in the top 4-5. It might be my favorite so far. Halfway through the 24 books, a change occurs in the Parker books, and it happens here. Well, each book has explored different formal concerns, but in this one, things get darker, harder. Deadlier. The books all include standard heist features; there’s the planning, the execution, double-crosses, and a resolution generally in Parker’s favor.
Okay, for starters, over time, Stark/Parker saw that it was important for his stability to have “a woman,” a single, stable relationship—Enter Claire, but don’t get her too involved, was the idea. Just enough stability to humanize him a tad, and make for the possibility of catharsis in each book. We don’t want Parker to be too softened by this woman’s influence; we don’t need to know too much about her. So Stark/Parker now, even in the middle of planning a job, thinks briefly of her, calls her; she’s buying a home for them! How sweet!
This one features Parker and a group robbing a large venue rock club, almost ploddingly describing the successful heist, detail after detail, but this is just a set-up for the crazy action to follow. The heist goes off without a hitch; Parker visits the new home Claire has bought for them, la la la, but then things fall apart, and more than any other book in the series, things get darker, really brutal. Thus the title. The brutal part of this book involves two guys who want more of the take than their share, natch. And then Handy, Parker’s former partner, makes the mistake of giving out Parker's new home’s phone number, so Claire is—for at least the second time in the Parker books, in jeopardy. Two guys “visit” her new home, and they are very unpredictable. The resolution is all the more satisfying because there is some real fear involved in this one.
You want to know how to pull off a heist? Stark makes it clear you hire a number of trusted specialists. You need a professional level driver, you need an electrician (or some tradesman that is appropriate to the job), and Parker, so coolly unemotional before and after a job, is the person who gets to be the point person speaking to the various people affected by the heist; in this case cashiers, doormen, all of whom Parker gets to know by first name, keeping them calm. It is no advantage in a robbery to kill people, so you need to talk to people and make it clear what is going on and what is needed. Clarity, efficiency, low emotion; Parker is a kind of Calvinist in his adherence to principles.
There’s some principles for how to handle being robbed, too, in case you’re interested: Stay calm and be as cooperative as possible and you will increase your chances of emerging unhurt. Don’t be a hero; don’t fight it when you are being tied up and gagged, because someone will eventually come and release you. In every book Stark/Parker teaches these lessons.
One interesting aspect of this book: When Stark began this series, it was all jazz and Scotch, and now it’s a time of rock and drugs. August 1969 was the time Charles Manson and his “girls” murdered Sharon Tate and others. “Murdering drug-crazed hippies,” was a common description. In this book we have two murderers in bell bottoms, into rock, and one takes some hard drugs, maybe acid or stp. Is this harsh view of these two killers Stark’s commentary on the sixties? Maybe. Stark prefers cocktails and jazz and his women in dressing gowns at dinner to drugs and psychedelic shirts and rock.
I am going to give this four stars, but when I am done with the series will five-star my favorite books; I suspect this may well be among them.
July 25, 2023
This one stands out as particularly twisted and suspenseful, with some time well spent in the narrative focused on girlfriend Claire and her chilling run-in with a deranged hophead. As always, Stark/Westlake expertly balances Parker's personality on a razor's edge. On the one hand a completely ruthless bastard (especially when it comes to business), and on the other, buried way the hell deep down there's a nugget of something that might just be called compassion, especially when it comes to Claire. So interesting to see their relationship develop in the most odd and unconventional of ways. She clearly gets a thrill being in a relationship shrouded in mystery and secrets. And he gets something out of it apparently as well, though what that is I couldn't say. A vague sense of normalcy perhaps?
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December 2, 2021
Crime fiction with a violent edge, anyone? Deadly Edge fits the bill.
And to think, this Parker novel, #13 of 24 in the series, starts off with a heist both successful and clean (no bloodshed) at a rock concert that's the final show in the old Civic Auditorium in an unnamed city, a success thanks to mastermind Parker and three capable professionals Parker has working with him.
The novel's Part One is devoted entirely to the heist, beginning with Parker, Keegan and Briley up on the roof, taking turns with an ax, chopping away to create a hole large enough for the boys to drop though. Meanwhile, young Morris sits by the roof's edge and keeps lookout. They know where to chop to avoid electrical cables since they're working from a blueprint of the auditorium they bought from a guy on the inside.
Parker and company also know the layout of the rooms and the position of the security guards (always much better to work from a detailed plan). Donald E. Westlake writing as Richard Stark underscores this point by noting most of John Dillinger's jobs back in the years of the Great Depression had been done that way.
Once inside, Parker effectively speaks to and deals with all the individuals he encounters: a security guard by the name of Patrick Dockery (Parker knows it's always best to address people by their first name and in a calm, relaxed voice), a critically positioned accountant and then three armed guards and four clerks in the cash room, making sure everyone does exactly what he tells them to do without the need to resort to violence (professional that he is, Parker also knows not to allow murder to become the easy answer).
Parker remains keenly aware for any possible unforeseen screw ups, particularly since old man Berridge experienced a case of nerves and pulled out. Parker would ordinarily let a job go rather than change things at the last minute, in this case, modify the plan to fit four men rather than five, but the rock concert was simply too tempting - no advanced ticket sales, all seats payed for in cash at the door.
Through each and every step, both crime fiction aficionados and readers new to the genre can better appreciate all the expertise needed to pull off such a complex caper, things like Parker's organizational skills and Keegan's background in electronics.
The boys complete the robbery clean and easy from beginning to end. When they reach the apartment hideout, they get ready to sit around a table to split all the green. But then the shock: Briley beckons Parker to the bathroom. "Berridge was lying on his back on the floor. The side of his head had been punched in, and a plumber's wrench with the end bloody and hair-matted was lying on the floor between the body and the toilet."
Who would do such a thing? And, why? Parker and the other men are baffled.
Deadly Edge delves into territories dark, twisted and forbidding. As author/critic/lifelong Westlake fan Charles Ardai observes, “Parker occupies a world of constant threat, where style counts for nothing.”
What gives Parker the edge? As Stark writes toward the end of the novel, “That was the edge Parker had, he knew that survival was more important than heroics. It isn’t how you play the game, it’s whether you win or lose.”
As stated above, Deadly Edge is violence with edge. I'll conclude with a taste of how violent:
"Keegan was nailed to the wall. His naked body had been cigarette burned and scratched with a knife-tip, but it was probably the bleeding around the nails in his forearms that had killed him. He looked shriveled and small hanging there, his feet crumpled against the floor beneath him."
American author Donald E. Westlake, 1933-2008
April 9, 2025
3.5 stars
"[Parker] knew that survival was more important than heroics. It isn't how you play the game, it's whether you win or lose." -- Parker keeping his wits about him in a dire situation, on page 189
Author Stark's long-running 'Parker' series moves into the 1970's with the noticeably more violent and sadistic Deadly Edge. Unfortunately, the opening chapter - running an unusually lengthy 46 pages (!) - makes a strategic error of sorts, with its opening heist (Parker and his thieving trio of accomplices execute a burglary / robbery to rip off the box office dollars during a concert) being just too drawn-out or padded to the point of tedium, in addition to Parker seeming more than a bit out of previous character with his antagonistic manner towards the encountered victims. The pacing gets better once a pair of crazed killers come gunning for our antiheroic lead character - as they'd like to alleviate him of his five-figure haul from the crime - and it quickly becomes a lethal cat-and-mouse scenario during a dark night at a secluded lakeside cottage. Not my favorite of this often dependable series, but the latter half soon develops a nicely sustained momentum of suspense.
"[Parker] knew that survival was more important than heroics. It isn't how you play the game, it's whether you win or lose." -- Parker keeping his wits about him in a dire situation, on page 189
Author Stark's long-running 'Parker' series moves into the 1970's with the noticeably more violent and sadistic Deadly Edge. Unfortunately, the opening chapter - running an unusually lengthy 46 pages (!) - makes a strategic error of sorts, with its opening heist (Parker and his thieving trio of accomplices execute a burglary / robbery to rip off the box office dollars during a concert) being just too drawn-out or padded to the point of tedium, in addition to Parker seeming more than a bit out of previous character with his antagonistic manner towards the encountered victims. The pacing gets better once a pair of crazed killers come gunning for our antiheroic lead character - as they'd like to alleviate him of his five-figure haul from the crime - and it quickly becomes a lethal cat-and-mouse scenario during a dark night at a secluded lakeside cottage. Not my favorite of this often dependable series, but the latter half soon develops a nicely sustained momentum of suspense.
June 15, 2011
Parker and three other crooks steal the take from an arena rock concert. Soon afterwords, persons unknown begin killing the people involved in the caper. Can Parker stop them before he, or Claire, becomes another victim?
Deadly Edge was one of the best Parkers yet. While the heist was well written, as always, it was the cat and mouse game with Parker and his cronies that sold the story. Without spoiling too much, the penultimate confrontation in the dark near the end was intense! The villains were a little too close to reality, drug-addled psychopaths that they were. Claire rose in my esteem and was more than just a way to get at Parker, as she was in the Black Ice Score. As always Parker is Parker, the consummate professional.
Parker keeps rolling right along. If you liked the previous volumes, you'll be getting this no matter how I rate it. If you only get three or four Parker books, this would be one of the must-gets.
Deadly Edge was one of the best Parkers yet. While the heist was well written, as always, it was the cat and mouse game with Parker and his cronies that sold the story. Without spoiling too much, the penultimate confrontation in the dark near the end was intense! The villains were a little too close to reality, drug-addled psychopaths that they were. Claire rose in my esteem and was more than just a way to get at Parker, as she was in the Black Ice Score. As always Parker is Parker, the consummate professional.
Parker keeps rolling right along. If you liked the previous volumes, you'll be getting this no matter how I rate it. If you only get three or four Parker books, this would be one of the must-gets.
August 20, 2011
Sadistic hippies whacked out on LSD versus Parker? Yes, please!
Do you know those episode of "Dragnet" with Blue Boy, the acid fried freak? Parker's up against two of him, but a Blue Boy who wouldn't mind nailing a person to the wall and torturing them to death with a lit cigarette. Fucking Hippies!!!
On paper, or by reading what the novel was about, I thought this would be one of my favorites, and in theory it is, but somewhere along the way I admitted to myself that this book wasn't bad, but it wasn't awesome either...
(break to help customers)...
I think this book would have been better if there had been more hippies and more killing of hippies. Like Parker and his buddies decide to rob a big outdoor rock festival in the Catskills. The heist goes off without a hitch until the wheelman in Parker's crew runs over some dirty hippie's dog (the dog actually committed suicide, no longer wanting to live in the back of a microbus with unwashed stoners). The hippies collectively get all angry, and think that the wheelman was acting 'very, uncool, man...' and the only way Parker can get the himself and the money to safety is to use a Gatling gun to mow down hippies and cut a path to freedom for him and his partners. I'd call it something like, Bloodstock.
Maybe, I shouldn't have said anything and made this the 2011 Novel-writing-Month novel I'd write. But I probably would have forgotten about this idea by the time November 1st rolls around.
Do you know those episode of "Dragnet" with Blue Boy, the acid fried freak? Parker's up against two of him, but a Blue Boy who wouldn't mind nailing a person to the wall and torturing them to death with a lit cigarette. Fucking Hippies!!!
On paper, or by reading what the novel was about, I thought this would be one of my favorites, and in theory it is, but somewhere along the way I admitted to myself that this book wasn't bad, but it wasn't awesome either...
(break to help customers)...
I think this book would have been better if there had been more hippies and more killing of hippies. Like Parker and his buddies decide to rob a big outdoor rock festival in the Catskills. The heist goes off without a hitch until the wheelman in Parker's crew runs over some dirty hippie's dog (the dog actually committed suicide, no longer wanting to live in the back of a microbus with unwashed stoners). The hippies collectively get all angry, and think that the wheelman was acting 'very, uncool, man...' and the only way Parker can get the himself and the money to safety is to use a Gatling gun to mow down hippies and cut a path to freedom for him and his partners. I'd call it something like, Bloodstock.
Maybe, I shouldn't have said anything and made this the 2011 Novel-writing-Month novel I'd write. But I probably would have forgotten about this idea by the time November 1st rolls around.
July 24, 2021
A post-robbery kill or be killed situation engulfs our favorite antihero, and there's gonna be hell to pay for anyone not named.......Parker!!!
3 1/2 Suspense Soaked Stars.
3 1/2 Suspense Soaked Stars.
October 23, 2014
Downloaded from my local library. It starts off with a 10 minute intro by Charles Ardai. I quit listening when Ardai started talking about Slayground & Plunder Squad, books 14 & 15 in this series.
THIS IS BOOK 13!!! I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT BOOKS LATER IN THE SERIES!!!
Sorry, but I seriously want to tattoo the above on the narrow little chests of all publishers. Ardai is well known in the industry & I'm sure he did a bang up job, but I don't like spoilers. In a series like this, I won't even read the blurb since they often give critical points away.
It's the Parker series & there are 24 books. Parker isn't going to die, will likely come out on top, & it is a series about a thief. Options are severely limited from this point on. A point all the introductions say at the start is how amazing it is that Stark managed to keep it fresh. I'd like to keep all the freshness & mystery these thrillers can deliver.
Is that too much to ask?
Apparently.
/rant
As usual, the story starts off in a captivating manner & gets typically twisty, the way only a Parker novel can. He's such a straight character. Seems to have no imagination, always efficient, almost robotic in nature. But like a machine, he just keeps on coming. Wow! That's what makes these so good.
THIS IS BOOK 13!!! I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT BOOKS LATER IN THE SERIES!!!
Sorry, but I seriously want to tattoo the above on the narrow little chests of all publishers. Ardai is well known in the industry & I'm sure he did a bang up job, but I don't like spoilers. In a series like this, I won't even read the blurb since they often give critical points away.
It's the Parker series & there are 24 books. Parker isn't going to die, will likely come out on top, & it is a series about a thief. Options are severely limited from this point on. A point all the introductions say at the start is how amazing it is that Stark managed to keep it fresh. I'd like to keep all the freshness & mystery these thrillers can deliver.
Is that too much to ask?
Apparently.
/rant
As usual, the story starts off in a captivating manner & gets typically twisty, the way only a Parker novel can. He's such a straight character. Seems to have no imagination, always efficient, almost robotic in nature. But like a machine, he just keeps on coming. Wow! That's what makes these so good.
November 11, 2016
I love this series. Parker is perfect in this darker story. He leads the robbery of a rock concert's proceeds here......the clockwork description made me feel I was a part of the crime. The aftermath brings the big challenge for Parker since someone is hunting the successful team after they split. Fantastic read.
August 23, 2018
Really slow start, with the first fifty pages or so describing the heist with so much detail it is downright boring: chopping through the various roofing materials of a concert arena and corralling the guards and collectors to steal the proceeds from the very last performance. Then, two killers come out of nowhere and start picking off the heist gang, with an expectation that the take should be much larger, causing them to torture. One has all the brains while the other is strung out on LSD. Eventually, they come after Parker via Claire, who has settled into a home and won't leave despite the looming danger. The final showdown is the best part.
January 24, 2023
Westlake was legendary and seemed to get better as time passed. A good installment in the series and concise at just under 4 hrs on Audible.
June 11, 2011
This is another of Richard Stark's (Donald Westlake's) Parker series that has been out of print and unavailable for a good number of years. Happily, the University of Chicago Press has recently published a new edition of the book with an introduction by Charles Ardai, the man behind the Hard Case Crime series.
The basic framework of the novel will be familiar to most fans of the series. Parker and a crew of men execute a carefully planned heist, in this case at a rock concert. Then, almost immediately, things go awry and Parker has to spend the rest of the book extricating himself from the resulting jam, hoping to get away with both his life and his share of the loot. As always, it's great fun to watch Parker at work both on the caper and in the aftermath.
At this point in the series, Parker is settling into a relationship with Claire, the woman he met a few books earlier in The Rare Coin Score. After living in hotels, Claire has found a house for them to share, which she hopes will be a haven for Parker between jobs. This is important to her, less so to him. Parker "didn't think about houses, they had as much to do with his life as apple trees." But Claire is important to him and so he feigns more enthusiasm than he actually feels.
This book is unique in the series, because a good portion of it is told from Claire's perspective. But it's an interesting approach, and given the importance that Claire assumes in Parker's life and, thus, in the series, it's nice to have this more complete introduction to her character.
A number of fans of this series have been extremely frustrated through the years because these books have been impossible to find. But with the books published by the University of Chicago Press over the last couple of years, the entire series is at long last available again. All of Parker's (and Richard Stark's) fans are enormously grateful.
The basic framework of the novel will be familiar to most fans of the series. Parker and a crew of men execute a carefully planned heist, in this case at a rock concert. Then, almost immediately, things go awry and Parker has to spend the rest of the book extricating himself from the resulting jam, hoping to get away with both his life and his share of the loot. As always, it's great fun to watch Parker at work both on the caper and in the aftermath.
At this point in the series, Parker is settling into a relationship with Claire, the woman he met a few books earlier in The Rare Coin Score. After living in hotels, Claire has found a house for them to share, which she hopes will be a haven for Parker between jobs. This is important to her, less so to him. Parker "didn't think about houses, they had as much to do with his life as apple trees." But Claire is important to him and so he feigns more enthusiasm than he actually feels.
This book is unique in the series, because a good portion of it is told from Claire's perspective. But it's an interesting approach, and given the importance that Claire assumes in Parker's life and, thus, in the series, it's nice to have this more complete introduction to her character.
A number of fans of this series have been extremely frustrated through the years because these books have been impossible to find. But with the books published by the University of Chicago Press over the last couple of years, the entire series is at long last available again. All of Parker's (and Richard Stark's) fans are enormously grateful.
October 12, 2022
Stark's writing style mirrors Parker's personality: severe, no-nonsense, and methodical. The heist was a ripsnorter, but my favorite part was the pitch-black Mexican standoff.
I already knew that the Nylon 66 might be good for plinking and a little varminting, but it's not enough gun for murderous acidheads.
I already knew that the Nylon 66 might be good for plinking and a little varminting, but it's not enough gun for murderous acidheads.
May 3, 2024
That was the edge Parker had; he knew that survival was more important than heroics. It isn’t how you play the game, it’s whether you win or lose."
Think Charles Manson meets Charles Bronson. A solid Parker novel that starts post heist. First 8 Parker novel follow a roughly similar format. Next 4 were his “score” novels. This is the first of the next 4 where Stark reinvents (maybe reinvents is too much) the Parker novels before Stark (Donald E Westlake) took a 29 year vacation from Parker. Anyway, this novel has Parker on catch-up and defense for most of the book as he chases down an adversary that doesn't operate logically.
Think Charles Manson meets Charles Bronson. A solid Parker novel that starts post heist. First 8 Parker novel follow a roughly similar format. Next 4 were his “score” novels. This is the first of the next 4 where Stark reinvents (maybe reinvents is too much) the Parker novels before Stark (Donald E Westlake) took a 29 year vacation from Parker. Anyway, this novel has Parker on catch-up and defense for most of the book as he chases down an adversary that doesn't operate logically.
April 27, 2018
“Up here, the music was just a throbbing under the feet, a distant pulse.”
January 30, 2024
From 1971
Somehow reading about Parker and his team executing a robbery is extremely satisfying, even if, like me, you are totally against such behavior. Things don't always go so well, as I suppose they wouldn't, doing crime, and Parker has to go find the money,, and or the bad guys. ... He has had a girlfriend, Claire, since The Rare Coin Score, and in the last couple books her perspective is shown.
Somehow reading about Parker and his team executing a robbery is extremely satisfying, even if, like me, you are totally against such behavior. Things don't always go so well, as I suppose they wouldn't, doing crime, and Parker has to go find the money,, and or the bad guys. ... He has had a girlfriend, Claire, since The Rare Coin Score, and in the last couple books her perspective is shown.
January 15, 2024
“:a full house, all cash sales, no advance sales.”
That’s Part One, the first fifty pages. And they are successful! But after, someone starts killing them, one by one. And that someone(s) finds out, the hard way, that when it comes to Parker, you never, ever, ever mess with Claire. Ever.
“That was the edge Parker had; he knew that survival was more important than heroics. It isn’t how you play the game, it’s whether you win or lose.”
That’s Part One, the first fifty pages. And they are successful! But after, someone starts killing them, one by one. And that someone(s) finds out, the hard way, that when it comes to Parker, you never, ever, ever mess with Claire. Ever.
“That was the edge Parker had; he knew that survival was more important than heroics. It isn’t how you play the game, it’s whether you win or lose.”
August 12, 2022
The book is nearly perfect. Every metaphor in it IS perfect.
May 17, 2018
Quote;
Parker stood and watched, his hands dangling loose at his sides. When in motion, he looked tough and determined and fast, but when waiting, when at rest, he looked inert and lifeless.
Parker and his crew knock off a rock concert and make off with proceeds from ticket sales. All goes well until Parker's cohorts start turning up, tortured and murdered. Parker, fearing Claire may become a victim of the unknown maniacs killing his side-kicks, tries to discover who these apparent homicidal madmen are before they attack him through Claire.
Parker and Claire have now been living together for the 3-4 years, since the 'Rare Coin Score' and it's an unusual relationship they have, particularly for Parker, who's not used to being with the same woman for longer than the short period of time following a heist, as has been his usual pattern. Being a socio-path, Parker is not used to empathising with anyone and seems stymied when it comes to his relationship with Claire. He still can't empathise, even with Claire, but knowing emotions are occasionally expected by Claire, Parker fakes them when necessary.
Quote;
She straightened from the fireplace and stood looking at him, wiping her hands together. “Is it finished?”
“They won't be back,” he said. There were no lamps lit in the room, only the fire for illumination; it made Parker think of candlelight, and the muscles in his back tensed. He thought of switching on the lights, but he knew she'd done this for the romantic effect, and he didn't want to spoil it for her. It was easier for him to get over things than for her.
Parker is my favourite non-hero and Stark/Westlake is in my top five writers, not only for his Parker series but also his incredibly original stand-alone novels.
Parker stood and watched, his hands dangling loose at his sides. When in motion, he looked tough and determined and fast, but when waiting, when at rest, he looked inert and lifeless.
Parker and his crew knock off a rock concert and make off with proceeds from ticket sales. All goes well until Parker's cohorts start turning up, tortured and murdered. Parker, fearing Claire may become a victim of the unknown maniacs killing his side-kicks, tries to discover who these apparent homicidal madmen are before they attack him through Claire.
Parker and Claire have now been living together for the 3-4 years, since the 'Rare Coin Score' and it's an unusual relationship they have, particularly for Parker, who's not used to being with the same woman for longer than the short period of time following a heist, as has been his usual pattern. Being a socio-path, Parker is not used to empathising with anyone and seems stymied when it comes to his relationship with Claire. He still can't empathise, even with Claire, but knowing emotions are occasionally expected by Claire, Parker fakes them when necessary.
Quote;
She straightened from the fireplace and stood looking at him, wiping her hands together. “Is it finished?”
“They won't be back,” he said. There were no lamps lit in the room, only the fire for illumination; it made Parker think of candlelight, and the muscles in his back tensed. He thought of switching on the lights, but he knew she'd done this for the romantic effect, and he didn't want to spoil it for her. It was easier for him to get over things than for her.
Parker is my favourite non-hero and Stark/Westlake is in my top five writers, not only for his Parker series but also his incredibly original stand-alone novels.
December 21, 2010
I am trying to review each Parker novel by Richard Stark as a separate entity, but alas, to me it is one big huge novel. Like Proust! One pretty much knows that each and every one of the Parker novels is a page-turner. I read a lot of his novels on the bus and almost consistently I miss my stop, due that my every sense is tied into the narrative.
This one is slightly unusual, because the first part of the book is the heist of a rock n' roll show. Its 40 or so pages (which is a mega-section in Parker theme novel) of the actual robbery. But then afterwards someone is killing off the gang. And the violence in this novel is harsh and ugly.
The beauty of the novel is how Parker reacts to the dangers he face. Which of course, is being totally professional and looking at the problem on a total technical level. "A" is killing each heist gang member, therefore I Parker must do this or not do this. And part of the fun is seeing a criminal mind against another criminal mind. Parker is not a sadist, but he is a cold blooded killer. His instinct is to survive. And this is in many ways a perfect crime novel.
This one is slightly unusual, because the first part of the book is the heist of a rock n' roll show. Its 40 or so pages (which is a mega-section in Parker theme novel) of the actual robbery. But then afterwards someone is killing off the gang. And the violence in this novel is harsh and ugly.
The beauty of the novel is how Parker reacts to the dangers he face. Which of course, is being totally professional and looking at the problem on a total technical level. "A" is killing each heist gang member, therefore I Parker must do this or not do this. And part of the fun is seeing a criminal mind against another criminal mind. Parker is not a sadist, but he is a cold blooded killer. His instinct is to survive. And this is in many ways a perfect crime novel.
January 19, 2022
It seems entirely appropriate that my first book of the year is an installment of possibly my favorite novel series of all time: the Parker series by Donald Westlake (writing under the pen name Richard Stark), featuring the taciturn and brutally efficient professional heist man of the title.
This is Westlake’s 13th Parker book, and it’s lucky for all of us. He wrote it in 1971, having taken a break from the character for several years; he’d felt that the stories were becoming stale and wasn’t taking much joy in writing them. But the time off did him good. His return to telling tales of the mysterious and relentless Parker is an absolute triumph, one of the best books in the series and a return to form that both follows the formula of the books and brings in electrifying new elements that kick off a tremendous run of books.
Deadly Edge begins with Parker and a new crew of jobbers robbing the cash at a West Coast concert venue that’s about to close for good. The opening is a typical Parker heist, meticulously planned and described in painstaking detail; although there are a few minor hiccups, the robbery – unusually for one of the main character’s jobs – goes off largely without a hitch, and Parker and his gang get away with a tidy sum of untraceable cash. The trouble begins when they regroup at their safehouse, and find Berridge (the man who brought them the job and who was supposed to participate, but lost his nerve and decided to sit it out) dead. His head is bashed in and there’s no clue as to who did it or why.
This sets off a sequence of harrowing events where it becomes clear that someone knows about the robbery and is picking off every member of Parker’s gang one by one. But who is it? And why are they doing it? These questions alone make Deadly Edge stand out from the series; it’s very rare that a Parker book is a mystery. We usually know exactly what the situation is, who’s doing what, and why they’re doing it; the only question is how Parker’s going to get out of it alive. But this time, we’re surrounded in fog; we don’t even learn the identity of the antagonists until over a hundred pages into the book.
There’s another twist that makes Deadly Edge such a powerful entry in the Parker canon: the notorious heist man has finally settled down – as much as he ever will – with a fast-living, risk-taking woman named Claire, and he now has to contend with a threat to a woman he…well, if not entirely loves, at least has something approaching feelings for. There has been fear in Parker books before this; there have been deaths and torture and menace, and even Parker himself has been constantly at risk. But this time, it’s someone outside the game – a civilian, and one with as close a tie to Parker as he’ll ever form – who’s the target of the antagonists.
And what antagonists they are! Manny and Jessup, two curdled hippies chasing down a fortune they believe is theirs by right, were supposedly inspired by Westlake’s interest in the Manson Family murders, and they’re as memorable as any villains in the Parker canon – or in all of crime fiction, for that matter. Jessup is the brains of the two, a dark mirror of Parker; he’s quietly menacing and capable of anything, only losing his cool when things spiral out of control (as they inevitably do in these books). Manny is a brutal man-child, his brains fried by drugs and his moral compass as nonexistent as a wildcat’s. Villains in Parker books are always threatening and often homicidal, but this the first time Claire – and the reader by extension – has experienced terror. In Deadly Edge, Westlake proves just as capable of portraying sheer psychopathy as he is at crafting the villainy of more traditional noir hoodlums.
The book’s plot, like most Parker books, is noose-tight and clockwork-perfect. The initial heist is compelling and intricate; Parker’s search for the people who are wiping out his crew is perfectly timed and filled with memorable characters; and the slow unveiling of Manny and Jessup, from the moment they appear at Claire’s house to their almost anti-climactic final confrontation with Parker, is incredibly tense. Westlake re-uses the familiar device of showing the same scene from multiple perspectives more effectively than I’ve seen it done, and there are moments of agonizing pressure as micro-moments of the plot pivot on the most minuscule of details.
Of course, if you’ve read any of the Parker books before, you already know that their plots work like well-oiled machines, and that they’re filled with memorable characters. What works especially well here is the opening up of perspectives, as we learn more about Claire and her curious relationship with a man to whom emotions are a liability, and the tremendously and subtly powerful prose that he summons after a few books that seemed tired and perfunctory. The Parker novels aren’t just top-tier crime fiction; they’re gorgeous prose delivered with gut-punching power from out of nowhere, like a blow to the kidney from a fist wrapped in a kid leather glove.
Some of Westlake’s best moments are in Deadly Edge: Parker’s encounter with a baffled, short-tempered small-time mobster; the chilling phone calls; the first appearance of Manny (“Never, baby. I like it up here,” he responds when Jessup asks when he comes down from his high) and the heart-stopping, understated threats Jessup makes when he first encounters Claire; her sentimentality and determination when she refuses to leave her new home; even Parker’s reaction to finding a small cube of sugar: All are moments that would be worthy of respect in any more reputable literary novel.
Deadly Edge is one of the best installments of what may be the best series of crime fiction of the 20th century. It’s frighteningly hypnotic from the first pace to the last, and it’s a perfect re-introduction to the character after both the author and the reader needed a break. Hugely recommended to any reader, whether genre fan or not.
This is Westlake’s 13th Parker book, and it’s lucky for all of us. He wrote it in 1971, having taken a break from the character for several years; he’d felt that the stories were becoming stale and wasn’t taking much joy in writing them. But the time off did him good. His return to telling tales of the mysterious and relentless Parker is an absolute triumph, one of the best books in the series and a return to form that both follows the formula of the books and brings in electrifying new elements that kick off a tremendous run of books.
Deadly Edge begins with Parker and a new crew of jobbers robbing the cash at a West Coast concert venue that’s about to close for good. The opening is a typical Parker heist, meticulously planned and described in painstaking detail; although there are a few minor hiccups, the robbery – unusually for one of the main character’s jobs – goes off largely without a hitch, and Parker and his gang get away with a tidy sum of untraceable cash. The trouble begins when they regroup at their safehouse, and find Berridge (the man who brought them the job and who was supposed to participate, but lost his nerve and decided to sit it out) dead. His head is bashed in and there’s no clue as to who did it or why.
This sets off a sequence of harrowing events where it becomes clear that someone knows about the robbery and is picking off every member of Parker’s gang one by one. But who is it? And why are they doing it? These questions alone make Deadly Edge stand out from the series; it’s very rare that a Parker book is a mystery. We usually know exactly what the situation is, who’s doing what, and why they’re doing it; the only question is how Parker’s going to get out of it alive. But this time, we’re surrounded in fog; we don’t even learn the identity of the antagonists until over a hundred pages into the book.
There’s another twist that makes Deadly Edge such a powerful entry in the Parker canon: the notorious heist man has finally settled down – as much as he ever will – with a fast-living, risk-taking woman named Claire, and he now has to contend with a threat to a woman he…well, if not entirely loves, at least has something approaching feelings for. There has been fear in Parker books before this; there have been deaths and torture and menace, and even Parker himself has been constantly at risk. But this time, it’s someone outside the game – a civilian, and one with as close a tie to Parker as he’ll ever form – who’s the target of the antagonists.
And what antagonists they are! Manny and Jessup, two curdled hippies chasing down a fortune they believe is theirs by right, were supposedly inspired by Westlake’s interest in the Manson Family murders, and they’re as memorable as any villains in the Parker canon – or in all of crime fiction, for that matter. Jessup is the brains of the two, a dark mirror of Parker; he’s quietly menacing and capable of anything, only losing his cool when things spiral out of control (as they inevitably do in these books). Manny is a brutal man-child, his brains fried by drugs and his moral compass as nonexistent as a wildcat’s. Villains in Parker books are always threatening and often homicidal, but this the first time Claire – and the reader by extension – has experienced terror. In Deadly Edge, Westlake proves just as capable of portraying sheer psychopathy as he is at crafting the villainy of more traditional noir hoodlums.
The book’s plot, like most Parker books, is noose-tight and clockwork-perfect. The initial heist is compelling and intricate; Parker’s search for the people who are wiping out his crew is perfectly timed and filled with memorable characters; and the slow unveiling of Manny and Jessup, from the moment they appear at Claire’s house to their almost anti-climactic final confrontation with Parker, is incredibly tense. Westlake re-uses the familiar device of showing the same scene from multiple perspectives more effectively than I’ve seen it done, and there are moments of agonizing pressure as micro-moments of the plot pivot on the most minuscule of details.
Of course, if you’ve read any of the Parker books before, you already know that their plots work like well-oiled machines, and that they’re filled with memorable characters. What works especially well here is the opening up of perspectives, as we learn more about Claire and her curious relationship with a man to whom emotions are a liability, and the tremendously and subtly powerful prose that he summons after a few books that seemed tired and perfunctory. The Parker novels aren’t just top-tier crime fiction; they’re gorgeous prose delivered with gut-punching power from out of nowhere, like a blow to the kidney from a fist wrapped in a kid leather glove.
Some of Westlake’s best moments are in Deadly Edge: Parker’s encounter with a baffled, short-tempered small-time mobster; the chilling phone calls; the first appearance of Manny (“Never, baby. I like it up here,” he responds when Jessup asks when he comes down from his high) and the heart-stopping, understated threats Jessup makes when he first encounters Claire; her sentimentality and determination when she refuses to leave her new home; even Parker’s reaction to finding a small cube of sugar: All are moments that would be worthy of respect in any more reputable literary novel.
Deadly Edge is one of the best installments of what may be the best series of crime fiction of the 20th century. It’s frighteningly hypnotic from the first pace to the last, and it’s a perfect re-introduction to the character after both the author and the reader needed a break. Hugely recommended to any reader, whether genre fan or not.
March 23, 2021
The 13th Parker novel is a heist novel turned murder mystery and the two killers remind me of George & Lenny from Of Mice and Men... If they had hung out with Charlie Manson.
July 2, 2017
This thirteenth novel in Richard Stark’s Parker series was published in 1971. The previous novels have spanned the decade of the sixties, but Stark and his protagonist show little interest in changing political times or shifts in social norms. Parker and the career criminals he works with never cross paths with anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, civil rights protestors, or a girl in a miniskirt. In Deadly Edge, Stark introduces for the first time two representatives of the hippie generation, but Manny and Jessup are flower children that have bypassed the Summer of Love and blossomed into full Manson-mode.
Parker has robbed the proceeds from a rock concert and netted a disappointing amount. Before he makes it home to Claire, his now ongoing love interest, he learns that others in on the heist are showing up dead. He goes for the first time to the house Claire has purchased near the point where New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania meet. The place has its good points. For one, it’s on a lake where most the homes are summer-only residences. Parker knows it is too exposed and too vulnerable to attack, but Clair loves it and needs it on a level he has trouble understanding. Even when he has to leave and very bad people are likely to track him to the new address, Clair insists she can take care of herself.
The action that fills the last half of the novel is vintage Parker, but it is a moment of reflection on Parker’s part that produces one the more satisfying and insightful passages Stark has written.
Parker has robbed the proceeds from a rock concert and netted a disappointing amount. Before he makes it home to Claire, his now ongoing love interest, he learns that others in on the heist are showing up dead. He goes for the first time to the house Claire has purchased near the point where New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania meet. The place has its good points. For one, it’s on a lake where most the homes are summer-only residences. Parker knows it is too exposed and too vulnerable to attack, but Clair loves it and needs it on a level he has trouble understanding. Even when he has to leave and very bad people are likely to track him to the new address, Clair insists she can take care of herself.
The action that fills the last half of the novel is vintage Parker, but it is a moment of reflection on Parker’s part that produces one the more satisfying and insightful passages Stark has written.
He looked at her, and understood vaguely that there was something in her head about the idea of home that wasn’t in his head and never would be…He tried to find something in his own mind to relate that to, so he could understand it better, and the only thing he came up with was betrayal. If some one double-crossed him in a job, tried to take Parker’s share of the split, or betray him to the law, everything else became unimportant until he had even the scored…In some way, what Claire was into now had to be something like that, with a sense of home instead of a sense of identity.
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).
July 10, 2020
Yet another new favorite in the series. There was more fighting, especially at the climax.
A turning point in the series, like most say. For the characters, I can imagine! .... a little dinner scene turns wild: 1 guy throws a plate of food in the others face and his partner jumps on top of him, stabbing him with a knife and fork but also EATS the food off his face...!
A turning point in the series, like most say. For the characters, I can imagine! .... a little dinner scene turns wild: 1 guy throws a plate of food in the others face and his partner jumps on top of him, stabbing him with a knife and fork but also EATS the food off his face...!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 25, 2020
Notes:
Currently on Audible Plus
There's an intro at the start of the book. I liked most of it but I wish it didn't give away parts of what's going to happen in the later books. Not real spoilers but I've been having fun going into the books without reading the blurbs & seeing if my guess (based on the title) is a part of what happens.
Currently on Audible Plus
There's an intro at the start of the book. I liked most of it but I wish it didn't give away parts of what's going to happen in the later books. Not real spoilers but I've been having fun going into the books without reading the blurbs & seeing if my guess (based on the title) is a part of what happens.
May 2, 2022
Early crime noir on the robbery of a music hall and the double crossing and murder that ensues.
February 27, 2025
The thirteenth Parker book takes motifs and story beats from the twelfth Parker book and spins them out into an impressively distinct story. Not as electric as some of the other installments, but still excellent. Claire’s scenes are a particular standout.
October 26, 2025
Great Parker entry, but not quite the hard turn the Foreward makes it out to be. And not quite a return to the Parker of the first few books.
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