The Black Ice Score

Parker #11

by Richard Stark

A corrupt African colonel has converted half his country's wealth into diamonds and smuggled them to a Manhattan safe house. Four upstanding citizens plan to rescue their new nation by stealing the diamonds back — with the help of a “specialist” — Parker, that is. He has the best references in town. Will Parker break his rule against working with amateurs and help them because his woman would be disappointed if he doesn’t? Or because three hired morons have threatened to kill him and his woman if he does? They thought they were buying an advantage, but what they get is a predated death certificate.

Genres: Crime, Fiction, Noir, Mystery, Thriller, Audiobook, Hard Boiled

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

A pseudonym used by Donald E. Westlake.

Reviews

[Glenn Russell]

The Black Ice Score is Parker novel #11 by Donald E. Westlake writing as Richard Stark.

Forever the creative literary artist, with Black Ice, Mr. Westlake puts a unique spin on his conventional four-part heist structure - and that's understatement.

I see many reviewers do not rate Black Ice as among the best Parker novels. I do not share this opinion. I read Black Ice for the first time last summer, my introduction to the Parker series after Slayground. I was intrigued from first page to last with all the many angles and plot twists. Also, I find crime noir with an international flare holds special appeal.

The novel's opening line: "Parker walked into his hotel room, and there was a guy in there going through his suitcase laid out on his bed."

Turns out, the guy speaks with some kind of foreign accent and two of his buddies (one holding a gun) assume Parker is working on a job. Parker doesn't have the slightest idea what they're talking about. They urge Parker to quit the job and then all three tromp out.

Huh? What the hell was that about? And to think, Parker and Claire came to New York so Claire could do some clothes shopping. Claire is frightened, suggests they go back to Miami. Parker says, no, they're staying.

Minutes later, Parker is in the hotel bar downstairs, meeting a guy by the name of Hoskins who called on the telephone. Similar to the three guys in his hotel room, Hoskins assumes Parker is involved, or at least has been approached, to work on a job. Parker plays it so he can extract some information from Hoskins.

Just then, the barman hands Parker the phone. It's Claire. Claire tells Parker he should return to their room since four gentlemen, all black, want to speak with him. When Parker returns, he can see four black men in red robes standing in his room "like a scene in a Negro version of Julius Caesar."

After Parker listens to their leader, a Mr. Gonor, explain their plan, the pieces of the puzzle begin to fit together. Quick synopsis: Gonor and the others are from the small, newly independent African nation of Dhaba. The nation's current leader, a corrupt Colonel, ultimately wants to abscond with diamonds worth millions, diamonds critical to Dhaba's economic well-being, diamonds currently held by his family members in a museum dedicated to African art on East Thirty-eighth Street in Manhattan. As a first step to establishing stability in Dhaba, Gonor needs to reclaim the diamonds. And he needs Parker's help: Gonor asks Parker if he'll devise a plan so they, the men from Dhaba, can sneak into the building and take away the diamonds.

Diamonds worth millions, you say? The plot thickens. Gonor first approached Hoskins to plan the heist but quickly discovered Hoskins wasn't qualified, he wasn't that caliber of crook. But Hoskins isn't about to walk away from such a large booty. And those white guys who came to Parker's hotel room? All three are from wealthy families in Dhaba who lost their land and wealth when the newly formed government took over. They also want the diamonds.

So that's the basic framework. Several highlights/themes/philosophic reflections:

Loyal Fans of the Parker Series
Parker is a hard, tough outlaw, wolf on the inside, man on the outside. Understandably, a large percentage of Parker fans back in the 1960s were African-Americans. Writing a Parker novel revolving around intelligent, quick-witted, resourceful, courageous black Africans working for a good cause made abundant sense, particularly in light of current affairs in Africa. Also, Mr. Westlake could pick up on the reader frenzy for James Bond-style international intrigue. We can hardly blame the author for wishing to increase his fan base.

Parker and Race
Here's what one literary critic and avid Westlake/Stark fan has to say about Parker:

"And we realize, with a start, that race is nothing to him. That he really is colorblind. It would never occur to him to say, à la Stephen Colbert, “I don’t see race.” Of course he sees skin color. He just can’t understand the significance the rest of us place upon it. He happened to be born into the body of a white man, but that’s all it is to him – a vessel. It isn’t who or what he is, down inside. He truly is a minority of one.

And we can only envy him for that all-encompassing sense of self – he doesn’t need some arbitrary collective identity. He’s content to be as he is. Is that the secret of racial harmony, that has eluded us all these millennia? To just be happy with ourselves the way we are? To not need a group to belong to? A ceremonial mask of human skin to hide behind? As Parker, the wolf, hides behind his – but never makes the mistake of believing in the masquerade. That way lies madness."

In this way, Parker can serve as a lesson for all of us - to know ourselves, truly know ourselves, independent of group think or superficial categories.

Claire Chimes In
At one point Claire suggests to Parker that he take the job since it is a good cause. Parker's reply: He doesn't work for causes. In point of fact, Parker doesn't have the slightest interest in politics, US politics or the politics of any other country. And he tells one of the Dhaba men just that. This point gets back to Parker knowing who he is and what he is.

Eager Students
One of the more intriguing and enjoyable sections of Black Ice is watching how Gonor and the other Dhaba men learn from Parker. This is especially true of Formutesca, the man who heads up the diamond heist. Formutesca looks up to Parker, takes Parker as a role model for how to perform an operation. And when circumstances force Parker to ask Formutesca for help, the African is more than willing to offer his services.

The Black Ice Score rocks. Read it.


American author Donald E. Westlake, 1933-2008

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

"We know everything about you. Your name is Parker [.] and you are a professional thief. Your specialty is planning details of large-scale robberies. You don't deny it? Don't admit it?" -- pistola-wielding mook# 1

"Get to the point." -- Parker, unfortunately mirroring my own thoughts

Since procuring a number of the paperbacks from Richard Stark's hardboiled 'Parker' series this year (thank you, Starr Books of Douglassville and Royersford in Pennsylvania), I've been happily racing through them as if I was competing in the Indianapolis 500. Most of them have been some tight and terse page-turners, but I realistically figured that not every single one of them - and Stark (a.k.a the prolific Donald Westlake) supplied sixteen books in just under twelve years - would necessarily be of the same consistent quality. I think The Black Ice Score qualifies as the first lesser entry for me, and yet it wasn't a bad book. Parker is cajoled into caper of international intrigue - although it's squarely set in New York City, with opening and closing scenes in Florida and Connecticut - involving a coup in a small (fictional) African nation and a cache of diamonds. The professional thief protagonist helps plan the heist but is not an active participant, and then is frustratingly absent for many chapters in the second half of the narrative. Yes, he comes roaring back (literally, as he is wielding a shotgun) but by then my attention had drifted with the diversion to secondary and less-interesting characters.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

The weakest of the Parker books so far (out of 11 of 24 so far), but still a solid story with things to recommend it. Claire is the new girlfriend of Parker, who had been married but scammed and left to die by his first wife and then, well, skeptical about women for some years after. And he likes women in the intervening years, but let's say, for rather short periods of time. Until he meets Claire, to whom he actually makes a commitment, which is surprising given Stark's unsentimental nature.

Claire also supports Parker's new gig, though she hates guns and doesn't generally want to know anything about his work. This is fine with Parker, because it's safer for her not to know and, well, Parker doesn't really like to talk, about anything. Parker has been approached by a group of men from a small African country that has had diamonds embezzled by their African dictator. The men want the money back to strengthen their country; Claire meets the men and finds out a bit about the project, likes and respects the men; Parker has no political leanings whatsoever, but likes money, and sort of seems to like making Claire happy.

Some white nationalists and a con man also want the diamonds. As usual, things go smoothly. . . until they don't. Claire plays a larger part in this one than Parker had hoped.

Well, this is solid but unspectacular, in spite of the international intrigue, and Claire.

[Kemper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parker has taken his girlfriend Claire to New York so she can do some shopping, but he gets repeatedly approached by people who think he’s in on some kind of score. An African dictator has fled his country with a fortune in diamonds, and one group wants to hire Parker to plan a way to steal them so they can take them back to Africa and use the money to build the nation up. A group of white colonialists are mad that they got booted out, and want to steal the diamonds to install their own puppet government and reclaim their property. And one con man just wants to steal the diamonds for himself.

This is kind of an oddly flat Parker novel despite having some new elements in it. For one, Parker is hired solely as a planner of the robbery, and Claire is more involved than usual in the story. But in the end, there’s the usual robbery-with-unexpected-twist and Parker improvising at the last minute.

While Parker is his usual no-nonsense self for most of this one, it also shows a few glimpses that there may be a bit more to him than Stark (a/k/a Westlake) has shown before. Claire notes that Parker does have a bit of a taste for the robberies that are a challenge and require elaborate planning which differs from Parker's usual claim that it's all about the money. Parker also seems to care more about Claire than I thought him capable of. I always had the impression that Claire was just kind of convenient for Parker. It made sense that a guy who liked sex but didn’t really like interacting with people would have one steady girlfriend who didn’t bug him and stayed out of his business, but here we get the feeling that Parker may just give a damn about her.

Not a bad book. (I think Westlake was incapable of writing a bad book.) It’s just that Parker doesn’t seem quite as ruthless as usual and to me Asshole Parker = Fun Parker.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nationals from a tiny African country want Parker to plan a heist for them in an effort to steal back a fortune in diamonds. Parker has misgivings but Claire urges him to take the job. Parker plans the heist and things go smoothly until mistakes the Africans made before contacting Parker come back to bite them all in the ass...

Reading one of Parker's exploits is like visiting an old friend. Parker is himself in this one, although maybe Claire's making him a little soft. The heist was well-planned, as usual. Parker's quip that no one is an expert on people rings true, especially when things start falling apart. With two parties after the diamonds, as well as Hoskins, the plot has a lot of twists and turns. Parker goes about his business as only he can.

Any gripes? Besides Claire softening Parker a bit, The Black Ice Score is pretty short, an easy three hour read. Other than that, it's the same Parker we all know and love.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just loved this installment in the Parker series. Parker shines here as a planner. He's completely dispassionate and non-political when multiple factions try to appeal to greed and sway his loyalties. He just wants to execute his contracted work and move on. He's always professional.....it's the only virtue his reader can count on.

I convinced my local library to purchase the missing books in this series collection.....another reason this book was an especially good read.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't do it, I can't write anymore Parker reviews. Not that I've written a substantial one in quite a few books, but I must go on. I must review them all, right?

In this one Parker gets involved in some tiny African countries political landscape and is hired to help plan a robbery to steal back the countries riches from the current president who is trying to steal it all for himself. It's the most far-fetched plot in all of the Parker novels so far--seriously, the entire wealth of the country is $700,000 that can be easily converted into two small pouches of diamonds? The premise is a little silly but the execution of the plot is perhaps the most narratively innovative of Stark's novels so far.

Also, Parker is becoming less and less a sociopath, when the possibility arises of having to torture someone Parker lets it be known that the other guys are probably better at it then he is. I think he's growing more human as time goes on.

[Carla Remy · Rating 4 out of 5]

From 1967
Parker plans a complicated robbery for Africans stealing diamonds from other Africans. Then I noticed the book title. Ok.

[Skip · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this one more than others, perhaps because Parker is actually working for something besides himself for once, partially at the behest of Claire. A corrupt president of a small newly-formed African nation (Dhaba) has plundered the national treasury and smuggled $700,000 in diamonds to NYC in the possession of his wife's family. The two possible successors (one black, one white) each want the loot, and make their pitch to Parker. Their initial candidate, a con artist, also wants it. Parker decides to work for the good guys, and helps them plan the heist (from an African museum), and as always, things go awry. Much more killing in this one than usual.

[Alan (on December semi-hiatus) Teder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parker and the African Diamonds
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (August, 2010) of the Fawcett Gold Medal paperback (1968)

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.

The Black Ice Score is different from the other Parker novels in that Parker himself does not participate in the heist. He is instead recruited as a consultant by opposing political forces from a fictitious African nation to help them retrieve the diamonds with which their corrupt dictator has absconded from the country. Unfortunately there are other gangs on the same quest and the heist goes bad as it always does. Claire (Parker's love interest since The Rare Coin Score (Parker #9) is kidnapped in an effort to manipulate Parker, so it becomes a rescue mission as well.

Narrator Stephen Thorne 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 The Black Ice Score and of all the Parker books and adaptations at The Violent World of Parker website.

Like 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 NOT include the Foreword by author Dennis Lehane.

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Random Parker adventure provided by the local library service, middling in quality that mostly feels like the rushed by the numbers pulp stuff that his contemporaries were churning out. There's some nonsense with a newly independent African nation and training diplomats to steal their national jewels back from an embezzling leader that I could barely raise enthusiasm for but in between there are some nice hardboiled Parker moments. The opening chapter was pretty great though I must say.

[Andre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another brilliant pulp-noir from the master. Nice tight writing and a solid plot. Recommend!

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake) certainly exhibits an economy of words in his Parker books. You get very little description, and what is there is simplified to the nth degree: You have "darkness," "light," "bleak gray light," "dead black skeletons." I tend to like more description in what I read but the Parker books are all part of a very particular style and it is compelling and sucks you in. I got caught up in this one, although this was probably the slowest start to the Parker novels I've read so far. (This is #11). It was also one of the most dynamic endings so it balanced out. If you like Parker you'll like this one, I expect.

[Amos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the most riveting selection of the bunch, but even the lesser books in this series are a whole lotta fun!

[Ed [Redacted] · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parker helps retrieve diamonds from a corrupt African leader. This is kind of by the numbers for a Parker book. The parts with the opposing factions from the African country were pretty interesting, but the rest was fairly standard. I keep getting more and more irritated with Claire and her effect on Parker. I prefer Parker when he is single minded and ruthless.

This isn't my favorite of the Parkers by any stretch but it IS a Parker book, thereby making it a worthwhile read. I would suggest this for the completist. For those new to Parker start with The Hunter.

[Neil Fulwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parker volume ten and once again Stark is monkeying with the formula. Parker isn’t offered a job by a single individual or outfit; here he’s at the nexus of at least three ideologically differentiated factions; when he eventually picks a side, it’s not to do the job with them but act as consultant. Thus we have, for the first time since ‘The Jugger’, a Parker novel where Parker doesn’t undertake a heist. There *is* a heist, however, only for the first time in the series, the section which breaks from Parker’s POV also breaks from Parker’s actual involvement. Add to this political overtones and motivations for the first time since ‘The Mourner’, not to mention an ethnically diverse clutch of supporting characters evoked with a lot more nuance than most pulp novelists of the 60s would have achieved, and ‘The Black Ice Score’ is a very different but wholly satisfying outing.

[Soo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Notes:

Currently on Audible Plus

One of the grittier stories in the series. I like how Stark doesn't make Parker into an omnipotent character. There are plenty of moments where it's pure luck + guts that saves Parker from death or worse. A lot of it has to do with intention. Parker is not the kind of man to give up and it shows in each of the books.

The ending? Ha! It was perfect for the story.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

An international flavor is added to the Parker recipe, and it perks the whole stew up after a few bland entries.

[Darwin8u · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost touched the line with some black characters, but missed a problematic hit. An interesting international angle that made this one unique.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comments on second reading: I decided to reread The Black Ice Score, a relatively crappy Parker novel, in the wake of having read the first Dortmunder novel, The Hot Rock. According to author Donald E. Westlake, The Hot Rock came about when a Parker novel went awry: Parker is anything but a comedic character, and Westlake found that he was writing Parker into a comedy. Thus, he rewrote the novel with a new protagonist, Dortmunder, and that novel became The Hot Rock. I repeated this oft-told story in my review of The Hot Rock, prompting a friend to ask what I made of the existence of The Black Ice Score, whose premise is eerily similar to The Hot Rock. So I decided to reread The Black Ice Score and think it over.

The Black Ice Score was first published in 1968; The Hot Rock was first published in 1970. Both novels are set in New York. Both novels center around factions from small African nations who compete for ownership of valuable jewels—an emerald and diamonds, respectively. In both novels, and African faction hires professional American criminals to wrest the jewel(s) from the competing faction. So what led Westlake to publish such similar novels so close together? If Westlake’s story of converting the botched Parker novel into the first Dortmunder novel is true, then this would seem to be the logical sequence of events:

1. Westlake begins writing a Parker novel, but he realizes that the tone is hopelessly wrong, so he stops.

2. Westlake starts the Parker novel over again, maintaining the proper tone this time, and the result is The Black Ice Score, published in 1968.

3. Westlake, a highly efficient professional writer, hates to waste anything. He still has the partially (how much?) completed manuscript from #1, and he wants to do something with it. Therefore, he reworks it into The Hot Rock, published in 1970.

Westlake probably thought it unlikely readers would notice (or care) about the similarities between Richard Stark’s The Black Ice Score and Donald E. Westlake’s The Hot Rock, so why not? It’s hard to imagine, however, that he wasn’t asked about this at some point, so if anyone knows anything more, I would be delighted to hear it.

A footnote: For a Parker fan, the most remarkable moment in The Hot Rock comes in passing, when one of the professional American thieves, Alan Greenwood, mentions that his current assumed name is “Grofield.” Alan Grofield, of course, is one of Parker’s sometime partners, first appearing in The Score in 1964. So maybe when the abandoned Parker novel became The Hot Rock, Alan Grofield was transformed into Alan Greenwood? I didn’t pay attention to the initials of the other thieves in The Hot Rock, but perhaps they correspond to characters in the Parker novels as well?

Comments on first reading: More support for the International Parker Theorem: The more Parker gets involved in international intrigue, the less interesting he becomes. The best Parker books convince you that they take place in the real world of professional thieves. Those books that fall under the International Parker Theorem convince you that some of the Parker novels should have been left out of print. A weak three stars.

First reading: 17 March 2011
Second reading: 17 February 2013

[Jane Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 ½ stars. Most of the story was average - ok, but the ending was good - when things went wrong.

THE SET UP:
There are three groups of guys from a small African nation. The A guys work for the President. The B guys work for a General who plans to take over with a military coup. C is a guy who stole millions from the African treasury and converted it to diamonds. C’s people are holding the diamonds for him in New York City.

The A guys pay a fee to Parker to plan a heist and teach them how to do it - to steal the diamonds from C’s people. The B guys threaten Parker, telling him not to help A. D is another guy who comes in to steal the diamonds.

OPINION:
Most of the story is meeting the different guys and Parker planning the heist. That was ok, but it wasn’t engaging or exciting. The last part was very good. Unexpected things happen, things go wrong, Parker is in the middle and takes action. I liked the way Parker solved a kidnaping - bad guy style.

I was disappointed the author did not tell how the bad guys knew where E was in order to kidnap E.

There is a forward by Dennis Lehane (dated 2010) in the paperback. I was disappointed that the forward was missing from this audiobook.

The narrator Stephen R. Thorne was good, but I wish he had a rougher, darker, or more menacing voice for Parker. His Parker voice was too clean cut and normal sounding.

THE SERIES:
This is book 11 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. Unabridged audiobook length: 3 hrs and 54 mins. Swearing language: Good God used once. Sexual content: none. Setting: around 1968 mostly New York City. Book copyright: 1968. Genre: noir crime fiction.

[James Thane · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Black Ice Score" was originally published in 1967, and for a good many years has been out of print and virtually impossible to find. Fans of Richard Stark's "Parker" series owe a debt of gratitude to the University of Chicago Press for republishing the book, along with several others in the series.

Parker is a hardened professional criminal who has virtually no moral reservations about the crimes he plans and commits, even when he must occasionally kill someone who gets in his way. He may be one of the most amoral figures in all of crime fiction, and yet Stark (a pseudonym of Donald Westlake) never wimps out and attempts to curry favor with the reader by giving Parker some ultimately redeeming feature. Still, you can't help liking the guy and rooting for him to succeed.

In this case, Parker is on vacation in New York when he is approached by the representatives of a small African nation. Their president, they claim, is about to abandon the country, taking much of the country's treasure with him. In fact, he has already sent the loot--hundred of thousands of dollars worth of diamonds--to New York ahead of him with some confederates. The men who approach Parker want to hire him to plan a way for them to steal the diamonds back and return them to the country's treasury.

Parker ultimately agrees and then, as is always the case in these books, complications ensue, testing Parker's abilities and throwing the plan and everyone involved into jeopardy.

"The Black Ice Score" falls into the middle of this series, and it's not as good as most of the other entries, which is not to say that it's a bad book, just that it's not up to the standards of many of the others.

As a result, this is a book that will probably appeal mostly to hard-core Parker fans who want to read the entire series. Readers who want to experience it for the first time, would probably be best advised to begin with "The Hunter," a very good read, which is the first book in the series and which has also been published under the title "Payback," the title of the Mel Gibson movie that was made from the book.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The Black Ice Score” happens to be my least favorite of the 24 Parker novels (having read all but 6 of them). It is written in the same tight, professional manner as the other Parker novels, but the premise was a bit goofy. This novel begins in a similar manner as “The Jugger” with Parker being approached by different groups of persons who all seem to think he knows what the game is when he hasn’t a clue. It turns out a dictator (president) of a small newly-founded African nation knows he will soon be run out of power and transferred the country’s treasure into diamonds which he hid with his brother-in-law in New York, but another group from that country wants the diamonds. They are soldiers and spies and diplomats, but they are not professional thieves and they want Parker to train them to grab the diamonds. It felt a bit comic and light for Parker to be dealing with these disparate groups of nonprofessionals and walking them through how to pull off a caper. This is not to say that it is a bad story or not worth reading. It just felt as if it were a notch below the other Parker novels. This is a review of the audio version of the book.

[Mohammed Abdikhader Firdhiye · Rating 3 out of 5]

An improvement on the previous Parker book i read, The Green Eagle Score.
The heist story was more intense,more twist,double crosses this time. It was more challenging for Parker. He was more like the early books.

The African,Colonist/Anti-colonist story made the book more layered, reading the story from the different sides POV. Stark handled that part of the story very well,like a man who knew his world,times.

It was interesting from my personal POV,it was refereshing read for a crime book like this.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this published by BBC Audio. Good reader, the same as previous ones, I think.

This varied from Parker's usual heists in that he was brought in as a consultant. All the great action & twisty plot, though. Excellent as usual.

[James Love · Rating 4 out of 5]

While written in 1967 the plot is very similar to The Hot Rock (1972). The missing elements include Parker not being released from prison at the start of the novel and the satirical humor found in many of the Dortmunder novels. Westlake admitted that The Hot Rock had been originally intended as a Parker novel. Was The Black Ice Score the second draft?

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great. Entertaining as hell. I can see Westlake's style and can anticipate his twists but I really enjoy it anyway. I still see Lee Marvin but with Robert Forster's voice now :)
Definitely want to read more, and soon!

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cover isn’t an indication of the content. I don’t care for it at all but couldn’t find an alternative pic.
💎
A decent Audible listen, short and punctual in true Donald Westlake fashion. Listening to these mostly to & from work. Moving on.

[Ryan Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Westlake simply doesn’t miss as Richard Stark.

[Tom Stamper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one diverges from the formula in an interesting way. Parker is visited by a group of dignitaries from a small African nation trying to steal back property of their government. This is not Parker's kind of caper, but he was recommended by the head of The Outfit and his girl Claire likes the desperate fellas and convinces our anti-hero to team up with them. The complication is that the dignitaries first approached some other criminals for help and those dudes are now breathing down their necks at the smell of money.

Parker is just here to plan the caper which involves breaking into a Manhattan museum's top floor apartment where the stash is hiding. But with the greedy others not far behind, Parker decides to stash Claire safely in Boston so that she won't be leverage.

What's interesting here is that Parker disappears for a good section of the book reminding me of the way Sherlock is absent from much of the Hounds of the Baskervilles. And the entire African story is much like something that Ross Thomas would write about in 1970s although with more humor.

This is my second time through the entire chronological series and this is the first of the stories and I didn't remember. I'm surprised because it's quite good as a stand alone novel, but even more interesting as a part of the larger series. I'll give it the 5 star.