I found about Westlake recently from the "Resevoir Dogs" DVD Bonus disc. I read "Hot Rock" and enjoyed it. So, I decided to tryout Stark. I'd seen both "Point Blank" and "Payback." So, I knew the gist of what was going to happen in the book. I was blown away, though, by how much better this was than either movie version. I'm glad Stark was talked out of killing Parker off at the end of this book. I cannot get enough of this character. Stark's up there with Walter Mosely and James Ellroy, in my opinion.

I read this in two short days. This book is great and makes you want to read more Parker novels. Parker is as hard boiled as it gets. Even in a world of killers, hookers, robbers, etc. He is hard boiled even to them.

One thing that amazed me was how faithful the Mel Gibson movie is to this book. Read this and see the movie.

So, here's where it all began. The Parker books. When this was first published it was called THE HUNTER. Then John Boorman made it into a movie starring Lee Marvin and it was re-titled POINT BLANK (read this book, then see this movie), then it was made into a Mel Gibson movie and re-titled yet again as PAYBACK. Who cares? This is a great novel. Parker is the most rue character in all the hardboiled genre. Even Vachss' Burke pales a bit in comparison. I mean, Burke in nowhere near as remorseless as Parker. though I think maybe Vachss had been reading some Parker novels before writing his excellent DEAD AND GONE. Also a great revenge novel. So, Parker is double-crossed (which happens quite a lot in his world), shot and left for dead. Lucky for us, he doesn't die. He then heads out on a violent trail for vengeance. This book remains the best in the Parker series, but each and every one, old and new (and thanks Mr. Stark for bringing back Parker!) is a great read. if you like your fiction hardboiled, search no further than Parker!

What's common with most Parker novels (and let me say that this is the ONLY common thing about them), is the length, around 200 pages a pop. But for the 20th and final Parker adventure--until the aptly titled COMEBACK was published in 1995--Richard Stark has treated us with a fat 300 page epic called BUTCHER'S MOON. And what a treat it is! Parker, our favorite anti-hero, has once again teamed up with fellow professional thief, Grofield, to recover the stashed loot from a previous score. The loot is long gone, of course, and soon getting it back takes a back seat to getting revenge. Parker calls in all of his old friends--and I mean ALL of 'em, even retired thief Handy McKay jumps at the chance to join the party--because what Parker has planned is nothing short of a war, The Thieves vs. The Hoods, and when it's over an entire town will be cleaned out, a mob outfit will lay in ruins and Parker & Company will be stepping over the bodies.

It took me 13 years to find this book and I can honestly say it was worth the wait. Those who have encountered Parker before do not need encouragement to read this, but for the first timer this book will open your mind to a totally different kind of hero, one you find yourself rooting for even though you find no common principles between you. Fairness, the ability to see an argument from another's view, willingness to compromise, to Parker these are foreign phrases. In this book a Mafia boss tries to make Parker understand that what he wants is simply not possible, indeed more than one person tries to make Parker see sense. But Parker is as unstoppable and inevitable as the juggernaut, if you attempt to interfere, at best, you can hope he'll ignore you, at worst, you'll make him mad. This book showed for the first time that Parker can get emotionally involved, which he had always resisted as it may have affected his judgement. The "new" side to Parker merely cemented his reputation as the toughest antihero in crime fiction. If you read this book you will read the rest of the series. In a lifetime of reading books this is the only series I continue to come back to. After writing this Stark could not "find the voice" for nearly twenty years. Thankfully this is not the last Parker, but if it had been I'm sure the author would have been justifiably proud to have ended on this high note.

When the mob holds his friend hostage, and they send him a finger , Parker goes after them with a fierce revenge. This is the best book of the parker series I have read to date.

I read that Stark thought "The Jugger" was his worst book. I disagree. I think I see where he's coming from, though. This story and book are out of character for Parker. He actually has to explain himself a couple of times and his enemies are outside of his world. So, it's a bit different from the previous books. I think, however, that this is the best plotted since the first book. I really enjoyed the novel and it could easily stand alone outside of the series. I hope "The Seventh" comes back in print soon.

Joe Sheer, a fine old man, retired safecracker (jugger), has been Parker's contact man for years. Parker receives a disquieting letter from Joe and wonders if he is getting a little old for the job. Parker decides to pay him a visit, not to present a gold watch, but perhaps to help Joe along to his eternal rest. The usually overly careful Parker flies to Sagamore, Nebraska to have a hands-on visit with Joe using his clean-as-a whistle alias, Charles Willis.

Picture Smalltown U.S.A. Friendly folks, picket fences, nicely clipped lawns, tree shaded lots, porch swings, and you have Sagamore. Now picture deadly purposeful Parker strolling down the sidewalks. Neither one of them are quite ready for the other. Alas for Parker, there is no heist this time, Joe is already dead, and the local and state police are taking far too much interest in Charles Willis. Parker has to put his superb planning abilities in high gear to settle the natives, and solve the mystery of Joe's alleged buried fortune. Parker's sole interest in this is to get Charles Willis back to Miami unknown and uninvestigated.

This is a fine Parker outing where Parker is the only one in Sagamore with good sense, and with much exasperation has to lead the law to the truth. To get the job done, a few homicides happen, and a left over lady with "the eyes of a pickpocket and the mouth of a whore" helps him out. "The Jugger" is best read after you have read a couple other Parker novels for background. For all other Parker aficionados, this is choice.

Talk about waking from a coma. The Jugger begins confusingly - good confusingly, that is - with Parker in a hotel room in a small town in Nebraska. There's a dead guy in the obituary column, an annoying guy hanging around Parker, a cop outside. Everyone knows more than the reader at this stage, but nobody really knows anything. Turns out after a few chapters that the dead guy is the titular Jugger - a locks man who knew too much about Parker. The annoying guy and the cop think the dead guy knew something else - like where his life's earnings are hidden. Parker needs to make sure no one else knows what the dead guy really knew.
The story unfolds piece by piece, and Parker responds in the only way imaginable for one of fiction's most amoral characters.
Tough, very tight.

The 7th or The Split as my edition is called is the second best parker book that I have read (My favourite is 'the hunter' AKA 'point blank' AKA 'Payback'). The focus of the book is not so much the robbery as the bloody aftermath that follows as the loot goes missing. A beautiful book.

Point Blank is a very compeling story which I must recommend to all of my fellow readers such as yourselves. I dont want to spoil the book for you, all I want to say is that it is an excellent book and a true page turner (it was for me!).

Picture this: Parker and friends have pulled the perfect heist and Parker is holding the money till the heat cools down. Then an AMATEUR sneaks in, kills Parker's girl friend of the moment, finds and takes the stash, takes a couple of shots at Parker, and sets him up as the patsy for the murder. --- Parker is less than pleased.

From here on in it is non-stop action with all seven members of Parker's team hunting down the Amateur (who has a phobic fear of gunfire-someone else's, that is.) The cops get in the act and chase everyone while the body count rises.

Parker's partners are well drawn and each is sharply defined. By getting to know them, like in many Parker novels, you find yourself rooting for the bad guys. "The Split" like "Slayground" is almost total action, but Stark somehow gives us a sense of people and place, on the fly as it were. The Amateur, who is being stalked relentlessly, pauses for breath and thinks, "That's what death is; getting your heel caught in a crack of time."

This is an elegant, dark side of Donald Westlake. He should write the manual on anti-heroes. Highly recommended.

Most people who have just had their face reconstructed would be inclined to go through a period of mourning as they lament the loss of their familiar appearance. Not so with Parker. Apart from a quick glance in the mirror to make sure he looked different, he is completely unaffected.

This reaction probably best sums up this mysterious and dark character. He always prefers to take the most prudent action rather than be ruled by his emotions, giving him a cold, calculating persona. But these same qualities also make him very efficient and strangely likable.

After receiving his new appearance, Parker goes straight back to work in planning an armoured truck heist. He has some misgivings about the job because it involves someone he has never worked with before, but this is just another contingency for him to plan around. Indeed, it appears that Parker has been built with no reverse gear installed. Once a course of action has been planned, it's full steam ahead and as obstacles rise up, as they inevitably do in this caper, he deals with them head on, scarcely breaking stride.

This is the second Parker book, following his appearance in The Hunter and is a thoroughly enjoyable story. The no-nonsense attitude of Parker, whether it's going ahead with a plan or casually shooting someone in the ankle makes for very entertaining, if a little cold-blooded, reading.

You don't need to read the predcessor of this book to enjoy it, but you might as well. This is book is great from start to finish. It is thoroughly enjoyable.

Donald Westlake writes of Dortmunder, a bumbling petty criminal it's really hard to like. Then as Richard Stark he gives us Parker, a much more competent crook who will kill when he has to, and surprisingly or not, a much more likeable character.

It was written in 1963 when the mob was "The Outfit", Exxon was still Esso and you took the ferry to Brooklyn, not the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Parker gets a new face from Dr. Adler, a plastic surgeon in Nebraska who was a pre 50s Commie, then goes back to New Jersey for an armored car heist. Skim and Elma, Skim's overbearing waitress girlfriend, set up the heist, develop an unworkable plan that Parker fixes and set up a doublecross that Parker anticipates. All would be fine except Dr. Adler has been killed, and a guy named Stubbs is sent to find the killer.

The interaction between Parker and Stubbs and their search for a swindler named Wallenbaugh, now Wells, take up the rest of the story. Parker's reasons for getting to Wells and going back to Nebraska to square things come from logic only his mind could concoct, but it makes for a fun adventure.

Everything went according to plan. If the heist was a little flashier than Parker ordinarily liked, it still got the job done. The problems began when it came time to settle up. Rather than pay him his full share, Parker's three co-conspirators informed him that they were "borrowing" his take. They needed it as seed money for a big job in Palm Beach, so they left him high and dry. That was their first mistake. Their biggest mistake, though, was leaving him alive.

Richard Stark's intriguingly misanthropic master thief is back for yet another hard boiled adventure and it's a very good one. Bouncing back from the disappointing "Backflash," this time out the author has his noir chops finely honed. He keeps the prose appropriately stark and close to the bone. That's just what Parker's stories require. He is not a man who lives in a world of many colors or flavors and this book reflects that in its writing.

The plot is swift and uncomplicated, allowing us to appreciate Parker's brilliant criminal instincts and disdain for conventional morality. It takes a good writer to make a person who's not very likable into a convincing protagonist and Stark does a top notch job of it. It doesn't hurt that most of the people Parker meets, criminal or not, are just as crooked as he is.

"Flashfire" makes for an excellent, quick summer read.

This was my introduction to the work of Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake) and I just loved Parker. The character is a compelling blend of bad guy with good reason that reminded me powerfully of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley. It's quite a feat to put the reader squarely on the side of someone who, basically, is not a nice person. Highsmith did it; Stark/Westlake has done it, too. The man is a fine writer, with the gift of economy; no unnecessary descriptions, just pure driving narrative and vivid characterizations. I plan to get all the previous Parker books just as soon as I finish writing this review. Highly recommended.

About two hundred miles from Omaha, Parker and his three cohorts rob a bank with Parker causing the diversion with a nearby firebomb. After succeeding in this endeavor Parker's partners blithely inform him that they need his share of the loot as seed money to conduct a bigger heist on an island near Palm Beach, Florida. However, his former accomplices make one mistake when they abscond with Parker's portion of the booty, the trio leaves Parker alive.

Besides Parker wanting his money, no one cheats him out of his due so he follows Melander, Carlson, and Ross to Florida. He plans to trump his former friends by doing the jewelry job they were set to perform. However, Parker has also has blundered because someone not only recognizes him, but wants him dead.

FLASHFIRE is an excellent Parker tale that marks the return one of the great anti-heroes in American mystery literature. The story line is entertaining due to the lead character's criminal abilities that Richard Stark effortlessly brings alive in the well-written, fast-paced plot. Fans and new readers will enjoy this tale while seeking out previous books and movies (that both go back to the sixties) of a legendary protagonist.

Harriet Klausner

Look forward to reading all of Starks novels after reading this one The impressions and swift moving plots put you write there in the action Thank god for writers like Stark

It goes without saying that a Richard Stark "Parker" story is read at one sitting. Fortunately for the reader (or the sittee, if you will), the books are rarely longer than 300 pages. It's manageable. The writing is as spare and smooth as fine leather holster and concise as a Hemingway vignette.

Parker gets nailed in a pharmaceutical robbery gone south. He is detained by the law in a fortress like detention center situated in the flatlands. This is desperate times for Parker who has escaped from a prison in the distant past and killed a guard in the process. He must escape and does in most ingenious manner. He is coerced (against his better judgment) into a jewelry heist that involves tunneling into an impregnable armory. It is all in the finely engineered details that enchant us. How they get in. More important, how they get out. It isn't Parker's lucky day. He has to get another confederate out of jail. Surprising to me, Parker and crew take some hostages. (I'm surprised because I think of Parker as a "take no prisoners" type.) By this time, Parker has been trapped so many times through no fault of his own, all he wants is to get back to Jersey in one piece. Will he make it? Of course he will.

People always wonder why they have this fondness for Parker, a cold-blooded outlaw with no remorse and no friends, only "associates." For me it's easy. I feel safe with Parker. Wherever he goes, he has to take me, the reader, and he will think for both of us. "Breakout" is fine vintage Parker and even goes a tad beyond his usual high standards.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer

The latest Parker book by Richard Stark (Donald Westlake) is a series of breakouts and breakins. A bumbled robbery lands Parker in custody, but not for long. Parker assembles a small crew of fellow inmates to break out of a holding facility while awaiting arraignment. They successfully breakout, but then the real trouble begins when an attempted breakin of an former armory housing a wholesale jewelry operation goes astray and they are trapped once again in a "prison" of their own making.

Parker is his usual tough and quiet self, not hesitant to kill, but still someone the reader roots for to pull off another heist, and make he getaway. Stark's writing is very straight forward, with minimal words wasted on secondary characters who are used to drive the plot.

When Parker hears the phone ringing in his kitchen, he puts down the body of the man sent to kill him & hurries from the garage to answer the phone that Claire offers him. Now he has two jobs to do. First to dispose of the body & then case out the Montana lodge of a dot.com billionaire in which resides a horde of stolen art treasures.

One last job before he retires, or so Parker swears!

It's not the gold-plated faucets Parker's gang is out to get, it's the contents of a false basement no one else seems to know about. The prize of unregistered stolen paintings is what draws this strange band of lawbreakers together, & to get around all the computerized alarms systems, they've taken on board a whiz kid fresh out of the slammer who has a temper & a parole problem.

Richard Stark, aka Donald E. Westlake, has a delightful, in-your-face & breathless writing style. He doesn't give you any extra information or any time to worry about details, because his anti-hero Parker will easily & quite reasonably figure them all out. & you're along for a fine ride!

Did Richard Stark (Donald Westlake) start the convention of having his lead character only go by his last name? In any event, it fits Parker better than the sensitive Spenser. Parker is a kind of sociopath. He is totally immoral -- his decision whether to kill someone is based solely on whether it will benefit him or not -- if it will, he has no hesitation. As this book makes clear, he also is not a romantic version of a criminal who believes in honor among thieves -- when two crooks who worked with his present conspirators threaten to turn them in, he expresses no surprise that they may betray their friends to stay out of jail.

Firebreak is made more interesting by a character who is a kind of anti-Parker, Larry. Parker is totally controlled; even when he takes revenge, he does so carefully and cooly. Larry, on the other hand, is a crook out of control. Their interaction makes this somewhat different than the typical Parker novel. This is hardboiled fiction at its best.

The Parker series from Richard Stark (the pseudonym of Donald E. Westlake) is the flip side from the author's comedic Dortmunder series. Parker is tough, no nonsense, and kills when necessary. His latest job teams him up with a gang of crooks looking to resteal some masterpiece paintings from a nouveau riche com-type billionaire who is less than honest. The paintings are secreted in a hidden location in the billionaire's luxurious hunting lodge. This book follows a familiar Parker plot outline: the crooks get together to plan a heist; Parker gets involved in some side business; plans go awry; things get improvised. In this book Parker's side business builds to a climax, but then ends too quickly. The final heist sequence packs suspense and action.

One reads a Parker book knowing that one cuts straight to the action, with little of the fat and detours found in too many crime books these days. Parker is not someone you would want to meet in a dark alley, but you do enjoy reading about.