Hmm, I never realized that TSR killed off this line of acessories. As far as I know, it is no more than two years old, and it's still fully viable on the webs ( heck, even Amazon carries a large selection of all things Birthright!). Nevertheless, Birthright is a unique setting, and it can be easily enjoyed. This book is a very good work on the nature of priestcraft in the world where this campaign is set ( and if it IS killed off, I advise you to get it quickly - out of print products don't linger too long on this site). It is also a very good work of AD&D priestcraft in general, and although it isn't as likely to help players as it will help DMs, but take my word - this book will ease the life of DMs immensely (remember that player whose priest would constantly stop to cast healing spells on everyone? Well, this book will stop that overconfident character dead in his tracks...)

TSR's only misstep since its revitalization is cancellation of the Birthright line. This book details the religions and priests of Cerilia, and is a very good supplement. Why more people didn't get into Birthright and keep the line alive is a mystery to me.

Unlike the linear "Slayground," the previous volume in the Parker series, Plunder Squad's all over the map. The first half of the book almost reads like a few short stories, linked by Parker's on-going search for someone who tried to kill him. We follow along as Parker goes from one botched job to the next, all the while waiting for any information that will bring him closer to his target.

Once that thread's taken care of, the second half of the book kicks in, and here Parker almost becomes a secondary character. We meet and follow his associates in an art heist, one which starts off fairly well but goes downhill fast. The mob gets involved, and Parker has to figure out a way to get out with both some money and his life.

A quick, enjoyable read, but more of a dark comedy than a crime caper. Doesn't have nearly as much action as "Slayground," but then again it has a more dynamic narrative.

One of Stark / Westlake's best. This hard to find Parker novel is worth the trouble of tracking down. A great book. One of the best of the Parker novels.

Parker ends up working with amateurs and a shaky ex-con as he plans the robbery of a coin convention. Parker does pick up a new love interest in Claire. The heist goes sour with a double-cross and it is up to Parker to improvise the escape. Same Parker series format and a quick read. If new to the Parker series start with the Hunter/Payback/Point Blank book.

... It even has an excellent Robert E. McGinnis cover painting. The story inside the book, of course, is just as excellent. Just what I've come to expect from Donald E. Westlake, regardless of whatever pen name he chooses to write under. Parker is a lean, mean, hardboiled machine as always, taking no prisoners and no 'crud'. Readers of the newer "Stark" novels might also be interested to know that this is the book where Parker meets his lady friend Clair, who in this 1967 version, is more of a femm fatale than she is in the present day. Bottom line: If you can find THE RARE COIN SCORE, grab it and read it!

This book starts with a bang, moves through a mystery to a heist, and then deals with problems, clean up, and near disaster. Along the way, we see the incredibly detailed story of exactly how a gambling ship might be ripped off. We watch Parker, the hero of this series of books, as he plans, executes, and then cleans up little messes. These stories are very fun to read, combining well researched detail with a fast pace.

In this book, there is one character that stands out -- the retired state employee, disgruntled, unhappy, who leads Parker to the gambling ship. I work in state government. I have met this guy. He rings entirely true. His inclusion in the story makes the logic of the caper work, adds intrigue, and allows the author to create the sort of character seldom seen in fiction -- an interesting functionary. These books are good fun.

In Richard Stark's dark new caper, the state of New York is experimenting with riverboat gambling. A floating casino's being tested for four months on the Hudson River to see how much money it brings in, and it's all going to be cash during the trial run.

Enter master criminal Parker, who's approached by an anti-gambling former state employee with a proposal to rob the boat. Something about this guy troubles Parker, but he goes ahead anyway, assembling a crack team of specialists to plan a beautifully ingenious raid.

Parker's motto in heists is "to try to control events" but he knows all too well that "they'll still get away from you anyway." Of course that's exactly what happens here, when the scent of all that money attracts other crooks with plans of their own and Parker has to clean up the mess.

Stark is the pseudonym of acclaimed mystery master Donald Westlake, author of last year's stunning The Ax, and his expert touch is evident in every part of this tense, tough and enthralling book.

I've been a HUGE Parker fan for years and welcomed Stark's return a couple of years back. If you liked the earlier "Score" novels, you will find the newest additions to the Parker saga to be just as well written.

I have to say that the folks at Mysterious Press have been makingme a happy man ever since they, along with Richard Stark (whose softer side is Donald Westlake), decided to bring back the greatest hardboiled series character of them all, Parker. What it appears they are doing is re-releasing an original Parker novel which is then followed by an all new Parker novel. For instance, this November will see the release of THE SCORE (old) in paperback and an all new parker in hardcover. As well as the release of FLASHFIRE (new) in the paperback edition. This is wonderful! On to THE MOURNER. This is not my favortie in the series by any means, but it is still a quick, harddboiled tale of double-crosses and revenge. in other words, precisely what you want from one of Stark's Parker novels! You will not be disappointed. Buy all the Stark books you can get your hands on because, believe me, one Parker novel and you will be hooked but good!

This time around, instead of the Big Caper, we get a revenge yarn . Parker is caught in the usual doublecross while lifting a statue from the home of an Eastern European diplomat. When he and Handy McKay are left for dead, it's up to Parker to recover the loot and exact revenge. Although this would be an excellent book from any other writer, it's a bit of a letdown from Stark/Westlake.

As a mystery writer with my debut novel in its initial release, I read just about everything Richard Stark writes. His Parker is as tough as any contemporary protagonist comes, and THE MOURNER is among Stark's best books. It is exactly what you would expect from Stark and Parker. Read it today or even sooner!

I just finished COMEBACK by Donald Westlake writing as Richard Stark. It was a heist novel starring "Parker" , the thief from Stark's novels written in the 1970's. It was great to see Parker back in this updated adventure. I hope Westlake writes more of them. In this book, Parker and his crew rip off a TV Preacher during his stadium show. Doublecrosses, violence, and cat-and-mouse games ensue. Westlake never gives the name of the city that 99% of the action takes place, but he seems to be dropping many clues. Its not California, the Midwest, Memphis or Baltimore. Can anyone tell me the setting for this novel? My guess is Philadelphia, although I can't be certain. Anyway, go out and read this book. Make some noise about it, too, so Westlake writes some more. This wasn't the best Parker novel ever, but it was head and shoulders above most of the crime novels written today. Also, if you are intersted in seeing where Quentin Tarantino got many of his ideas, read other Parker novels.

Although I adore the crime/detective genre I must confess that I'd never even heard of Richard Stark (and hadn't read Westlake either). But now I'm hooked. To my mind the writing - sharp, clear, direct prose that I would die for - in "Comeback" is superb and I coundn't put the book down. The characters were equally as fascinating as some of the best in Elmore Leonard, who is one of my all time favorites favorites. I'll wait until "Backflash" comes out in paperback, but in the meantime I'm ordering some of the older books. Can't wait till they arrive!

Parker is a heister, a man who plans and carries out major thefts with the help of other heisters, chosen for the job at hand. He is unabashedly a crook. The stakes are real -- if you are hurt on a job, you will likely be killed by your partners who want to ensure their safety.

In this book, Parker is ripping off a televangelist, at a stadium prayer revival. Things start going wrong after his team gets the money. The story is gripping, and a fast read. The author stays true to the characters and situation.

There is an entire genre of fiction -- Block's hitman series, Max Allan Collins' Quarry novels, and these fine novels about Parker -- that involve criminal men acting within their criminal impulses in adventurous situations. For some reason I am drawn to these stories -- they offer no moral redemption, but have a hard boiled honesty about the human condition. And they are fun to read. probably because your average white bread suburbanite loves to imagine a transgressive life of adventurous crime.

This one isn't up to par with it's predecessor's. It's an okay read, but not as engaging as the first two. It's hard to believe the "Outfit" guys are that easy to steal from and kill. It all happens so easily that it's not very enjoyable.

The name is Parker and he's not one for making idle threats. When he talks, he follows through with brutal efficiency. And so, when he warned the organised crime boss not to cross him or he would hurt the organisation, it would have been a good idea to listen. What would not have been a good idea was to attempt to put a hit on Parker.

When the hit fails, as of course it must, Parker sets in place a devious plan to hurt the Outfit just as he promised. What follows is a highly entertaining string of crimes around the country, striking blow after blow on behalf of our anti-hero, Parker.

If you're simply after a flat out entertaining book of action sequences that aren't cluttered up with pesky character development, then this is the book for you. As a matter of fact, the entire Parker series is for you. Parker remains the true dispassionate enigma. Sure he's heartless, cruel and vindictive but you've just gotta love the rascal.

I absolutely love Richard Stark's (Donal Westlake) Parker novels! Here we have THE OUTFIT back from 1963 and it still works today! Parker and his underworld cohorts decide to toss the rule bookl out the window and start knocking over syndicate scores. This is tight, fast, and hard. Read Stark or miss out entirely!

A good book, to be sure, but not one of Stark's best. Parker is hired to plan a robbery focusing on an entire town. The heist goes off without a hitch, but unforseen circumstances come into play, and Parker has to fix the problem his own way. About equal with Backflash and Firebreak.

Richard Stark ( Donald E Westake) gives us the ultimate in heists with this terrific early Parker novel. When Parker hears of a plan to rob an entire town, he's leery of the inside man and the number of thieves needed to pull off the caper. Nevertheless he is brought into the scheme and together with 11 other fellow thieves, they pull off the dream caper until the double cross inevitable in a Parker novel. In the meantime, the inside man acts on the plan that he formed for vengeance. Grofield (Stark's actor/thief) falls for a hostage and a teen leaving a night of passion at his girlfriend's after curfew also throw monkey wrenches into the story. When the team makes it to their hideout after several deaths and an inferno, it further unravels as the group waits out the police search. This is Stark at his finest. Granted it's a little dated and the plan wouldn't work today. The townfolk have to place out-of-town calls through operators at a central switchboard and the switchboard operators are covered by the team. Imagine the problems in today's cellular world. Nevertheless, this pulls together several of Parker's cronies from previous capers and introduces new ones. We get the usual scenes of plan, payoff,doublecross and Parker's efforts to escape the consequences of the doublecross. These are set pieces in any Parker novel and Stark works them like a pro. If you're just discovering Parker through his new capers, this is a must have from the original series.

I got this book by mistake, because one of Donald Westlake's pseudonyms is "Richard Stark." With this hilarious operatic travesty, the real Richard Stark has far surpassed the man behind his namesake. Let me explain.

One of the funniest Westlake novels is "Dancing Aztechs." Perhaps five times in the course of a first reading I had to put it down because I was laughing so hard I couldn't go on. "Screaming and Yelling," by way of comparison, reduced me to the same helpless state two or three times *per chapter*.

If you're musical you'll love it; if you're not, you'll love it anyhow. Buy, buy, BUY!!

(Carping cavil: Stark needs a proofreader. The typesetter uses "principle" for "principal" and "de rigeuer" for "de rigueur"; punctuation is annoyingly random, with plenty of unbalanced commas and sentences reaching full stops before arriving at their verbs. This is distracting. Often the reader must stop reading to figure out what he meant. I'm sending the author my own proofread copy, which I hope his publishers incorporate in the next printing.)

--Anders R. Sterner

It was an easy job for Parker, knocking over the armored car, but his inexpert driver takes the corner too fast spoiling the getaway. So Parker must take cover in an amusement park closed for the winter. But he's seen going in by a pair of crooked cops and the mob guys who are paying them off. And the one thing on their mind is to go after Parker and take away the money and make Parker disappear at the same time.

Donald Westlake, alias Richard Stark, really knows how to spin a tale. The plotting is tight and the prose is sparse. Parker is a tough man in a fight and it's fun watching him get out of a situation where he's trapped in a box with no way out and twenty men hunting him down. A good crime read.

Beverly Hills Cop 3 is also known as "Die Hard in an amusement park," due to the climactic battle in which Eddie Murphy, holed up in a deserted amusement park, takes on a tide of villains. I don't know if the filmmakers realized it, but this is the same plot as Richard Stark's Slayground, published in 1971.

The narrative is as linear as an old pulp novel. The book opens with an armored truck robbery that quickly goes wrong. Parker, alone, escapes with a satchel of money by climbing the fence of a nearby amusement park, which is closed for the winter. Parker walks right into a meeting between a local mob boss and a few crooked cops. Parker escapes into the park, only to find there's no other way out. And he can't just leave, because he knows those mobsters out there will be waiting for him. He also knows that soon enough they'll realize he's the robber being mentioned in the news reports, the robber who has seventy grand on him. So Parker sets up as many traps as he can in the park. That night the mobsters come in after him, and what follows is a nail-biting thriller that would be fit for the screen, if not for its single-track mind and lack of subplot. It's survival of the fittest all the way, as Parker does whatever he can to [detour] anyone who comes after him, and escape with his life.

The novel itself doesn't start out so linear, as first we follow Parker through his botched robbery, and then we go back to before the robbery, and meet each of the mobsters and crooked cops. Once these pleasantries are out of the way, it's straight-up action and adventure time. Parker is his usual cold, calculating, monosyllabic self, and the assortment of mobsters and cops after him are each well-drawn and memorable. There are also several reversals and surprises strewn through the plot, such as when Parker "lucks out" and kills the last person you'd expect him to. However, what at first seemed like a lucky break soon turns out to be Parker's misfortune.

All in all, Slayground is an entertaining, quick read, but has apparently not yet been reprinted. I'd suggest finding a copy at your local library, instead of paying a fortune for a used edition.

This one is Super-Parker. I am in awe of Stark's (Donald Westlake) skills at placing the entire action in a closed-for-the-season amusement park with only one exit. Parker is trapped not only by crooked cops, but the bad guys as well. What a kaleidoscope of rides, color and strange machinery! Yet it is all aslant. Rather than crowds and summertime weather, it is empty, cold and bleak.

The tension never lets up. Will the bad guys find Parker's stash? Will they corner him? Can he pull another trick out of his bag? Will the scaffolding hold?

I am always baffled when people complain of lack of characterization in Parker novels. To me, the beauty is being right inside Parker's head when he meticulously plans his heists, revenge, and plans. True, we never read of honor, sensitivity, introspection, and love for the very good reason Parker possesses none of these traits. I always think Parker would be a totally successful CEO of a giant corporation if he had taken up another line of work.

"Slayground" is vintage Parker, hard-boiled, violent and as perfectly crafted as a fine watch.