Richard Stark Books In Order

Parker Books In Publication Order

  1. Payback / Point Blank / The Hunter (1962)
  2. The Steel Hit / The Man With The Getaway Face (1963)
  3. The Outfit (1963)
  4. The Mourner (1963)
  5. The Score / Killtown (1963)
  6. The Jugger (1965)
  7. The Seventh / The Split (1966)
  8. The Handle / Run Lethal (1966)
  9. The Rare Coin Score (1967)
  10. The Green Eagle Score (1967)
  11. The Black Ice Score (1968)
  12. The Sour Lemon Score (1969)
  13. Slayground (1971)
  14. Deadly Edge (1971)
  15. Plunder Squad (1972)
  16. Butcher’s Moon (1974)
  17. Comeback (1997)
  18. Backflash (1998)
  19. Flashfire / Parker (2000)
  20. Firebreak (2001)
  21. Breakout (2002)
  22. Nobody Runs Forever (2004)
  23. Ask The Parrot (2006)
  24. Dirty Money (2008)

Alan Grofield Books In Publication Order

  1. The Damsel (1967)
  2. The Dame (1969)
  3. The Blackbird (1969)
  4. Lemons Never Lie (1971)

Alfred Hitchcock Presents Books In Publication Order

  1. Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories That Go Bump in the Night (By:) (1940)
  2. Stories They Wouldn’t Let Me Do on TV (By:) (1957)
  3. Alfred Hitchcock Presents 13 More Stories They Wouldn’t Let Me Do on TV (By:Robert Bloch,,Ray Bradbury,Robert Arthur,,Roald Dahl,,,,,,,James Francis Dwyer) (1957)
  4. 12 Stories They Wouldn’t Let Me Do on TV (By:Robert Arthur) (1957)
  5. Alfred Hitchcock Presents Stories for Late at Night (By:Robert Arthur) (1961)
  6. Alfred Hitchcock Presents: More Stories for Late at Night [Unabridged] (By:) (1962)
  7. Alfred Hitchcock’s A Hangman’s Dozen (As: Donald E Westlake, With: ,,Ray Bradbury,Robert Arthur,Richard Matheson) (1962)
  8. Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories My Mother Never Told Me (By:Shirley Jackson,Robert Arthur,Richard Matheson,F. Scott Fitzgerald) (1963)
  9. Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories Not for the Nervous (By:Ellis Peters,Dorothy L Sayers,,,Ray Bradbury,,Robert Arthur,Richard Matheson,,Michael Gilbert,,,Carter Dickson,,Julian May,,,,,,,,Margot Bennett) (1965)
  10. Alfred Hitchcock Presents: A Month Of Mystery (By:) (1970)
  11. Down by the Old Blood Stream (By:) (1971)
  12. Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Master’s Choice. (By:) (1979)
  13. Stories That Go Bump In The Night: V. 1 (By:) (1982)

Parker Book Covers

Alan Grofield Book Covers

Alfred Hitchcock Presents Book Covers

Richard Stark Books Overview

Payback / Point Blank / The Hunter

You probably haven t ever noticed them. But they ve noticed you. They notice everything. That’s their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack. They re thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They re pros, and Parker is far and away the best of them. If you re planning a job, you want him in. Tough, smart, hardworking, and relentlessly focused on his trade, he is the heister s heister, the robber s robber, the heavy s heavy. You don t want to cross him, and you don t want to get in his way, because he ll stop at nothing to get what he s after. Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor sharp prose style and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover and become addicted to. In The Hunter, the first volume in the series, Parker roars into New York City, seeking revenge on the woman who betrayed him and on the man who took his money, stealing and scamming his way to redemption. Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible. Washington Post Book World Elmore Leonard wouldn t write what he does if Stark hadn t been there before. And Quentin Tarantino wouldn t write what he does without Leonard…
. Old master that he is, Stark does all of them one better. Los Angeles Times Donald Westlake s Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you ve been telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust these are the books you ll want on that desert island. Lawrence Block 20081005

The Steel Hit / The Man With The Getaway Face

You probably haven t ever noticed them. But they ve noticed you. They notice everything. That’s their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack. They re thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They re pros, and Parker is far and away the best of them. If you re planning a job, you want him in. Tough, smart, hardworking, and relentlessly focused on his trade, he is the heister s heister, the robber s robber, the heavy s heavy. You don t want to cross him, and you don t want to get in his way, because he ll stop at nothing to get what he s after. Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor sharp prose style and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover and become addicted to. Parker goes under the knife in The Man with the Getaway Face, changing his face to escape the mob and a contract on his life. Along the way he scores his biggest heist yet: an armored car in New Jersey, stuffed with cash. Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible. Washington Post Book World Elmore Leonard wouldn t write what he does if Stark hadn t been there before. And Quentin Tarantino wouldn t write what he does without Leonard…
. Old master that he is, Stark does all of them one better. Los Angeles Times Donald Westlake s Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you ve been telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust these are the books you ll want on that desert island. Lawrence Block

The Outfit

You probably haven t ever noticed them. But they ve noticed you. They notice everything. That’s their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack.
They re thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They re pros, and Parker is far and away the best of them. If you re planning a job, you want him in. Tough, smart, hardworking, and relentlessly focused on his trade, he is the heister s heister, the robber s robber, the heavy s heavy. You don t want to cross him, and you don t want to get in his way, because he ll stop at nothing to get what he s after.
Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor sharp prose style and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover and become addicted to.
In The Outfit, Parker goes toe to toe with the mob hitting them with heist after heist after heist and the entire underworld learns an unforgettable lesson: whatever Parker does, he does deadly.

Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible. Washington Post Book World

Elmore Leonard wouldn t write what he does if Stark hadn t been there before. And Quentin Tarantino wouldn t write what he does without Leonard…
. Old master that he is, Stark does all of them one better. Los Angeles Times

Donald Westlake s Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you ve been telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust these are the books you ll want on that desert island. Lawrence Block

The Mourner

You probably haven t ever noticed them. But they ve noticed you. They notice everything. That’s their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack. They re thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They re pros, and Parker is far and away the best of them. If you re planning a job, you want him in. Tough, smart, hardworking, and relentlessly focused on his trade, he is the heister s heister, the robber s robber, the heavy s heavy. You don t want to cross him, and you don t want to get in his way, because he ll stop at nothing to get what he s after. Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor sharp prose style and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency Stark is a master of crime writing; his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover and become addicted to. This season s offerings include volumes 4 6 in the series: The Mourner, The Score, and The Jugger. The Mourner is a story of convergence of cultures and of guys with guns. Hot on the trail of a statue stolen from a fifteenth century French tomb, Parker enters a world of eccentric art collectors, greedy foreign officials, and shady KGB agents. Next, Parker works with a group of professional con men in The Score on his biggest job yet robbing an entire town in North Dakota. In The Jugger, Parker travels to Nebraska to help out a geriatric safecracker who knows too many of his criminal secrets. By the time he arrives, the safecracker is dead and Parker s skeletons are on the verge of escaping from their closet unless Parker resorts to lethal measures. Whatever Stark writes, I read. He s a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude. Elmore Leonard Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible. Washington Post Book World Donald Westlake s Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you ve been telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust these are the books you ll want on that desert island. Lawrence Block 20090417

The Score / Killtown

You probably haven t ever noticed them. But they ve noticed you. They notice everything. That’s their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack. They re thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They re pros, and Parker is far and away the best of them. If you re planning a job, you want him in. Tough, smart, hardworking, and relentlessly focused on his trade, he is the heister s heister, the robber s robber, the heavy s heavy. You don t want to cross him, and you don t want to get in his way, because he ll stop at nothing to get what he s after. Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor sharp prose style and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency Stark is a master of crime writing; his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover and become addicted to. Parker works with a group of professional con men in The Score on his biggest job yet robbing an entire town in North Dakota. Whatever Stark writes, I read. He s a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude. Elmore Leonard Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible. Washington Post Book World Donald Westlake s Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you ve been telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust these are the books you ll want on that desert island. Lawrence Block 20090417

The Jugger

You probably haven t ever noticed them. But they ve noticed you. They notice everything. That’s their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack. They re thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They re pros, and Parker is far and away the best of them. If you re planning a job, you want him in. Tough, smart, hardworking, and relentlessly focused on his trade, he is the heister s heister, the robber s robber, the heavy s heavy. You don t want to cross him, and you don t want to get in his way, because he ll stop at nothing to get what he s after. Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor sharp prose style and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency Stark is a master of crime writing; his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover and become addicted to. This season s offerings include volumes 4 6 in the series: The Mourner, The Score, and The Jugger. The Mourner is a story of convergence of cultures and of guys with guns. Hot on the trail of a statue stolen from a fifteenth century French tomb, Parker enters a world of eccentric art collectors, greedy foreign officials, and shady KGB agents. Next, Parker works with a group of professional con men in The Score on his biggest job yet robbing an entire town in North Dakota. In The Jugger, Parker travels to Nebraska to help out a geriatric safecracker who knows too many of his criminal secrets. By the time he arrives, the safecracker is dead and Parker s skeletons are on the verge of escaping from their closet unless Parker resorts to lethal measures. Whatever Stark writes, I read. He s a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude. Elmore Leonard Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible. Washington Post Book World Donald Westlake s Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you ve been telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust these are the books you ll want on that desert island. Lawrence Block 20090417

The Seventh / The Split

Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark’s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor sharp prose style and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover and become addicted to. This season s offerings include volumes 7 9 in the series: The Seventh, The Handle, and The Rare Coin Score. In The Seventh, the heist of a college football game goes bad, and the take is stolen by a crazed, violent amateur. Parker must outrun the cops and the killer to retrieve his cash. In The Handle, Parker is enlisted by the mob to knock off an island casino guarded by speedboats and heavies, forty miles from the Texas coast. The Rare Coin Score features the first appearance of Claire, who will steal Parker s heister s heart while together they steal two million dollars of rare coins. Parker…
lumbers through the pages of Richard Stark s noir novels scattering dead bodies like peanut shells…
. In a complex world he makes things simple. William Grimes, New York Times Whatever Stark writes, I read. He s a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude. Elmore Leonard Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible. Washington Post Book World Donald Westlake s Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you ve been telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust these are the books you ll want on that desert island. Lawrence Block Also available from the University of Chicago Press:The HunterThe Man with the Getaway FaceThe OutfitThe MournerThe JuggerThe Score 20091214

The Handle / Run Lethal

Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark’s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor sharp prose style and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover and become addicted to. This season s offerings include volumes 7 9 in the series: The Seventh, The Handle, and The Rare Coin Score.

In The Seventh, the heist of a college football game goes bad, and the take is stolen by a crazed, violent amateur. Parker must outrun the cops and the killer to retrieve his cash. In The Handle, Parker is enlisted by the mob to knock off an island casino guarded by speedboats and heavies, forty miles from the Texas coast. The Rare Coin Score features the first appearance of Claire, who will steal Parker s heister s heart while together they steal two million dollars of rare coins.

Parker…
lumbers through the pages of Richard Stark s noir novels scattering dead bodies like peanut shells…
. In a complex world he makes things simple. William Grimes, New York Times

Whatever Stark writes, I read. He s a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude. Elmore Leonard

Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible. Washington Post Book World

Donald Westlake s Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you ve been telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust these are the books you ll want on that desert island. Lawrence Block

Also available from the University of Chicago Press:

The Hunter

The Man with the Getaway Face

The Outfit

The Mourner

The Jugger

The Score

The Rare Coin Score

Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark’s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor sharp prose style and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover and become addicted to. This season s offerings include volumes 7 9 in the series: The Seventh, The Handle, and The Rare Coin Score. In The Seventh, the heist of a college football game goes bad, and the take is stolen by a crazed, violent amateur. Parker must outrun the cops and the killer to retrieve his cash. In The Handle, Parker is enlisted by the mob to knock off an island casino guarded by speedboats and heavies, forty miles from the Texas coast. The Rare Coin Score features the first appearance of Claire, who will steal Parker s heister s heart while together they steal two million dollars of rare coins. Parker…
lumbers through the pages of Richard Stark s noir novels scattering dead bodies like peanut shells…
. In a complex world he makes things simple. William Grimes, New York Times Whatever Stark writes, I read. He s a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude. Elmore Leonard Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible. Washington Post Book World Donald Westlake s Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you ve been telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust these are the books you ll want on that desert island. Lawrence Block Also available from the University of Chicago Press:The HunterThe Man with the Getaway FaceThe OutfitThe MournerThe JuggerThe Score

The Green Eagle Score

Here’s Parker planning to steal the entire payroll of an Air Force base in upstate New York, with help from Marty Fusco, fresh out of the pen, and a smart aleck finance clerk named Devers. Holed up with family in a scrappy little town, the hoisters prepare for the risky job by trying to shorten the odds. But the ice is thinner than Parker likes to think and Marty s ex wife is much more complicated. Parker is refreshingly amoral, a thief who always gets away with the swag. Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible. Washington Post Book World

The Black Ice Score

You probably haven t ever noticed them. But they ve noticed you. They notice everything. That’s their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack. They re thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They re pros, and Parker is far and away the best of them. If you re planning a job, you want him in. Tough, smart, hardworking, and relentlessly focused on his trade, he is the heister s heister, the robber s robber, the heavy s heavy. You don t want to cross him, and you don t want to get in his way, because he ll stop at nothing to get what he s after. Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor sharp prose style and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency Stark is a master of crime writing; his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover and become addicted to. This season s offerings include volumes 4 6 in the series: The Mourner, The Score, and The Jugger. The Mourner is a story of convergence of cultures and of guys with guns. Hot on the trail of a statue stolen from a fifteenth century French tomb, Parker enters a world of eccentric art collectors, greedy foreign officials, and shady KGB agents. Next, Parker works with a group of professional con men in The Score on his biggest job yet robbing an entire town in North Dakota. In The Jugger, Parker travels to Nebraska to help out a geriatric safecracker who knows too many of his criminal secrets. By the time he arrives, the safecracker is dead and Parker s skeletons are on the verge of escaping from their closet unless Parker resorts to lethal measures. Whatever Stark writes, I read. He s a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude. Elmore Leonard Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible. Washington Post Book World Donald Westlake s Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you ve been telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust these are the books you ll want on that desert island. Lawrence Block 20090417

The Sour Lemon Score

Bank robberies should run like clockwork, right? If your name’s Parker, you expect nothing less. Until, that is, one of your partners gets too greedy for his own good. The four way split following a job leaves too small a take for George Uhl, who begins to pick off his fellow hoisters, one by one. The first mistake? That he doesn t begin things by putting a bullet in Parker. That means he won t get the chance to make a second. One of the darkest novels in the series, this caper proves the adage that no one crosses Parker and lives Whatever Stark writes, I read. He s a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude. Elmore Leonard The non hero: the ruthless, unrepentant, single minded operator in a humorless and amoral world…
. No one depicts this scene with greater clarity than Richard Stark. The New York Times

Slayground

By the time Richard Stark sat down to write ‘Deadly Edge’ in 1971, he’d been chronicling the adventures of his antihero, Parker, for nearly a decade. But it turns out he was just warming up: the next three ‘Parker’ novels would see Stark crank everything up a notch tightening the writing, heightening the violence, and, most of all, hardening the deadly heister at the books’ heart. ‘Deadly Edge’ kicks things off by bidding a brutal adieu to the 1960s: Parker robs a rock concert, but the heist goes sour, and he finds himself and his woman, Claire menaced by a pair of sad*istic, drug crazed hippies. Slayground turns the hunter into prey, as Parker gets trapped in a shuttered amuseme*nt park, besieged by a bevy of local mobsters. He’s low on bullets but, as anyone who’s crossed his path knows, that definitely doesn’t mean he’s defenseless. Finally, in Plunder Squad, job after job disintegrates into failure and violence, and a rare act of mercy from earlier in the series comes back to bite Parker hard. These books by Stark reveal a master craftsman working at the height of his powers, and they deserve a place on the bookshelf of every fan of crime fiction.

Deadly Edge

By the time Richard Stark sat down to write ‘Deadly Edge‘ in 1971, he’d been chronicling the adventures of his antihero, Parker, for nearly a decade. But it turns out he was just warming up: the next three ‘Parker’ novels would see Stark crank everything up a notch tightening the writing, heightening the violence, and, most of all, hardening the deadly heister at the books’ heart. ‘Deadly Edge‘ kicks things off by bidding a brutal adieu to the 1960s: Parker robs a rock concert, but the heist goes sour, and he finds himself and his woman, Claire menaced by a pair of sad*istic, drug crazed hippies. Slayground turns the hunter into prey, as Parker gets trapped in a shuttered amuseme*nt park, besieged by a bevy of local mobsters. He’s low on bullets but, as anyone who’s crossed his path knows, that definitely doesn’t mean he’s defenseless. Finally, in Plunder Squad, job after job disintegrates into failure and violence, and a rare act of mercy from earlier in the series comes back to bite Parker hard. These books by Stark reveal a master craftsman working at the height of his powers, and they deserve a place on the bookshelf of every fan of crime fiction.

Plunder Squad

By the time Richard Stark sat down to write ‘Deadly Edge’ in 1971, he’d been chronicling the adventures of his antihero, Parker, for nearly a decade. But it turns out he was just warming up: the next three ‘Parker’ novels would see Stark crank everything up a notch tightening the writing, heightening the violence, and, most of all, hardening the deadly heister at the books’ heart. ‘Deadly Edge’ kicks things off by bidding a brutal adieu to the 1960s: Parker robs a rock concert, but the heist goes sour, and he finds himself and his woman, Claire menaced by a pair of sad*istic, drug crazed hippies. Slayground turns the hunter into prey, as Parker gets trapped in a shuttered amuseme*nt park, besieged by a bevy of local mobsters. He’s low on bullets but, as anyone who’s crossed his path knows, that definitely doesn’t mean he’s defenseless. Finally, in Plunder Squad, job after job disintegrates into failure and violence, and a rare act of mercy from earlier in the series comes back to bite Parker hard. These books by Stark reveal a master craftsman working at the height of his powers, and they deserve a place on the bookshelf of every fan of crime fiction.

Butcher’s Moon

The sixteenth Parker novel, Butcher’s Moon is more than twice as long most of the master heister s adventures, and absolutely jammed with the action, violence, and nerve jangling tension readers have come to expect. Back in the corrupt town where he lost his money, and nearly his life, in Slayground, Parker assembles a stunning cast of characters from throughout his career for one gigantic, blowout job: starting and finishing a gang war. It feels like the Parker novel to end all Parker novels, and for nearly twenty five years that s what it was. After its publication in 1974, Donald Westlake said, Richard Stark proved to me that he had a life of his own by simply disappearing. He was gone. Featuring a new introduction by Westlake s close friend and writing partner, Lawrence Block, this classic Parker adventures deserve a place of honor on any crime fan s bookshelf. More than thirty five years later, Butcher’s Moon still packs a punch: keep your calendar clear when you pick it up, because once you open it you won’t want to do anything but read until the last shot is fired.

Comeback

After the bloodbath of Butcher’s Moon, the action filled blowout Parker adventure, Donald Westlake said, ‘Richard Stark proved to me that he had a life of his own by simply disappearing. He was gone.’ And for nearly twenty five years, he stayed away, while readers waited. But nothing bad is truly gone forever, and Parker’s as bad as they come. According to Westlake, one day in 1997, ‘suddenly, he came back from the dead, with a chalky prison pallor’ and the resulting novel, Comeback, showed that neither Stark nor Parker had lost a single step. Knocking over a highly lucrative religious revival show, Parker reminds us that not all criminals don ski masks some prefer to hide behind the wings of fallen angels.

Backflash

A large part of the pleasure of having Richard Stark back writing aboutthe master criminal Parker is the obvious delight that Stark a pen name forDonald Westlake takes in doing the research for his capers. This one must have been a blast. Certainly, he must have spent time on board a cruise ship to get all the inside details for Parker’s planned robbery of a fictional floating casino called the Spirit of the Hudson details such as how to get the cash off inside a wheelchair’s converted potty seat or how to make use of a hard shelled female publicist. Then there must have been a tour of old towns along the Hudson, to come up with this letter perfect description of a seedy saloon: ‘It was called the Lido, but it shouldn’t have been. It was an old bar, a gray wood cube cut deep into the ground floor of a narrow 19th Century brick house, and at two on a sunny afternoon in April it was dark and dry, smelling of old whiskey and dead wood…
. At the bar, muttering together about sports and politics other people’s victories and defeats were nine or ten shabbily dressed guys who were older than their teeth.’After Comeback Parker’s triumphant return to action after a 20 year hiatus, readers know that all the best planning in the world can’t account for fate or human weakness. This time, a weirdly motivated retired civil servant, an out of control smalltown cop, and some greedy bikers stand in the way of Parker and Co.’s successful removal of $400,000 from the gambling boat. Stark is too gifted an artist to make their intervention trivial, and also too talented an entertainer to leave his old and new Parker fans unsatisfied with the outcome. Dick Adler

Flashfire / Parker

Richard Stark’s professional criminal, Parker, is so hard boiled hecould make an egg cry. Blunt and matter of fact the less charitable might saycold and calculating, he has perfected the art of theft. Unfortunately,perfection can be a relative term, a concept made vulnerable by the honor orlack thereof among thieves. When Parker joins forces with three other crooks torob a Nebraska bank, he’s prepared for a gentlemanly division of the proceeds,not for a double cross. But his colleagues have other plans for his share: itwill be their seed money for a $12 million Palm Beach jewel heist. What’s Parkerto do but make his own plans to steal the Palm Beach loot from the double crossers?Working his way across the Southeast in a series of carefully executed robberiesand changes of identity, Parker arrives in Palm Beach, where he finds morebarriers along the path of revenge than he could have imagined. Chief amongthem: a diabolically clever plan by his former partners; a real estate agentnamed Leslie with an unfortunately sharp sense of character; and a team ofprofessional hit men out for Parker’s blood but why?. In his third outing after a long retirement by Stark the pen name of Donald E. Westlake, revered for the comic capers of his bumbling crook, Dortmunder,Parker is in fine form: steely, sardonic, detached. Stark’s acidly funnydepictions of Palm Beach and its native fauna are a bonus: Alice Prester Young knew she was a herd animal, and enjoyed theknowledge, because the herd she moved with was the very best herd in allthe world. For instance, here she was, at five thirty this Thursday afternoon,in her chauffeured Daimler, with her new husband, the delicious Jack, to pick upjust the perfect jewelry for tonight’s pre auction ball, and she knewwhen she arrived at the bank she would be surrounded by her own kind,chauffeured and cosseted women with attractive escorts, all coming to the bankthe only bank one could use, really because this particular bank stayed openlate whenever there was an important ball in town, just so the herd could comeget its jewelry out of the safe deposit boxes. Not to be missed by fans of gritty noir, nor by those who prefer their crimecocktails with a comic twist: Stark and Parker will give you both. KellyFlynn

Firebreak

When the telephone rang, Parker was out in the garage killing a man. Someone from his past had hired a soon to be departed assassinand Parker wasnt one to give a guy a second chance. But where theres one cockroach, a whole nest isnt far behind. Now, with one eye over his shoulder, Parkers gotta keep focused on the project at hand: breaking into a computer moguls compound to retrieve some priceless, purloined works of art. Parker is feeling the pressure, but thankfully, hes always at his dead on best when hes got a deadline.

Breakout

One Way in. No Way Out. Even master criminals make mistakes. Parker’s most recent sin has landed him in prison, where it’s only a matter of time before the law uncovers his real name and the extent of his astounding criminal career. To escape, Parker must ignore one of his cardinal rules and take on the only partners he can find. Yet his fellow convicts demand a price: the moment they get free, they want Parker to help them break into a former armory now storing a mother lode of precious gems. For Parker, the plan includes too many people, too many complications, and too many weak links. But with a potential big payoff just ahead, Parker is willing to jump out of the frying pan, into the fire, and onto a scheme that will soon pit every man against every other. Just the way Parker likes it…

Nobody Runs Forever

Master criminal Parker is back and in deeper, darker trouble than ever before. The classic anti hero is forced to use every trick in his dubious arsenal to avoid having to pay the ultimate price for his questionable line of work.

Ask The Parrot

Sometimes mystery master Donald E. Westlake is the author of uproarious crime capers. Sometimes he has a mean streak and its name is Parker. From his noir classic The Man with the Getaway Face to his recent novel Nobody Runs Forever, whenever Westlake writes as Stark, he lets Parker run loose a ruthless criminal in a world of vulnerable ‘straights.’ On a sunny October afternoon a man is running up a hill. He’s not dressed for running. Below him are barking police dogs and waiting up ahead is a stranger with a rifle, a life full of regrets, and a parrot at home who will mutely witness just how much trouble the runner, Parker, can bring into an ordinary life. The rabbit hunter is Tom Lindahl, a small town lonely heart nursing a big time grudge against the racetrack that fired him. He knows from the moment he sees Parker that he’s met a professional thief and a man with murder in his blood. Rescuing Parker from the chase hounds, Lindahl invites the fugitive into his secluded home. He plans to rip off his former employer and exact a deadly measure of revenge if he can get Parker to help. But Tom doesn’t know Parker and that the desperate criminal will do anything to survive no matter who has to die…

Dirty Money

‘ One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century…
Richard Stark, real name Donald Westlake…
His Parker books form a genre all their own.’ John Banville, Booker Prize winning author of The SeaMaster criminal Parker takes another turn for the worse as he tries to recover loot from a heist gone terribly wrong. In Nobody Runs Forever, Parker and two cohorts stole the assets of a bank in transit, but the police heat was so great they could only escape if they left the money behind. In this follow up novel, Parker and his associates plot to reclaim the loot, which they hid in the choir loft of an unused country church. As they implement the plan, people on both sides of the law use the forces at their command to stop Parker and grab the goods for themselves. Though Parker’s new getaway van is an old Ford Econoline with ‘Holy Redeemer Choir’ on its doors, his gang is anything but holy, and Parker will do whatever it takes to redeem his prize, no matter who gets hurt in the process. .

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories That Go Bump in the Night (By:)

Published by Random House. Per the dust jacket:…
twenty three stories, a novelette, and a novel guaranteed to turn your hair white overnight.’ Stories selected by Mr. Hitchcock include: Casablanca by Thomas M. Disch, Fishhead by Irvin S. Cobb, Camera Obscura by Basil Copper, A Death in the Family by Miriam Allen deFord, Men Without Bones by Gerald Kersh, Not With a Bang by Damon Knight, Party Games by John Burke, X Marks the Pedwalk by Fritz Leiber, Curious Adventure of Mr. Bond by Nugent Barker, Two Spinsters by E. Phillips Oppenheim, The Knife by Robert Arthur, The Cage by Ray Russell, It by Theodore Sturgeon, The Road to Mictlantecutli by Adobe James, Guide to Doom by Ellis Peters, The Estuary by Margaret St. Clair, Tough Town by William Sambrot, The Troll by T. H. White, Evening at the Black House by Robert Somerlott, One of the Dead by William Wood, The Real Thing by Robert Specht, Journey to Death by Donald E. Westlake, Master of the Hounds by Algis Budrys, The Candidate by Henry Slesar, and Out of the Deeps by John Wyndham.

Stories They Wouldn’t Let Me Do on TV (By:)

Published by Random House. Per the dust jacket:…
twenty three stories, a novelette, and a novel guaranteed to turn your hair white overnight.’ Stories selected by Mr. Hitchcock include: Casablanca by Thomas M. Disch, Fishhead by Irvin S. Cobb, Camera Obscura by Basil Copper, A Death in the Family by Miriam Allen deFord, Men Without Bones by Gerald Kersh, Not With a Bang by Damon Knight, Party Games by John Burke, X Marks the Pedwalk by Fritz Leiber, Curious Adventure of Mr. Bond by Nugent Barker, Two Spinsters by E. Phillips Oppenheim, The Knife by Robert Arthur, The Cage by Ray Russell, It by Theodore Sturgeon, The Road to Mictlantecutli by Adobe James, Guide to Doom by Ellis Peters, The Estuary by Margaret St. Clair, Tough Town by William Sambrot, The Troll by T. H. White, Evening at the Black House by Robert Somerlott, One of the Dead by William Wood, The Real Thing by Robert Specht, Journey to Death by Donald E. Westlake, Master of the Hounds by Algis Budrys, The Candidate by Henry Slesar, and Out of the Deeps by John Wyndham.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents 13 More Stories They Wouldn’t Let Me Do on TV (By:Robert Bloch,,Ray Bradbury,Robert Arthur,,Roald Dahl,,,,,,,James Francis Dwyer)

Published by Random House. Per the dust jacket:…
twenty three stories, a novelette, and a novel guaranteed to turn your hair white overnight.’ Stories selected by Mr. Hitchcock include: Casablanca by Thomas M. Disch, Fishhead by Irvin S. Cobb, Camera Obscura by Basil Copper, A Death in the Family by Miriam Allen deFord, Men Without Bones by Gerald Kersh, Not With a Bang by Damon Knight, Party Games by John Burke, X Marks the Pedwalk by Fritz Leiber, Curious Adventure of Mr. Bond by Nugent Barker, Two Spinsters by E. Phillips Oppenheim, The Knife by Robert Arthur, The Cage by Ray Russell, It by Theodore Sturgeon, The Road to Mictlantecutli by Adobe James, Guide to Doom by Ellis Peters, The Estuary by Margaret St. Clair, Tough Town by William Sambrot, The Troll by T. H. White, Evening at the Black House by Robert Somerlott, One of the Dead by William Wood, The Real Thing by Robert Specht, Journey to Death by Donald E. Westlake, Master of the Hounds by Algis Budrys, The Candidate by Henry Slesar, and Out of the Deeps by John Wyndham.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Master’s Choice. (By:)

Published by Random House. Per the dust jacket:…
twenty three stories, a novelette, and a novel guaranteed to turn your hair white overnight.’ Stories selected by Mr. Hitchcock include: Casablanca by Thomas M. Disch, Fishhead by Irvin S. Cobb, Camera Obscura by Basil Copper, A Death in the Family by Miriam Allen deFord, Men Without Bones by Gerald Kersh, Not With a Bang by Damon Knight, Party Games by John Burke, X Marks the Pedwalk by Fritz Leiber, Curious Adventure of Mr. Bond by Nugent Barker, Two Spinsters by E. Phillips Oppenheim, The Knife by Robert Arthur, The Cage by Ray Russell, It by Theodore Sturgeon, The Road to Mictlantecutli by Adobe James, Guide to Doom by Ellis Peters, The Estuary by Margaret St. Clair, Tough Town by William Sambrot, The Troll by T. H. White, Evening at the Black House by Robert Somerlott, One of the Dead by William Wood, The Real Thing by Robert Specht, Journey to Death by Donald E. Westlake, Master of the Hounds by Algis Budrys, The Candidate by Henry Slesar, and Out of the Deeps by John Wyndham.

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