Point Blank

Wasn't easy to find this book. It was originally published in 1962 and titled The Hunter. It's the first in over 20 books featuring the thief Parker. It was filmed twice, first with Lee Marvin and called Point Blank and then with Mel Gibson and called Payback. I've always liked the Payback movie and now I see that they did a pretty good job of adapting the book. They added some nice flourishes while keeping most of the plot. What they lost was some of the back story and the denouement is different. I'm a big fan of this series (this is the tenth Parker book I've read). It has lean, spare prose, and at heart is just a hard-boiled crime story. I recently came across this quote from the author regarding this book:

So I did a betrayal-revenge-tough guy story, with a cold-blooded lead who got caught at the end. Pocket Books bought it and asked if the guy could escape at the end and appear in more books, and it turned out he could, and Parker was born. If I'd known he'd be back in more than 20 books, I'd have given him a first name. ~ Donald E Westlake