Ratings14
Average rating3.4
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
Featured Series
24 primary booksParker is a 24-book series with 24 primary works first released in 1962 with contributions by Richard Stark.
Reviews with the most likes.
Cross and double cross
who wouldn't be suspicious?
broads can't be trusted.
I'm still not fully clicking with the series as a whole (just don't get the schemes) but I dig hanging out with this professional monster. Also really enjoyed the section about Stubbs escaping from “on ice.”
If you're looking for a crime novel with a lot of punch, try the Man with the Getaway Face. It is well paced and tautly written. Although one or two plot strands drag a little.
Stark's recurring amoral character, Parker, is surgically altered. The reason: to escape the mob and a contract on his life. Desperate for cash, he decides to join his old associates Skimm and Handy McKay to rob an armored car in New Jersey. Parker and Handy soon realize that the finger for the job, Skimm's girlfriend Alma, intends to betray them. Moreover, an employee of Dr. Adler (who performed Parker's surgery) threatens to rat Parker out to The Outfit. Adler has been murdered, and Adler's employees think Parker is to blame.
It's a noir novel about a very hard man. Parker makes the complex world simple.