The Mourner

This series of books featuring career thief Parker has 24 books in the series. Donald Westlake chose to write them under the Richard Stark pseudonym. Westlake didn't write any Parker stories after 1974's Butcher's Moon until picking it up again with 1997's Comeback, the 16th and 17th books, respectively. I got my start with Parker with the excellent Comeback and promptly read each successive story. Now I'm starting from the beginning and have reached this one, the fourth in the series. It's not my favorite, in fact, it may be my least favorite. But each of these books takes me only 2 days to read, 3 max. The stories are all characterized by a spare style with the taciturn Parker proving himself to be a ruthless, efficient criminal that doesn't take any grief from anyone. They are the perfect thing for a quick foray into crime. I'm working my way through them and have 11 more to go.