Seeking out some new excitement, Parker decides that a heist involving two million dollars in saleable rare coins and a very beautiful woman is just what he needs

The Rare Coin Score

Richard, Stark

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Hodder & Stoughton Publishers

Donald E. Westlake is one of the greats of crime fiction. Under the pseudonym Richard Stark, he wrote twenty-four fast-paced, hard-boiled novels featuring Parker, a shrewd career criminal with a talent for heists. Using the same nom de plume, Westlake also completed a separate series in the Parker universe, starring Alan Grofield, an occasional colleague of Parker. While he shares events and characters with several Parker novels, Grofield is less calculating and more hot-blooded than Parker; think fewer guns, more dames. Not that there isnt violence and adventure aplenty. The Damsel begins directly after the Parker novel The Handle. Following a wounded Grofield and his damsel on a scenic, action-packed road trip from Mexico City to Acapulco, The Damsel is full of wit, adrenaline, and political intrigue.

The Damsel

Mystery

Hodder&Stoughton

The Split

Hodder&Stoughton Ltd

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.

Run Lethal

UK: Coronet

Not many men knew what Parker did for a living, because what he did was steal. But Joe Sheer, a retired safecrackerknown in the business as a juggerknew. He knew Parkers alias, his whereabouts, his plansand because he knew too much, he knew to keep his mouth shut. Or die. But Joe was more than ready to trade what he knew for a soft mattress, windows without bars on them, and what every man needshis freedom. So Parker had come to Nebraska to find the old juggerand probably murder him. But what Parker found was trouble: Joe was already six feet under; something very valuable was missing; and somebody was planning a funeralParkers. Too bad for somebody that Parker wasnt an easy man to kill.

The Jugger

Coronet Books

The Wheel of Fortune turned and Parker figured his number had finally come up. An armored car heist had gone sour. His partners were dead or dying. He had escaped with the loot, but holing up in a deserted amusement park with only one exit had turned into a fatal mistake. Now the local mob and a couple of crooked cops were on their way in after the money...and the odds were against Parker getting out with his life. But Parker always did like to play the long shots. Besides, he knew all the ways there were to kill: with his gun...with his knife...with his own bare hands. "Super-ingenious. Super-lethal... Parker is super-tough." (New York Times Book Review)

Slayground

Transformed by plastic surgery, Parker plans a dangerous new heist but the scheme is threatened by a potential double cross

Man With the Getaway Face

Donald E. Westlake

Avon/Books

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. /BEST VALUE ON THIS VINTAGE BOOK /FAST SERVICE/OUTSTANDING CUSTOMER SERVICE/

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. 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.

AVON.

The Handle

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

Allison Busby

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Richard, Stark. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Richard, Stark

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Richard, Stark. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Rare Coin Score

The Damsel

The Split

Run Lethal

The Jugger

Slayground

Man With the Getaway Face

Slayground

The Jugger

The Handle