Stark, Richard Books

Lemons Never Lie (Hard Case Crime)

Richard Stark (Donald E. Westlake)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Short, Enjoyable Caper Novel 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

LEMONS NEVER LIE is a crime novel written by Richard Stark aka Donald Westlake in 1971. It's a highly enjoyable read about a stage actor named Alan Grofield who commits crimes on the side to fund his theater projects. This book starts as a lighthearted caper story, but eventually turns into a rather grim story about retribution.

This novel is quite short (under 200 pages of text) and can literally be read in a few hours. Westlake is a legendary writer in American crime fiction, and the prose and dialogue in this book is absolutely first-rate. Based on LEMONS NEVER LIE, I can see why Westlake has often been described as the precursor to Elmore Leonard and Quentin Tarantino. The only downside to this novel is the rather bland, subservient nature of the female characters.

I think it's great that Hard Case is republishing these titles and LEMONS NEVER LIE makes me interested in reading more of Westlake's other work. I recommend this story to anyone interested in reading classic noir fiction.

Ask the Parrot

Richard Stark

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

THE PARROT AIN'T TALKING (Well, maybe a little) 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 13 people found this review helpful.

Ask The Parrot (2006)

When we last left Parker in Nobody Runs Forever, after a big score, Parker was on the side of a hill out in the woods, with police and police dogs coming up the hill, we wondered if this was the end for Parker ( I guess Stark / Donald Westlake writing as Richard Stark wanted us to think that since the title was sort of hinting. Well, in Ask the Parrot we start with Parker in the situation we left him in. Above Parker on the hill is Tom Lindahl, a man with a rifle, supposedly out hunting rabbits. Who hunts rabbits with a rifle? I've only known of people hunting rabbits with a shotgun ( preferably a .410 or a 16 gauge) and a beagle dog. Maybe they do things differently where Stark is from.

I think Donald Westlake writing as Richard Stark is just playing with us. Maybe he'll get a jury from Los Angeles and get off all together.

As usual Stark is very entertaining with his fast paced tough guy.

Now Parker, Lindahl and a third guy join the posse looking, for, you guessed it, Parker. Something major happens while out looking.

Lindahl wants Parker's help to rob a horse racing track where Lindahl was wrongfully fired from, looks like $100 Large available and Parker needs the money, he presumes the money from the last score is gone since the police have captured some of the other heisters.

Highly recommended for Parker fans. I've already pre-ordered the next one, Dirty Money.


As far as I can tell the other Parker books are:

1) The Hunter (1963; AKA Point Blank, Payback; Parker, by Richard Stark).
2) The Man With the Getaway Face (1963; AKA The Steel Hit; Parker,
3) The Outfit (1963; Parker, by Richard Stark)
4) The Mourner (1963; Parker, by Richard Stark)
5) The Score (1964; AKA Killtown; Parker, by Richard Stark)
6) The Jugger (1965; Parker, by Richard Stark)
7) The Seventh (1966; AKA The Split; Parker, by Richard Stark)
8) The Handle (1966; AKA Run Lethal; Parker, by Richard Stark)
9) The Rare Coin Score (1967; Parker, by Richard Stark)
10) The Green Eagle Score (1967; Parker, by Richard Stark)
11) The Black Ice Score (1968; Parker, by Richard Stark)
12) The Sour Lemon Score (1969; Parker, by Richard Stark)
13) Slayground (1971; Parker, by Richard Stark)
14) Deadly Edge (1971; Parker, by Richard Stark)
15) Plunder Squad (1972; Parker, by Richard Stark)
16) Butcher's Moon (1974; Parker, by Richard Stark)
17) Comeback (1997;
18) Backflash (1998; Parker)
19) Nobody Runs Forever (2004, Parker)
20) Ask The Parrot (2006, Parker)
21) Dirty Money (2007)

Gunner December 2007

Editorial Review:

Racing through the backwoods of Massachusetts and on the verge of being taken down for one of the biggest and most disastrous bank heists the state has ever seen, Parker runs right into the barrel of a gun pointed from the "wrong" side of the law. A quiet but angry recluse--with only a silent parrot for company--Tom Lindahl saves Parker from the police dogs, while enmeshing him in a dubious, highly dangerous, but potentially profitable scheme. Far more than some aimless indigent holed up in a shack in the woods, Lindahl is a man built on rage and driven by a thirst for revenge. A whistleblower whom nobody listened to, a man tossed aside by a corrupt political establishment, Lindahl now plans a daring act of vengeance, and Parker holds the key.

Nobody Runs Forever

Richard Stark

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Could this be the final Parker book? 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 16 people found this review helpful.

Nobody Runs Forever

When he saw the one called Harbin was wearing a wire, Parker said, "Deal me out". They were playing seven card stud. Parker should have walked away right then. It didn't get any better. This was one capper that was snake-bit from the get go.

Could this be Parker's Waterloo?

I think Donald Westlake writing as Richard Stark is just playing with us. Maybe he'll get a jury from Los Angeles and get off all together.

As usual Stark is very entertaining with his fast paced tough guy. This time robbing a bank's vault's contents as it is being moved to another larger bank via armored cars.

Highly recommended for Parker fans.


As far as I can tell the other Parker books are:

1) The Hunter (1963; AKA Point Blank, Payback; Parker, by Richard Stark).
2) The Man With the Getaway Face (1963; AKA The Steel Hit; Parker,
3) The Outfit (1963; Parker, by Richard Stark)
4) The Mourner (1963; Parker, by Richard Stark)
5) The Score (1964; AKA Killtown; Parker, by Richard Stark)
6) The Jugger (1965; Parker, by Richard Stark)
7) The Seventh (1966; AKA The Split; Parker, by Richard Stark)
8) The Handle (1966; AKA Run Lethal; Parker, by Richard Stark)
9) The Rare Coin Score (1967; Parker, by Richard Stark)
10) The Green Eagle Score (1967; Parker, by Richard Stark)
11) The Black Ice Score (1968; Parker, by Richard Stark)
12) The Sour Lemon Score (1969; Parker, by Richard Stark)
13) Slayground (1971; Parker, by Richard Stark)
14) Deadly Edge (1971; Parker, by Richard Stark)
15) Plunder Squad (1972; Parker, by Richard Stark)
16) Butcher's Moon (1974; Parker, by Richard Stark)
17) Comeback (1997;
18) Backflash (1998; Parker)..
19) Nobody Runs Forever (2004; Parker)


Gunner November 2007

Editorial Review:

Reconsidering his life's work after he is set up for a murder, master criminal Parker ignores his suspicions in order to accept a potentially lucrative heist job involving a team of incompetent associates, a small-town bank, an alcoholic heiress, and a philandering social climber. By the author of B

Firebreak (Parker Novels)

Richard Stark

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Penzler Pick, December 2001: You'd have to hammer apart an armored tank to find a surface harder than that of Richard Stark's antihero Parker. A thief and a killer, Parker is the protagonist of a contemporary series that has the legendary status of vintage noir. The films Point Blank (with Lee Marvin) and Payback (with Mel Gibson) were both made from the first Parker novel, The Hunter. After an absence from print of over two decades, Parker began breaking all the commandments again in 1997's Comeback.

However, since Stark is, as the dust jacket informs readers, also at times the mystery Grand Master Donald E. Westlake, there's a curious phenomenon worth noting in the pages of this, the 21st Parker novel. Larry Lloyd, a crook by virtue of his (bad) temper if not his temperament, seems to be a second-banana character who's strolled out of a Westlake comic caper into a Stark scenario and can't quite figure out what he's doing here. Practically a textbook definition of a loose cannon, he comes on board the team planning to rob a billionaire techno-geek's remote mountain hideaway because of his own electronics expertise. OK, so he has a violent streak and is willing to put a bullet through a guy's eyeball, but he's still more Walter Mitty than James Cagney.

As he's about to help get the heist back on track at the last minute, Parker asks him if he thinks he's 007. "Are you kidding?" he says. "The last few weeks, I've been scaling cliffs, shooting people, getting rid of bodies, stealing ambulances, I am James Bond."

Since this comes from the hugely fertile mind of Westlake/Stark, this is not the story's only plotline. There is another, more twisty one running on a track parallel to the one with Parker and his robbery-minded pals on it. Revenge may be a dish best eaten cold, but when it's a matter of kill or be killed, Parker is not likely to be one of the leftovers.

Sometimes, a series loses some of its freshness and originality after it reaches a certain number. Amazingly, after 39 years and 21 books, this novel is as good as any in the series, which should be taken as the highest praise it's possible to give without seeming to be sycophantic. --Otto Penzler

Breakout (Parker Novels)

Richard Stark

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Extremely entertaining read 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Summary: Parker's wiles take center stage as he gets busted and thrown in jail when a job goes bad. A different character might spend the bulk of a novel in jail, but ultimate pragmatist Parker doesn't tarry in planning and executing a daring escape. Author Stark throws a series of breakout situations at Parker, as he struggles for the room to operate within the confines of an ever-shrinking police search. As always, there is a seedy citizenry to take advantage of, and a division between thieves with honor and those without.
The Good and the Bad:
This is only my third Parker novel, but I thought it was the best one of those I've read. There's something innately exciting about a prison break, and Stark treats it with a master's touch. The writing is lean and evocative, as always, and the relentless action keeps the pages turning. Stark has a way of throwing interesting problems at the characters, and then having them solve those problems in ingenious and yet believable ways. The combination of the fantastic elements of Parker's glamorous life and the realistic manner in which he moves through the world is one of the things that makes this series so enjoyable. The body count in this book was very low as compared to the other Parker novels I've read, which points to the variety of skills that he must employ to think his way out of trouble.
On the down side, Parker puts his faith in others far too often in this book. At least three times in the book, he relies entirely on the ability of others to navigate trouble, and in two of the instances, he's relying on non-criminals with whom he's had very little contact. This seems unlike the paranoid Parker, and I suppose I just didn't like seeing him so vulnerable.

Editorial Review:

For master criminal Parker the only thing worse than a jailbird is becoming one, in this latest caper from beloved master of suspense Richard Stark.Parker's back in jail, but not just any old jail; it's the correctional center, where people without bail wait before and during their trial. So Parker's first order of business is to build a network among these cons and break on through to the other side. Once out, he gets involved in a heist set up by one of his co-conspirators, but the deal heads south, and Parker and his fellow escapees are running for their lives. A cast of cops, busybodies, snitches, and weak links quickly have the walls closing in on him. For Parker, the ultimate jailbreak is about to begin.

Breakout

Richard Stark

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Tired of do-gooder heroes saving the day? Meet Parker--just Parker to you, bub--a one-man wrecking crew, cunning, fearless, and more than just a little cold-blooded. Writing again under hard-boiled alter-ego Richard Stark, Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Donald E. Westlake returns to the violent world of his legendary criminal creation with Breakout.

This time around Parker has picked certain members of his crew wrong and the job goes south right into the county lockup. Alone and isolated, the antihero finds himself without much wiggle room. But experienced Stark readers know, wiggling is what the slippery Parker does best. In Breakout, he wiggles himself out of jail and right into an even more dangerous situation involving an armory, a tunnel, and a jewelry wholesaler.

While there are rough spots here and there, Breakout is simply another fun-to-read Parker novel, taking readers again to the flip side where the bad guys win and the good guys are never as good as they should be. Call it a great escape because, with this Parker novel in particular, that's just what it is. --Jeremy Pugh

Payback

Richard Stark

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Just OK 2 out of 5 stars.
6 of 9 people found this review helpful.

After reading all these rave reviews on here I decided to get this book. It's out of print and I could only find copies ranging from $20-$40. I found a really clean 1st edition and payed $35 for it. I wish I hadn't. This is an extremely short read. 155 very tiny pages. I do not understand why everything thinks this novel is so tough. Stark's writing style is so dry it takes any excitement out of the action sequences. And the bit about Parker having strong hands is way too played out. Parker has strong hands, I get it. I won't even go into how many holes this plot had. The movie (I have not seen Point Blank, I am reffering to Payback) is actually better than the book. Unless you can find an extremely cheap copy, don't bother. You're not missing anything special.

Editorial Review:

It's payback time! Now a major motion picture from Paramount Pictures starring Mel Gibson as master theif Parker, who appeared in a series of celebrated crime novels between 1962 and 1974 and returned after 23 years in "Comeback", which was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times. Crime writer Richard Stark is the pseudonym of Mystery Writers of American Grand Master Donald E.

The Damsel

Richard Stark, Donald E. Westlake

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Editorial Review:

Grofield has a knack for attracting damsels in distress. Even holed up in a Mexico City hotel room (with thousands in cash and a bullet wound) they manage to find him. When Ellen Marie Fitzgerald comes in through his window, she tells a tale that he promptly dismisses. And just as promptly reconsiders when a couple of hoods come looking for her. The damsel leads Grofield on a chase across Mexico, running the gauntlet on the one heavily guarded road to Acapulco in hopes of preventing a political assassination. It's a desperately chivalrous gamble for the gallant part-time actor-cum-thief.

"An unconventionally but effectively constructed novel, ranging from the hardest-boiled action-objectivity to character-introspection in depth." (New York Times Book Review)

The Sour Lemon Score and Deadly Edge

Donald E. Westlake, Richard Stark

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Nobody's Perfect

Donald E. Westlake, Richard Stark

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Misdirection Is Nine-Tenths of the Law! 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Nobody's Perfect reminds me of the old story about how for lack of a nail . . . the kingdom is lost. Little things matter a lot in this story, so pay close attention!

As the book opens, Dortmunder is about to begin a defense against being caught red-handed with a stack of television sets he is stealing. As a twice-convicted felon, that's bad news. Suddenly, in walks one of the great criminal defense attorneys, J. Radcliffe Stonewiler, Esq., and in an hour-and-a-half Dortmunder is a free man. What's going on? That's what Dortmunder wonders, too, and he soon finds out that he has an obligation to fulfill to Arnold Chauncey, a society collector who likes to fill in the gaps in his income with payments from his insurance company for art that has "disappeared."

Although he's not excited about the caper, Dortmunder figures it will be pretty easy and the payoff is a large one. Then, while lifting a $400,000 painting, he decides to take just one or two other items . . . and everything begins to unravel.

This story brings Dortmunder into the full realization that the bad luck that dogs him has more to do with him than with Andy Kelp, who he has been blaming for the problems that arose in Bank Shot, The Hot Rock and Jimmy the Kid. It also marks the introduction of that large and easily angered tough guy, Tiny Bulcher, who is a fixture of many of the best books in the series. The Continental Detective Agency also makes another appearance, having been reassigned after losing the bank in Bank Shot.

One of the charms of this story is that Arnold Chauncey is one of the most larcenous rich people you will ever meet, aided by an indifference to the needs of others and a diabolical mind for finding ways to get what he wants.

Donald E. Westlake sets up one of the funniest complications for having a heist go sour that you will ever read as the gang splits up and runs into unexpected challenges when a wee bit of the dew is upset.

The story is filled with lengthy gags involving various aids that the criminals are using. You'll imagine yourself watching a very funny video as you read some of the sequences.

After you finish enjoying this fine tale, think about where wanting just a little more has caused problems in your life. Where can more moderation serve you better in the future?

Editorial Review:

Comic crime hero Dortmunder and his gang of bungling thieves are back in a hilarious caper--out of print since 1979. Mishaps and misunderstandings force the gang to steal a painting not once but twice in this hilarious misadventure starring the inimitable Dortmunder. Reissue.