Richard Stark
1) Backflash
Author
Series
Parker thrillers volume 18
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Description
After the publication of Butcher's Moon in 1974, Donald Westlake said, "Richard Stark proved to me that he had a life of his own by simply disappearing. He was gone." And readers waited. But nothing bad is truly gone forever, and Parker's as bad as they come. According to Westlake, one day in 1997, "suddenly, he came back from the dead, with a chalky prison pallor"-and the novels that followed showed that neither Parker nor Stark had lost a step....
2) Breakout
Author
Series
Parker thrillers volume 21
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Description
Paker lands in a white-collar correctional facility and makes connections to involve himself in a spectacular heist. When the deals, promises, and quick fixes start heading south, will Parker follow? You bet!
3) Comeback
Author
Series
Parker thrillers volume 17
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Description
Parker agrees to take part in the nearly half-million dollar robbery of a Christian crusade, having been given inside help by a disgruntled worker in the Rev. William Archibald's camp, but things start to go wrong when one of the trio of robbers decides he wants to keep all the money for himself.
4) Firebreak
Author
Series
Parker thrillers volume 20
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Description
Between Parker's 1961 debut and his return in the late 1990s, the world of crime changed considerably. Now fake IDs and credit cards had to be purchased from specialists; increasingly sophisticated policing made escape and evasion tougher; and, worst of all, money had gone digital-the days of cash-stuffed payroll trucks were long gone. Firebreak takes Parker to a palatial Montana "hunting lodge" where a dot-com millionaire hides a gallery of stolen...
Author
Series
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Description
Donald E. Westlake is one of the greats of crime fiction. Under the pseudonym Richard Stark, he wrote twenty-four fast-paced, hardboiled 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...
Author
Series
Alan Grofield novels volume 1
Formats
Description
Donald E. Westlake is one of the greats of crime fiction. Under the pseudonym Richard Stark, he wrote twenty-four fast-paced, hardboiled 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...
Author
Series
Alan Grofield novels volume 2
Formats
Description
Donald E. Westlake is one of the greats of crime fiction. Under the pseudonym Richard Stark, he wrote twenty-four fast-paced, hardboiled 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...
Author
Description
We are born, and we die. In between, during our allotted brief time on this planet, we strive to make sense of our world, seeking answers to universal questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning and purpose of life? As we ponder the answers, we yearn for love, for friendship, and to be happy.
“We are in the Together” is a collection of nine beautifully articulated vignettes in which the author shares personal experiences from his...
9) The Outfit
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Series
Description
The Outfit was organized crime with a capital O. They were big; they were bad; they were brutal. No crook ever crossed them and lived to enjoy it-except Parker. So they wanted Parker dead, and a hit man proved they meant business. Too bad for the Outfit he missed. Ripping off the Outfit was the easy part of Parker's game. Going one-on-one with Bronson, the Outfit's big boss, was the hard part.
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Description
When it comes to heists, Parker believes in some cardinal rules. On this job, he breaks two of them: never bring a dame along-especially not one you like-and never, ever, work with amateurs. Nevertheless, with the help of a creep named Billy, and the lure of a classy widow, he agrees to set up a heist of a coin convention. But Billy's a rookie with no idea how to pull off a score, and the lady soon becomes a major distraction. The Rare Coin Score...
11) Slayground
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Series
Description
The hunter becomes prey, as a heist goes sour and Parker finds himself trapped in a shuttered amusement park, besieged by a bevy of local mobsters. There are no exits from Fun Island. Outnumbered and outgunned, Parker can't afford a single miscalculation. He's low on bullets-but, as anyone who's crossed his path knows, that definitely doesn't mean he's defenseless.
12) Butcher's Moon
Author
Series
Parker thrillers volume 16
Description
The sixteenth Parker novel, Butcher's Moon is more than twice as long most of the master heister's adventures, and absolutely jammed with the action, violence, and nerve-jangling tension readers have come to expect. Back in the corrupt town where he lost his money, and nearly his life, in Slayground, Parker assembles a stunning cast of characters from throughout his career for one gigantic, blowout job: starting-and finishing-a gang war. It feels...
13) Deadly Edge
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Description
Deadly Edge bids a brutal adieu to the 1960s as Parker robs a rock concert and the heist goes south. Soon Parker finds himself-and his woman, Claire-menaced by a pair of sadistic, drug-crazed hippies. Parker has a score to settle, while Claire's armed with her first rifle-and they're both ready to usher in the end of the age of Aquarius.
14) Plunder Squad
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Series
Description
"Hearing the click behind him, Parker threw his glass straight back over his right shoulder and dove off his chair to the left." When a job looks like amateur hour, Parker walks away. But even a squad of seasoned professionals can't guarantee against human error in a high-risk scam. Can an art dealer with issues unload a truck of paintings with Parker's aid? Or will the heist end up too much of a human interest story, as luck runs out before Parker...
15) The Score
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Description
It was an impossible crime: knock off an entire North Dakota town called Copper Canyon-clean out the plant payroll, both banks, and all the stores in one night. Parker called it "science fiction," but with the right men (a score of them), he could figure it out to the last detail. It could work. If the men behaved like pros-cool and smart, if they didn't get impatient, start chasing skirts, or decide to take the opportunity to settle secret old scores...
Author
Series
Description
The good guys in a new African nation were missing a treasury full of diamonds. The nation's corrupt leader had stashed the rocks somewhere in New York City. Now the good guys needed a specialist to get their diamonds back. So they came to the best in the business: Parker. Only the three mysterious tough guys came to Parker, too. They figured three hands filled with .38's could convince him to pass up this international gem game. But leaning on Parker...
17) The Blackbird
Author
Series
Description
Donald E. Westlake is one of the greats of crime fiction. Under the pseudonym Richard Stark, he wrote twenty-four fast-paced, hardboiled 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...
18) The Seventh
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Series
Description
The robbery was a piece of cake. The getaway was clean. And seven men were safely holed up in different places while Parker held all the cash. But somehow the sweet heist of a college football game turns sour, Parker's woman is murdered, and the take is stolen. Now Parker's looking for the lowlife who did him dirty, while the cops are looking for seven clever thieves-and Parker must outrun them all. When hunters and hunted meet, some win, some lose....
19) The Handle
Author
Series
Description
Baron is clever-perhaps too clever. He sits on the heavily protected island of Cockaigne, a mini-Las Vegas forty miles out in the Gulf of Mexico, raking in as much as $250,000 some nights, laughing at the Outfit, who can't collect their cut. Now the Outfit can no longer stand the loss of face-not to mention the loss of revenue. That's why they've sent for Parker, who knows that the line between success and failure on this score would be exactly the...
Author
Series
Description
Bank robberies should run like clockwork, right? If your name's Parker, you expect nothing less. Until, that is, one of your partners gets too greedy for his own good. The four-way split following a job leaves too small a take for George Uhl, who begins to pick off his fellow hoisters, one by one. The first mistake? He doesn't begin things by putting a bullet in Parker. That means he won't get the chance to make a second. One of the darkest novels...