"I wouldn't care to speculate about what it is in Westlake's psyche that makes him so good at writing about Parker, much less what it is that makes me like the Parker novels so much. Suffice it to say that Stark/Westlake is the cleanest of all noir novelists, a styleless stylist who gets to the point with stupendous economy, hustling you down the path of plot so briskly that you have to read his books a second time to appreciate the elegance and sober wit with which they are written."
Commentary - Terry Teachout
Parker is a true treasure. . . . The master thief is back, along with Richard Stark.
Parker is refreshingly amoral, a thief who always gets away with the swag.
Entertainment Weekly - Stephen King
Whatever Stark writes, I read. He’s a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude.
Richard Stark’s Parker novels . . . are among the most poised and polished fictions of their time and, in fact, of any time.
Bookforum - John Banville
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."
Parker . . . lumbers through the pages of Richard Stark’s noir novels scattering dead bodies like peanut shells. . . . In a complex world [he] makes things simple.”
New York Times - William Grimes
"The University of Chicago Press has recently undertaken a campaign to get Parker back in print in affordable and handsome editions, and I dove in. And now I get it."
The UC Press mission, to reprint the 1960s Parker novels of Richard Stark (the late Donald Westlake), is wholly admirable. The books have been out of print for decades, and the fast-paced, hard-boiled thrillers featuring the thief Parker are brilliant.”
Globe and Mail - H. J. Kirchoff
Richard Stark writes a harsh and frightening story of criminal warfare and vengeance with economy, understatement and a deadly amoral objectivity—a remarkable addition to the list of the shockers that the French call roman noirs.”
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.”
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.”
"Parker is a brilliant invention. . . . What chiefly distinguishes Westlake, under whatever name, is his passion for process and mechanics. . . . Parker appears to have eliminated everything from his program but machine logic, but this is merely protective coloration. He is a romantic vestige, a free-market anarchist whose independent status is becoming a thing of the past."
New York Review of Books - Luc Sante
Perhaps this, more than anything else, is what I admire about these novels: the consistent ruthlessness of an unapologetic bastard. And so if you’re a fan of noir novels and haven’t yet read Richard Stark, you may want to give these books a try. Who knows? Parker may just be the son of a bitch you’ve been searching for.
Virginia Quarterly Review - John McNally
"Fiercely distracting . . . . Westlake is an expert plotter; and while Parker is a blunt instrument of a human being depicted in rudimentary short grunts of sentences, his take on other characters reveals a writer of great humor and human understanding."--John Hodgman ""Parade""War and Peace and Proust--these are the books you'll want on that desert island."
"The UC Press mission, to reprint the 1960s Parker novels of Richard Stark (the late Donald Westlake), is wholly admirable. The books have been out of print for decades, and the fast-paced, hard-boiled thrillers featuring the thief Parker are brilliant."
--H. J. Kirchoff "Globe and Mail" (4/17/2009 12:00:00 AM)
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.”
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."
"Perhaps this, more than anything else, is what I admire about these novels: the consistent ruthlessness of an unapologetic bastard. And so if you're a fan of noir novels and haven't yet read Richard Stark, you may want to give these books a try. Who knows? Parker may just be the son of a bitch you've been searching for."-John McNally, Virginia Quarterly Review
— John McNally
Virginia Quarterly Review
— H. J. Kirchoff
The Parker series is a standout in the history of noir crime fiction. This entry is the sixth of 24 featuring the ruthless antihero (no first name) Parker, whose profession is criminality with no bones about it—except for those that he buries. Parker’s physical appearance and fictional persona is that of a tough and dangerous villain. Various audio narrators have portrayed Parker over the years; Stephen Thorne is particularly effective. His voice is flat and adamant. He portrays various other characters in memorable ways; one sounds like Richard Nixon, for example. But Thorne never allows himself to get in the way of the story: Parker tries viciously to hide behind the identity of his alias. D.R.W. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
