Parker’s first appearance: The Hunter (Pocket Books, 1962)

What is it?

Parker begins!

He’s angry. He’s determined. He’s out for blood. And he’s got big hands!

He’s walking across the George Washington Bridge into New York, scaring motorists who glimpse him out the window as they drive by.

Later he will decide he wants the money that was taken from him. At the moment, however, he just wants revenge.

Thus begins volume 1 of Richard Stark’s Parker series of crime novels. It is also the first part of the unofficial Outfit Trilogy, the first three books in the series, in which Parker goes up against an organized crime syndicate.

You may have witnessed this story play out elsewhere, without having read the novel and without even realizing that’s what you were seeing.

It was first adapted as a motion picture by John Boorman in 1967, as Point Blank, starring Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson. The story returned to theaters thirty-two years later, in the form of Payback, a 1999 film (actually, two very different versions of the same film–more on this in a moment) starring Mel Gibson and Gregg Henry.

Darwyn Cooke rendered it as a graphic novel in 2008, in what I consider the only truly accurate and legitimate adaptation of the character and the story.

Quick and Dirty Summary

One of Parker’s criminal associates, Mal Resnick, was kicked out of the Outfit (the Mob) a while back, and needs just under $100,000to buy his way back in. He recruits Parker and others for a job, knowing he will need all of the money, not just his share. After they have successfully pulled off the heist, Mal betrays Parker by forcing Parker’s wife, Lynn, to shoot him. Thinking Parker is dead, Mal takes all the money and buys his way back into the Outfit. He also takes Lynn, setting her up in an apartment he pays for.

Parker survives, recovers and crosses the country in a quest to track Mal down and kill him. First he finds Lynn, and must choose between his remaining love for her and what he feels was her betrayal of him.

Eventually he locates Mal and confronts him, but not before deciding he also wants his share of the robbery money back: $40,000.

Parker leans on the Outfit to make restitution to him, but they can’t imagine why they should be on the hook for this money. Eventually (after he kills some of their people) they come around to his demand. But they also dispatch an army of assassins to do him in. Parker has to deal with all of them and get away with a suitcase full of cash.

The Objective

Parker wants revenge on his enemy, Mal, and to recoup the $40,000 Mal stole from him. Eventually this leads toward what could be a one-man war against the Outfit–Parker vs the Mob!

The Hunter (Avon Books, June 1984)

The Adversary

Mal Resnick; the Outfit.

Mal is a great villain for this kind of story, and Stark paints him in vivid colors. He’s a greedy, murderous coward.

But seeing Parker charge right into a confrontation with the Mob (Stark calls them the Outfit) is truly glorious. He faces down multiple powerful and deadly bosses who are absolutely used to always getting their way and seeing others defer to them. Their reactions to his single-minded determination and utter competence — shocked incredulity, mostly — make for some of the best scenes in the book.

The String

No one. This is one of the few Parker novels where he’s solo the entire time. He does get information and a bit of assistance from a prostitute he knows, who goes by the name Rose and used to be called Wanda.

Others of Note

This is the only Parker novel to include his wife, Lynn. There’s a good reason for that.

Parker also mentions Joe Sheer, one of his older criminal associates, a few times.

The Complication

The point of this story is the complication–the betrayal of Parker by his wife, at the behest of Mal. The novel plays this out by way of a different structure than perhaps any of the other books in the series. The story here begins after the heist and the subsequent betrayal have already happened. Parker is on the warpath for revenge as early as page 1. Later, in flashbacks, we see how the job went down, followed by Mal’s moves to eliminate the rest of the string–including Parker–and take their shares of the money, along with Parker’s wife.

Adaptations

Point Blank (Lee Marvin); Payback (Mel Gibson); The Hunter (Darwyn Cooke graphic novel)

Both movies are good. Payback comes in two different versions; the theatrical cut is probably more fun, while the Director’s Cut is much closer to the novel. Cooke’s graphic novel adaptation is a masterpiece, retaining the true character of Parker throughout.

Richard Stark’s Parker Vol. 1: The Hunter, the graphic adaptation by Darwyn Cooke (IDW, July 22, 2009)

How Parker is Parker here?

(With a 1 being he bakes cookies with Claire, and a 10 being Slayground):

I am awarding this book 7 Parkers.

It’s his first appearance, and the character has not yet fully formed.

He’s married, which seems weird when returning to this book after having just recently reread all the others.

The brutality and brutishness are there. The brusqueness. The ruthlessness.

But this Parker is swayed somewhat by his emotions. He’s a true villain here, slightly less procedural and much less robotic than in the later books. He’s more impatient. He’s not as good at handling the police or others. He drinks liquor and watches cartoons on TV. (The Parker we know would just lie on the bed in the dark until time to do something.) He causes an innocent person to die by accident. He embarks on his revenge tour without really thinking his plans through. He’s driven by anger and revenge rather than being coldly rational.

This is not our Parker. Not yet. This is a proto-Parker who is in transition from being a particularly good thug to becoming the almost-emotionless master thief and planner we know afterward.

Other Notes

We see Parker create his own driver’s license at the start of this book. He uses it to access someone else’s checking account, buy items and then pawn them for cash. It’s possibly the most penny-ante, street-level-crime thing we ever see Parker do, and it’s fascinating.

It’s interesting to note that the Parker novel series began the same year (1962) as the James Bond film series.

Quote

“When a fresh-faced guy in a Chevy offered him a lift, Parker told him to go to hell.”

Subjective Rating

7/10

Follows

Nothing (this is the first book in the series)

Followed by

Vol 2: The Man with the Getaway Face

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Van Allen Plexico is a multi-award-winning author, member of the SFWA, and a Pulp Grandmaster. Among his many novels are the Harper & Salsa crime series, set in the Sixties and carrying something of the flavor of the Parker books, beginning with the 2018 Pulp Factory Award-Winning Best Novel of the Year, VEGAS HEIST. See all of his work at www.plexico.net.