What is it?

Volume 4 of Richard Stark’s Parker series of crime novels. It is also the first book in the series in which Parker goes on an entirely new heist, unrelated to the previous books. There is, however, a connection back to Bett Harrow, one of the supporting characters in the third book.

What that means is, we now have proof of concept. Parker doesn’t only work in one big, multi-part revenge story, as with the first three books. He’s also great in a more episodic sort of format where he finds a job, puts together a team and goes on a mission. This will remain the pattern for most of the succeeding novels.

Quick and Dirty Summary

Having resolved his situation with the Outfit, Parker reconnects with the beautiful Bett Harrow (the woman he was with at the start of the previous book). When last he saw her, she had run off with a pistol that could link him to other crimes. He wants it back.

It turns out the price she demands is that he steal a priceless statue for her father, an art collector. It is in the possession of an Eastern European communist agent now living comfortably in the United States. That agent has also been embezzling funds from his home country.

That country has dispatched another agent, Auguste Menlo, to track the first one down, kill him and retrieve the money. Menlo, however, has no intentions of returning the money to his shabby, backwards country. Instead, he teams up with Parker and McKay to try to steal both the money and the statue. He then plans to defect to the US with his share of the take. (He also secretly intends to kill Parker and McKay once the goods are in his hands.)

As the heist comes together, it becomes a race to see who will betray whom first. And the question is, will anyone walk out alive?

The Objective

This book features four different objectives the characters are chasing around. More than one is unusual for a Parker novel, and four is quite likely the largest number of different objectives in one novel in the entire series.

Bett Harrow’s father agrees to pay Parker $50,000 to steal a priceless statue from an Eastern European agent called Kapor. So that money is in play. If Parker steals the statue, Harrow will also return Parker’s pistol, which was taken by his daughter at the start of the previous novel. So the statue and the gun are both in play. And finally we discover that Kapor also has stolen $100,000 in cash from his home government, over the years, and Menlo thinks he knows where that’s hidden, too.

The Adversary

Parker’s not happy with Bett or her father, but the real adversary here turns out to be Auguste Menlo himself. He’s a fascinating character, and arguably one of the best antagonists Westlake ever created for the series. A short, round man from Eastern Europe, he’s quite urbane, intelligent and calculating. He’s also something of a fish-out-of-water in America, where he constantly slips up and reveals his relative lack of knowledge of the local culture.

He’s easy to underestimate, and Parker is guilty of doing so, at least once. It’s too bad he wasn’t able to make a return appearance in a later book. But crossing Parker usually has one very specific consequence — one that precludes repeat appearances.

The String

Once again, Handy McKay is the only crook working with Parker.

This is Handy’s last appearance as a working heister. After this, you’ll have to call him at his diner in Presque Isle, Maine. Maybe he’ll fry an egg for you.

Others of Note

Wilcoxen and Scorbi are two incompetent thugs who try to kill Parker. He lets them off remarkably easy, all things considered. They work for the Outfit – so our old friends in organized crime do make one quick appearance here. We won’t see them again for quite a while.

The Complication

Everything is going smoothly until Menlo decides to double-cross his partners. They know it’s likely coming, but he still manages to take them by surprise.

With that, the story takes a major twist that doesn’t fully resolve until the very last page.

Adaptations

This one has never, to my knowledge, been adapted in any form. Which is too bad, really. It’s a nice, self-contained story with some very colorful characters. You’d need to include the scene from the previous book, where Bett steals Parker’s gun. Otherwise, everything you need for a great crime movie is here.

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.

He’s very concerned about Handy’s health at the end.

Some would argue this is entirely out of character for Parker, but it’s not. A prime example is how he reacts to what befalls Grofield in Butcher’s Moon. There are a few other examples.

In short, Parker likes to talk and act as if he doesn’t care about anyone else; as if he has no interest in whether they live or die – except for how it affects him. But this is demonstrably false, and this book is one of multiple examples.

Even so, it stands out when Parker worries about anyone other than himself (and later, Claire).

Other Notes

We are told this is the sixth time Parker has been shot. It’s the most recent time since Lynn shot him in the backstory of The Hunter, so it’s the only time so far that we actually see it happen.

Parker probably tortures more people for information in this book than in all the others combined. He’s not happy about it, but he’s always willing to do what has to be done, if circumstances call for it.

Quote

Parker doesn’t usually torture people. Especially not women. But when he’s in a hurry, he does what he has to do.

He left her right hand free and put paper and pencil on the table.

“Write the address when you’re ready,” he said. Then he reached for the kitchen matches.

Subjective Rating:

7/10

Follows:

Vol 3: The Outfit

Followed by:

Vol 5: The Score

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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.