Volume 7 of Richard Stark’s Parker series of crime novels.
The title applies in two ways.
The string Parker joins for the heist is made up of seven criminals, with each of them expecting to receive a seventh of the take. (There’s a clever twist on this at the end, as well.)
Twelve years ago, I wrote a piece for Black Gate about Marvin H. Albert’s unsung hardboiled private eye, Tony Rome. The post concluded with my suggestion, some might claim it was a plea, that an enterprising publisher would give these long out-of-print treasures a new lease on life. Here we are a dozen years later and that is exactly what has happened.
The paperback original (PBO to collectors) was the immediate successor to the pulp magazine as the home of pulp fiction. Marvin Albert was one of the bright lights of the paperback original market for detective fiction.
Volume 6 of Richard Stark’s Parker series of crime novels.
A “jugger” is a slang term for a safecracker. Interestingly, my research has shown that this was never a term in common use. It seems as if Westlake might have created the term “jugger” himself, and then used it as the title of this book, as well as the description of what Joe Sheer did, back before he retired.
This is sort of the On Her Majesty’s Secret Service of Parker novels. It’s unlike the rest of the series in a number of ways, and was not well-regarded by fans for a while. But, like that Bond film, it has enjoyed something of a renaissance among afficionados in more recent years. Today it’s considered one of the better entries in Parker’s chronicles.
Volume 5 of Richard Stark’s Parker series of crime novels. This volume arguably features the greatest single heist Parker ever gets involved with. He and an unusually large team of accomplices robs an entire town, all in one night.
It’s also the first time in the series s a heist is not just a side story but the main point of the entire book, from the planning and the execution to the complication and the aftermath. We see a bit of that with the armored car robbery in The Man with the Getaway Face, but that’s the plot of only the first half of that book, and it’s nothing quite like the scale on display here.
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.
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The third Parker novel: The Outfit (Pocket Books, 1967)
Volume 3 of Richard Stark’s Parker series of crime novels. It is also the third part of the unofficial Outfit Trilogy, the first three books in the series, in which Parker goes up against an organized crime syndicate.
After surviving an assassination attempt by a killer hired by the Outfit, Parker decides it’s time to settle matters with organized crime once and for all.
“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep
Eddie Muller is known as the Czar of Noir. He founded the Film Noir Foundation and he hosts Noir Alley, on Turner Classic Movies. He’s written a couple respected non-fiction books about Noir and cinema.
In 2002, Austin hosted the big mystery convention, Bouchercon. I was living there and stopped in for a day. I met Eddie, who hadn’t yet started appearing on TCM opposite Robert Osborne. He was there with his just published first novel, The Distance.
Eddie’s father was a popular, long-time sportswriter for the San Francisco Examiner for over 40 years. He was known as ‘Mr Boxer.’ Eddie would also go to work in the newspaper business himself.
That background is all relevant, because for the book, Eddie drew heavily on his dad’s career, and his own life around the newspaper industry. The Distance features Mister Boxing, Billy Nichols, a local sports reporter who is a legitimate celebrity, working for William Randolph Heart’s The Examiner. Set around the post-WW II San Francisco boxing scene, the workings of the newspaper and the reporter’s life add great depth to the book.
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The second Parker novel: The Man With the Getaway Face (Pocket Books, 1963)
Parker has gone to a lot of trouble and expense to get a new face. Now he has to fight to keep his identity hidden, while also planning and executing an armored car heist.
A treacherous waitress and a punch-drunk former boxer complicate those matters tremendously.
This is Volume 2 of Richard Stark’s “Parker” series of crime novels. It is also the second part of the unofficial Outfit Trilogy, the first three books in the series, in which Parker goes up against an organized crime syndicate.
1999 theatrical release; recut, direct-to-home-video DVD in 2006. Written by Brian Helgeland (with Terry Hayes) and directed by Brian Helgeland (with Paul Abascal).
Brian Helgeland (A Knight’s Tale; Man on Fire; the script for LA Confidential) wrote and directed this adaptation of The Hunter, the first novel in the Parker series, starring Mel Gibson.
As the film was nearing completion, test audiences reportedly reacted poorly to the ending. And yeah, it’s pretty dark and violent and certainly not the triumphant conclusion many Gibson fans were probably expecting. Consequently, Gibson and the studio removed Helgeland from the film. They brought in Terry Hayes to rewrite the ending and added Kris Kristofferson as a new “final boss” villain.
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Parker’s first appearance: The Hunter (Pocket Books, 1962)
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.