Firebreak A Parker Novel

Penzler Pick,December 2001: You'dhave to hammer apart an armored tank to find a surface harder than that ofRichard Stark's antihero Parker. A thief and a killer, Parker is the protagonistof a contemporary series that has the legendary status of vintage noir. Thefilms Point Blank (withLee Marvin) and Payback(with Mel Gibson) were both made from the first Parker novel, The Hunter. After an absencefrom print of over two decades, Parker began breaking all the commandments againin 1997's Comeback.However, since Stark is, as the dust jacket informs readers, also at times themystery Grand Master Donald E. Westlake, there's a curious phenomenon worthnoting in the pages of this, the 21st Parker novel. Larry Lloyd, a crook byvirtue of his (bad) temper if not his temperament, seems to be a second-bananacharacter who's strolled out of a Westlake comic caper into a Stark scenario andcan't quite figure out what he's doing here. Practically a textbook definitionof a loose cannon, he comes on board the team planning to rob a billionairetechno-geek's remote mountain hideaway because of his own electronics expertise.OK, so he has a violent streak and is willing to put a bullet through a guy'seyeball, but he's still more Walter Mitty than James Cagney.As he's about to help get the heist back on track at the last minute, Parkerasks him if he thinks he's 007. "Are you kidding?" he says. "The last few weeks,I've been scaling cliffs, shooting people, getting rid of bodies, stealingambulances, I am James Bond."Since this comes from the hugely fertile mind of Westlake/Stark, this is not thestory's only plotline. There is another, more twisty one running on a trackparallel to the one with Parker and his robbery-minded pals on it. Revenge maybe a dish best eaten cold, but when it's a matter of kill or be killed, Parkeris not likely to be one of the leftovers.Sometimes, a series loses some of its freshness and originality after it reachesa certain number. Amazingly, after 39 years and 21 books, this novel is as goodas any in the series, which should be taken as the highest praise it's possibleto give without seeming to be sycophantic. --Otto PenzlerStark, Richard is the author of 'Firebreak A Parker Novel' with ISBN 9780446678247 and ISBN 0446678244.