18 September 2007

Richard Stark – The Man With the Getaway Face

Posted by Dirk under: books .

Richard Stark is a pseudonym for Donald E. Westlake, but that’s the name on the book cover, so that’s what I’m using.

This is a gritty book.  The protagonist is a professional thief named Parker.   If you’ve seen the movie Payback with Mel Gibson or Point Blank with Lee Marvin, the main character in those two movies is Parker but they renamed him in both movies, for some reason.

This is the first of the series of Parker books I’ve read.  I have to keep my eye out for used copies from my various sources.  I really liked the book.  Parker is not a nice guy.  Pretty much nobody in the book is very sympathetic and usually I don’t like books or movies that don’t have a character that has some redeeming qualities, but I do like this one.

If you like noir crime stories you should check this one out.

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