When a retired bureaucrat told Parker about the job, it sounded like a good score; rob a riverboat casino and take nearly half a million dollars, cash. Only other people know what's going down and want the money for themselves. And what's in it for the bureaucrat anyway? Will Parker finish the job with his money and his life intact?Parker's back and still up to the same old tricks. I wonder how much money he's stolen and spent over the years. As always, the plan is both believable and well-execu [...]

When Parker takes a boating trip along a river, you know that it’s not gonna be a pleasure cruise.After a narrow escape from his previous robbery, Parker is contacted by a retired government bureaucrat named Cathman who has a proposition. Cathman has the details on a new riverboat casino that is always loaded with cash, and while Parker doesn’t much like the idea of pulling a job on a boat, it’s too tempting a target to pass up. Parker assembles a top notch crew of thieves to pull off the [...]

Right after finishing this book I jumped right into the first book in the Parker series, The Hunter. I don't know if it is just the twenty year hiatus that came between Butcher's Moon and Comeback or if the change comes gradually in the first sixteen Parker novels, but the amoral criminal in the later books seems like an easy-going live-and-let-live type compared to the angry man in the rumbled suit that walks over the George Washington Bridge to exact revenge on the people who fucked him over i [...]

This is the sort of Parker novel that I like best: it focuses fairly narrowly on Parker planning and executing a heist and then dealing with the aftermath. So why didn't I like it more? Why did I actually find it a wee bit tedious? The answer, I think, is that while Starklake ably executes the Parker formula, it feels like a formula this time out. Starklake doesn't play with his own conventions as he sometimes does--he just marches through them. Of course, this wouldn't be my reaction if this we [...]

Another good addition to the Parker novels. He was at his best again. A fast, tangled adventure. Lawrence Block wrote the intro & it is specific to this book, different than the one he did for the last one. That's important to note since a block of earlier books all had the same intro & it contained spoilers for later books, which sucks. Block has a lot of good insights into the series.

Another "fun" Parker book from Richard Stark. 3.5 stars because I felt like the set up for the heist dragged on a little too long. Once we get to the actual heist, the pace picks up. Parker's gang is the best of the bad guys. The rest are double-crossing hooligans with no respect for Parker's hard work. Think they can just swoop in and take what's his. Just one look at Parker with those dead eyes should be warning enough. Stark doesn't disappoint. Parker may not be the nicest guy, but he has his [...]

This is the first great Parker novel of the second series. Better,crisper, more hardcore Parker than in The Comeback. Only Parker can satisfy me by thinking "do I kill that witness who might maybe be trouble with the law later "The eternal question in the series for me is the arrogance of desperate people. Usually they are lowlifes who are too stupid, too much of a coward to trick, double cross regular people but to go after Parker who is more dangerous than a hitman. Its fun reading it though l [...]

This one was good. It didn’t grab me like some of the others, but it was ok. I still want to read the whole series.This is about a heist from a riverboat gambling casino. The plans are a little more intricate than normal, including getting a guy to pretend to be a politician with body guards. A woman pretends to be wheelchair bound. The main suspense is after the heist when other parties make a play for the money. The best part was when a bad cop put Parker in handcuffs. I enjoyed the way Park [...]

Master thief and ultimate anti-hero Parker is approached with a particular proposition: can he put together a string of crooks to rob a floating casino filled with cash on its cruise to nowhere run from Albany to Poughkeepsie and back? Parker is skeptical, of both the plan and the inside man, but decides to go ahead with an audacious plan involving an imposter politician and a false bottomed wheelchair. They pull of the heist flawlessly, but that's when the troubles begin. The river rat Parker h [...]

Another fun read while travelling to and from work.The book opens with a robbery gone bad, at least fro some but Parker gets away with his share. And goes home to Claire.He gets contacted by an individual who proposes a deal/robbery based upon the knowledge he got from the partner that died in Parkers last heist. Parker being suspicious does what he does best and sets forth to investigate the man and his deal/job.Parker and friends prepare the heist and then all goes according plan, were it not [...]

In this masterful crime novel, Parker, Wycza, Sternberg, Carlow, and Noelle Braselle team up to rob a casino boat. The heist is daring and impeccably carried out, but would you know it, there's a few hitches right after and Parker has to tie up quite a number of loose ends. Terrific writing throughout, one of Richard Stark's best. Sad to think there are only six Parker books left.Up next: Flashfire.

“When the car stopped rolling, Parker kicked out the rest of the windshield and crawled through onto the wrinkled hood, Glock first.”

Pretty meh for a Parker.

One of my favorites so far in the Parker series. I think because it's one of the few that shows a job from start to finish. Parker's partners are familiar because he is the recruiter for the job. There are complications of course. Great tension in this one.

Another classic Parker from Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake.) In this episode, Parker is approached by Cathman, a disgruntled ex-state employee who ostensibly has it in for gambling and the state wants to increase its revenue stream by allowing riverboat gambling. Cathman has blueprints of the boat and additional details, so Parker checks him out and decides it's possible to pull a heist.As with all the Parker stories, you know there will be a glitch, there always is, so the suspense and inte [...]

A criminal gets involved in a heist but little does he know that his every move is being watched.I thought the story was really good with a fast‎ pace and plenty of action. Some of writing was a bit clunky but overall it was a very entertaining read.

Parker is a professional thief who goes about his business with ruthless efficiency. In his eighteenth outing the heist involves a casino ship sailing the Hudson River in upstate New York and a lot of the book involves deciding whether the inside man is trustworthy, if the theft is viable, and the gathering of the crew once the decision to go ahead is made. Secrecy is compromised on several levels and there’s a lot for Parker to clean up. As usual, light and entertaining.

This Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake) series is always a reading pleasure, and another winner among the Parker novels. This time, Parker and his ever-changing band of criminal partners plan an elaborate heist on a gambling ship in upstate NY. It's a vey ingenious plan, but of course there's a surprise and a double-cross in store. Parker again takes no prisoners. If he does, he regrets it.

Vintage Stark/Westlake hardboiled caper featuring Parker, the thief who works for his money and leaves no loose ends, ever.

“Backflash” is the eighteenth novel in the Parker world. It is wedged between “Comeback” and “Flashfire” and, as Lawrence Block points out in the introduction, this is Westlake (aka Stark) having fun with his titles and connecting them. It is part of the second set of Parker novels, published from 1997 to 2008 after a 23-year hiatus from the series. These are longer novels than most of the original sixteen. In some ways, they feel smoother, more professionally finished.This one invol [...]

I listen to the audiobook that had the Forward by Lawrence block that was a great move on his part before I did not know that him and Westlake were friends. I had always wanted to read Lawrence block series of books he wrote now I definitely plan on doing it after the parker series. I'm starting to get sad that this Parker Series is reaching a conclusion soon. I am mourning the loss of Donald Westlake I haven't given a seconds thought of parker dying at the end of the series because he won't Par [...]

Loved the character! Murder and mayhem abound and the main character is the bad guy.

Backflash is another great entry in what is one of the most dependable series I've ever read. After narrowly escaping a heist involving a cache of stolen rockets (which Parker and his crew re-stole from the crooked Marines and their terrorist buyers!), Parker is drawn into a plot to rob a riverboat casino sailing along the New York coast. Things smell fishy early on, but Parker decides the risk is worth the reward; by the time he's done being stalked and double-crossed, he may change his mind.Sp [...]

Bound: Three More the Hard WaySunPost Weekly March 31, 2011 | John Hood bit/gdPw6BParker is Back to Kick Your AssSeems like only yesterday I was heralding another stack of Richard Stark re-racks and basking in the black and blue of it all. Alas that was last August, which is far too many yesterdays to let lapse before we do it all over again. No, don’t worry. This won’t be a repeat. Not really. It will though be another call for you to hit your local book joint and pocket a fistful of very v [...]

So sometimes I can really kick it into high gear when I need to read something- plus a friend loaned me another alternate history book, so I wanted to get this out of the way and back to the library where I can keep up my circulation number as a good library employee should come circulation count time.Richard Stark (real name Donald Westlake) is a crime novelist whose probably most famous work is "The Hunter" which spawned too movies: Point Blank (for the REALLY old who remember Lee Marvin) and [...]

I first read this when it came out; having re-read several of the hard-boiled Parker books lately, I'd put this as the best of that bunch. Here, Parker and pals rob a floating casino. The string of thieves is an interesting collection; the inevitable inside man and nefarious others who get in Parker's way are well-drawn, and (view spoiler)[there's quite a pile of bodies by the end (hide spoiler)], which is fun in a sick sort of way.I particularly enjoyed this because I'd just read two books that [...]

The second of the Parker 'updates,' 'Backflash' is another great example of Westlake sticking to what he knows by keeping his main character focused on what he knows. Though there are a few mentions of the passage of time, the novels exist somewhat outside the present: not stuck in the past but also not too aware of the present. This is probably the biggest testament to Westlake's success, as nothing feels dated, implausible, or staid. Parker sticks to cash jobs with people he knows, and as such [...]

"When the car stopped rolling, Parker kicked out the rest of the windshield and crawled out onto the wrinkled hood, Glock first."I consider this a contender for best first line of all time. I used it when I taught language arts as an example of how to find a compelling first sentence. Go back and remove "the rest of" and it's still a good beginning, but the way Stark did it is so much stronger.That's pretty much how the rest of the book goes, in terms of suspense and excellence. Donald Westlake' [...]

Un battello sul fiume Hudson ospita un casinò. È una montagna di dollari galleggiante. Si deve solo trovare il modo di accedere alla camera blindata.In USA storie come questa le hanno inserite in un sottogenere della crime fiction: le chiamano caper story, dove caper può stare per cappero ma anche per capriola, scherzo, gioco. In italiano non abbiamo un termine equivalente (d'altra parte per noi esiste solo la Grande Letteratura, tutto il resto è spazzatura indifferenziata), sono dei gialli [...]

Backflash marks the 18th outing of master heister Parker, in an unusually convoluted plot wherein various random people try to break in on the big score. Parker is coldblooded and methodical as ever; however, this time he seems mechanical, as if he’s just a push-button thief-bot.In these days of Google, , Twitter, and Facebook, it’s unlikely a scam involving the distracting presence of a pretend state assemblyman would fly. The riverboat company’s onsite management and/or PR staff would’ [...]