Monday, July 23, 2012

#27: The Score by Richard Stark

Ice-cool criminal Parker gets involved with an intricate plot to rob an entire mining town in a single night, against his better judgement, in Richard Stark's The Score.

I came back to Donald Westlake's Richard Stark pseudonym via Darwyn Cooke's excellent graphic novels about Parker, as well as their appearance at goodbye prices for my beloved Kindle.  They have all, thus far, proved to be very crisp, hard-nosed crime novels.

As is often the case, after much build-up a few wrenches get thrown in the mix just in time for a slam-bang finale, including a surprising revelation about a main character's motives.  Naturally Parker's instincts prove out and he again escapes by the skin of his teeth, with just a hint of further treachery to come.

A solid early entry in the Parker series.