Comeback, title of the novel under review, takes its place as number 17 of 24 in the Parker series. As for the story behind the book's title, please see below.
Richard Stark is the pen name for Donald E. Westlake, crime fiction author par excellence. Fellow novelist Charles Ardai likens Westlake to a virtuoso jazz musician who can take a familiar melody and spin off multiple stunning improvisational riffs.
Sure, the scaffolding remains the same for the Parker novels - planning the heist, assembling the crew, the heist itself, the escape - with betrayal, ineptitude and/or the double cross looming as possible obstacles thrown at Parker. But at every step, at every swivel and whirl of unfolding events, Richard Stark manages to inject surprise.
The one constant is Parker himself - firm, solid, steady, calm, eminently practical, a true professional forever at the ready whenever there's a need for careful, cold calculation.
If you're on the job with Parker, don't expect him to give in to emotion, crack jokes, look for entertainment or cloud his head with booze. Nope. On the job, Parker is all business. And make no mistake, beyond pulling off the heist, business number one is survival at all cost, even if the cost tallies a double digit body count. There's good reason why Dennis Lehane judges Parker the greatest antihero in American noir.
As Lawrence Block outlines in his Forward to Comeback, his good friend Don Westlake published 16 straight Parker novels over the course of 12 years (1962 to 1974) but then sad news for avid fans: Parker went away for more than two decades.
However, for whatever mysterious reasons, in 1997, following a gap of 23 years, Parker made a comeback in the fertile imagination of Don Westlake. Thus, once again Don sat down to write as Richard Stark, the result being a humdinger knockout of a Parker novel, a novel appropriately titled Comeback.
I can assure you Comeback rocks the house. - in this case, the house is a 20,000 seat stadium where a slicker televangelist, a guy by the name of William Archebald, leads a Christian crusade prayer meeting complete with choir of angles, bright spotlights and many well-positioned cameras. Price of admittance: $20 in cash. Whoa, baby! Do the math - a $400,000 heist.
One of the many highlights: Parker taking on the role of insurance investigator to deal with a tough ex-marine who heads up Archebald's security network.
I'd be willing to bet half a mil, for Parker fans, Comeback is among their favorites. For those unacquainted with Richard Stark and Parker, I'd strongly recommend you begin with Comeback. Apologies for the pun, but having read Comeback, you will surely come back for more.
American author Donald E. Westlake, 1933-2008
“A TV preacher, you know those guys? Evangelists."
"I thought they were all in jail," Parker said.”
― Richard Stark, Comeback
Comments
Post a Comment