The Rare Coin Score by Richard Stark

 


The Rare Coin Score is Parker novel #9 in a series of 24 Parker novels by Donald E. Westlake writing as Richard Stark.

Here's a delicious stroke of Americana: to satisfy public craving during the 1930s and 1940s, Walter B. Gibson (pen-name Maxwell Grant) sat at his typer and hammered out 10,000 words a day to create more than 300 Shadow novels. In effect, using the same plot template, Mr. Gibson wrote the same Shadow novel over and over again - and his fans loved him for it.

Recognizing the popular success of his previous Parker novels, most especially The Score where Parker and a pack of heisters knock over an entire mining town in North Dakota, Mr. Westlake could have chosen the easy Walter B. Gibson route: simply churn out the same Parker novel over and over and over - Parker aces a jewelry store in Nevada, a bank in Ohio, a racing car stadium in Georgia, the list could chug away, fans gobbling up all those Parker novels while he and his publisher rake in the dough.

Nein. Não. Non. Nej. Nie. In any language, that's no as in no same-o, same-o for Mr. Westlake. Each time the author sat down to write a Parker novel, he found new ways to shake up his story, reinvigorate the four-part heist scaffolding, develop Parker as a character, infuse fresh, creative energy. The novel under review serves as prime example.

Yes, indeed, The Rare Coin Score is much more than Parker and the heist; it's also Parker meeting his new mate, Claire, as well as a meditation on Parker's distinctive sex cycle. Taking each, in turn, from last to first:

The Cycle
Once Parker knows he's in on a job, he focuses every drop of his mental and physical energy on the setup, execution and getaway; after all, Parker knows so much is at stake: a miscue could mean a bullet in the chest or spending 10 or 20 years in the slammer. The last thing Parker needs or wants during this intense work period is sex.

However, after the job is done and he's back at a resort hotel in Miami or Vegas, Parker's sexual urge turns on, zooms from zero to full stud satyr. This randy non-stop sex state can last for months but then eventually slackens off.

The opening chapter of Rare Coin Score finds Parker restless as hell. Sex with various women no longer holds appeal - although he currently has enough money, Parker itches to be on a job. "But it was stupid to think about work now, and Parker didn't like to be stupid. He still had more than enough left from the last job, and a lot salted away in different places around the country, so there was no need yet to take on something new. When work got to be its own reason for happening, that was trouble." Contact guy Handy McKay from Presque Isle, Maine calls Parker for a score in Indianapolis. Parker doesn't hesitate, he's off to hear about the job, to see if it's one he'll take.

The Babe
Years ago Parker had wife, Lynn, but things went sour (details provided in The Hunter, Parker #1). Ever since, it's been one faceless woman after the other like a drug addiction. But then Parker meets Claire, a tall, slender young woman with the face and figures of a fashion model. As if by a kind of inner magic, Claire holds a special appeal for Parker.

"Because Claire had come into his life in an odd way, entering in conjunction with a job, almost becoming part of the work at hand, she’d managed somehow to break through that pattern he’d developed. He found himself wanting to please her, willing to go out of his way for her sake, and though he’d been giving himself practical reasons to explain it–she could handle Billy, and so on–the truth was that he acted that way because he wanted to."

The Heist
Parker goes to the first meeting. The finger, that is, the inside man, is a nerd kid by the name of Billy. Billy is a dealer in rare coins and the job involves stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of rare coins at a convention for coin dealers held in an Indianapolis hotel. Once the job is done, Billy will sell the rare coins for cash then pay off Parker, Claire and the others.

Here's what one critic and avid Westlake fan has to say about this nerdy man/boy: "Billy is a strangely familiar figure to find in a story like this–orphaned at an early age, hopelessly inept at any type of social activity that isn’t directly related to his hobby/profession. He’s bespectacled, overweight, timid; quite certainly a virgin. If you’ve been to just about any kind of fan convention, you’ve met this guy (Comic-Con, I fondly imagine, is thousands of these guys milling around in costume). If you’ve discussed genre stuff on the internet, you’ve virtually met this guy. One way or another, everybody has met this guy."

A heist with Billy as the key? You gotta be joking! Parker knows he should get out now and not look back. But, but, but...there's Claire. Strange but true: Parker wants to be around Claire some more. Rare Coin Score is one of the more intriguing and beguiling Parker novels - a must read for Parker fans and a laser-sharp insight into human psychology for all.


American author Donald E. Westlake, 1933-2008