Flashfire packs enough capers and intrigue and subplots into 275 pages, you'll have the sense you're reading a multivolume set of crime noir.
The frame: a trio of seasoned Texas heisters brings Parker in on a Nebraska bank robbery job. But when it comes time to divvy up the loot four ways, they tell Parker things are more complicated than simply handing him his share. They talk about a future jewelry heist in Palm Beach. They talk to Parker as if they're the ranchers and he's a hired hand.
As any Parker fan knows, that's exactly the wrong approach with Parker. When Parker does a job, Parker expects to get paid in full. Those are the rules. The Texas trio says phooey, they set the rules and Parker will just have to live with it.
Well, partners, you might find out you've made a Texas-sized mistake. A Flashfire film trailer:
Florida Here I Come
Parker is at the wheel of his Ford Taurus, driving out of Evansville, Indiana, knowing he has two months to make it to Palm Beach. However, there are a few stops along the way. "What he needed first was better guns, then more money, then better clothing and luggage, then better wheels. He needed to change his appearance, too, not for the three guys he was going to kill but for the Palm Beach police; he needed to be somebody who wouldn't make the law look twice."
First Stop for Guns
Parker spots a gun shop out along a country road in Central Kentucky. It's three in the morning so not a lot of country folks around. Parker parks the Taurus, walks a couple miles down the road to a Highway Department garage, swipes a yellow Caterpillar backhoe, drives back to the gun shop, positions the Caterpillar so he can angle the bucket with the maw forward and down and drives directly into the window displaying the handguns. "He rotated the bucket, scooping up the window and everything in it." Moments later, Parker picks through the rubble and snags four pistols before driving off in his Taurus. Easy-peasy.
South American Connection
There's plenty more Parker solo action from Nashville to Houston, but when Parker deals with a guy named Norte to get false ID, he runs into a snag. Turns out, a South American drug lord-type also has been dealing with Norte for a fake ID and wants Norte dead. Parker shows up exactly at the wrong time. Violence erupts, as per this snatch:
"Norte stared down at the three men. The driver was still stoic, but the other men were now staring up at Norte, hoping something different was going to happen now.
No. Abruptly, as though to get it over before he had to think about it, Norte grabbed up the revolver, bent over them, and shot each one in the head. The carpet would have to be replaced for sure.
"Keep shooting," Parker said.
Norte grimaced at him. "They're dead. Believe me, they're dead.
"Keep shooting."
The South American drug lord-type finds out Parker was in Norte's office at the same time as his muscle men, now dead. The thick plottens.
Real Estate Gal Gets Real
Once in Palm Beach, Parker needs to know a whole bunch of details about the Texas trio's caper, things like what jewels they plan to steal and what Palm Beach house they're going to use to hold up in.
Parker takes on the role of a wealthy country club gent and asks a real estate agency to show him various properties. Blonde, forty-year-old Leslie Mackenzie, real estate agent, enters the scene. Just so happens, lovely Leslie hungers for money and she senses a special something with this curious man she's assigned to spend time with. Oh, Leslie, you might be a professional real estate agent but does that qualify you to play in the field of the outlaws? How much success will Leslie muster in her new venture? For Richard Stark to tell.
Right-Wingers Doin' Right
We're out on maneuvers in the Florida everglades with the Christian Renewal Defense Force, twenty-nine members strong, when Captain Bob and the troops catch sight of something truly amazing.
Out of nowhere a white utility vehicle, foreign make, roars through the glades and then one guy opens the door and rolls out and then another guy does the same on the other side. Captain Bob tells them to hold on but, damn, the guy with the rifle takes aim and shots the other guy. Then he shoots two of their Christian Renewal Defense Force. Holy shit!
With his background in Nam, Captain Bob takes decisive action, lines up his boys in two columns. Moments later, both driver and rifleman are riddled with thirteen bullets each. The crusaders think: serves them foreigners right, messing with the force of God.
Sharp Sergeant
"Trooper Sergeant Jake Farley of the Snake River County sheriff's department had never seen anything like this before. Four dead, one dying, all questions, no answers." And Sergeant Jack Farley doesn't buy how the one guy, rich, staying in Palm Beach, was in the everglades by mistake. Sergeant Jake isn't about to let this case go.
Perfidious Pyrotechnics
The unexpected: explosions and then fire! fire! fire! Almost immediately, all the rich women and men in this Palm Beach crowd hear the approaching siren of a fire truck. "Police and guards cleared everybody out of the entranceway and the fire engine went tearing around the curve. Melander and Ross clinging to the handholds, the fire engine rushing full tilt at the house, where the first of the fleeing guests were just now beginning to stagger out into the clear night air. Carlson didn't hit the brake until the very last second, the big fire engine spewing gravel as it shuddered to a stop."
Sound spectacular? What if I told you Melander, Ross and Carlson are the names of those Texas marauders? There's good reason Parker kept repeating how that heister trio goes gaudy all the way - it's their style.
Fireflash might not be the tightest of the Parker novels, but it sure is flashy and unforgettable as all get out. Yahoo! Read it, partner!
American author Donald E. Westlake, 1933-2008
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