Nobody Runs Forever by Richard Stark

 

Nobody Runs Forever by Richard Stark racks the stacks as a crackerjack, a rip-roarer, a...dare I say it? - a sizzling sockdolager.

Apologies for going heavy on the superlatives but I wanted to share my excitement for this Parker novel. I'm reading and reviewing all 24 Parker novels in sequence. Nobody Runs Forever is #22 and easily rates ten stars. Once I started reading, it kept me awake until 3am cause I couldn't put the book down til I read the last page.

Nobody Runs Forever features a number of plots and subplots with one caper front and center: a heist in rural Massachusetts when armored cars transport papers and cash (well over one mil in cash) from one bank to another bank to facilitate a bank merger.

There's a particular aspect of the novel where Donald E. Westlake writing as Richard Stark once again proves himself master of the craft: quick character sketches. To emphasize this point, I offer the following comments centered around direct Stark quotes on four players in this unfolding drama:

Rich Bitch
Elaine Langen, daughter of the founder and president of a bank, hates her husband, a guy who married Elaine for her money and to position himself as head banker. No matter, now that her dear dad is dead, Elaine will skunk her hubby by providing the needed info to Parker and his fellow heister, Dalesia, so the boys can rob her husband's bank. Serves him right, the bastard!

Here's Parker on spotting Elaine as she walks to their table at a restaurant to meet the outlaws for the first time:

"The first impression was of a slender, stylish, well-put-together woman in her forties, but almost instantly the impression changed. She wasn't slender; she was bone thin, and inside the stylish clothes she walked with a graceless jitteriness, like someone whose medicine had been cut off too soon. Beneath the neat cowl of well-groomed ash-blond hair, her face was too thin, too sharp-featured, too deeply lined. This could have made her look haggard; instead, it made her look mean. From the evidence, what would have attracted her husband most would have been her father's bank."

Sharp Detective Lookin' Sharp
Now that she's Detective Second Grade, Gwendolyn Reversa decided to change her name from Wendy to Gwen. She figured nobody wanted to deal with a detective by the name of Wendy; anyway, she tells people they can just call her Detective. Detective Gwen makes quite the impression on those she interrogates - whoops!, I meant to say those she questions.

Here's Parker when Gwen comes out of her car after she pulled Parker over on the highway:

"But then at last she did come out, a tall, slender blonde woman in tan slacks and a short leather car coat, and moved forward toward the car.
A cop walks like a cop. Even the woman cops do it. Women walk as though they have no center of gravity, or as though they're all waifs, or angles, but cops walk as though their center of gravity is in their hips, so they can be very still or very fast. To see that kind of body motion on a woman was strange, particularly on a good-looking blonde."

Oh, Parker; oh, Elaine Langen; oh, everybody else connected with the armored car score, will you be able to outsmart Detective Second Class Gwen Reversa? One thing's for sure: beautiful Gwen adds zip and sparkle to Nobody Runs.

Striking Bounty Hunter
Oh, yes, among the colorful cast in Nobody Runs, we're treated to a pair of bounty hunters, including one gal not soon forgotten: Sandra Loscalzo. When our merry band of outlaws meet saucy Sandra, here's what Stark has to say:

"They entered, and the hard-faced blonde was seated at the round table, which she'd pulled back into the front corner opposite the door, leaving the hanging swag light to dangle over air. She wore black leather slacks and boots, a bright green high-neck sweater, and a black leather jacket with exaggerated shoulders. Her left hand was on the table, palm down. Her right hand held a pistol, loosely, pointed nowhere, its butt on the back of her left hand.
"Come in, gentlemen," she said. "I like you all over there.""

Sandra, you're such a sweetie...and as sharp as razor. But, beware, Sandra - you don't want to be too sharp or you might wind up cutting yourself.

Mystery Man
Oh, Parker, the people you'll get to meet in your line of work. Here's a gent Parker needs to size up in a hurry. Why did this guy with the raspy voice give him a call on the phone? Parker's first impressions (and a signature Parker greeting):

"The guy coming toward him wore black work pants, a dark blue dress shirt, an open maroon vinyl zippered jackets, and a self-satisfied smile. He had a big shaven head, a thick neck, small ears that curled in on themselves. He looked like a strikebreaker, everybody's muscle, but at the same time he was somehow more than that. Or different from that.
As Parker thumbed open his window, the guy came up to the car, leaned his forearms on the open windowsill, smiled in and said, "How we doing today?" It was the gravel voice from the phone call. Parker showed him the Beretta. "One step back; I don't want blood on the car.""

As to be expected with a Parker novel, Nobody Runs Forever blasts off with action and more action (hint: the boys use a bazooka-like weapon for this caper). And as any lit lover knows, character drives plot - and using just a scant number of words, few can describe women and men as well as Westlake/Stark.

Besides which, this review gave me an opportunity to use a new word: sockdolager.


American author Donald E. Westlake, 1933-2008