Amazon.com: Assassins (Signet) (9780453007016): F. M. Parker: Books

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Parker's ( The Shadow Man ) engaging western is set against the backdrop of the New Orleans Yellow Fever epidemic of 1847. Tim Wollfolk, an accountant for a Cincinnati steamboat company, heads to New Orleans to claim a large inheritance. En route, he is set upon by thugs and shot, his body dumped into the Mississippi. Ex-Texas Ranger Lew Fannin, who witnessed this murderous assault, kills the three attackers and, believing Wollfolk dead, assumes his identity, claims his inheritance and runs the Wollfolk family shipping business, protecting his interests with fists and his Colt revolver. But Wollfolk has survived, and he vows revenge on the man he considers a thief and an impostor. Assuming a new name, he is hired by Fannin as his accountant. Together they protect the business from a series of dangers, not the least of which is a secret group known as the Ring, which aims to dominate the loading docks of the city. In time, Fannin guesses his sidekick's true identity and turns over the business to the real Wollfolk, but further dramatic events ensue before their partnership--and the epidemic--come to an end. Parker's narrative is well paced and packed with action, and the period flavor of New Orleans is particularly well done.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Tim Wollfolk, sole heir to his uncle's prosperous business in ante-bellum New Orleans, is approaching the city when he is set upon by thieves, shot, and thrown into the Mississippi. He survives, and is pulled from the river by Morissot, an assassin for hire. But unbeknownst to Tim, Lew Fannin, an ex-Texas Ranger who's out of work, witnesses the tail end of the attack and kills the thieves. Believing Tim dead, Fannin assumes his identity and claims the inheritance. Among the intrigue, disease, and death rampant in 1840s' New Orleans, Tim, with the help of Morissot, attempts to reclaim his fortune from Fannin. While Parker has painted a historically accurate backdrop, his plot suffers somewhat from wooden dialogue and leaps in logic. Parker has a loyal following, though, so large public libraries may want to purchase this latest effort.
- Robert Jordan, Univ . of Iowa, Iowa City
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's F. M. Parker Page

My name is Fearl Meek Parker. Don't laugh about the Meek. Sometime in the future, I'll tell how such a moniker was hung on me. I write under the name of F. M. Parker

I have written 20 books and am in the process of publishing them on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple and some publishers in England.

My early years were lived in Ohio. At 16 I dropped out of school and went to work in a factory making door and windows. Becoming tried of eating sawdust, I started hitchhiking west. Ran out of money in Colorado and worked as a bellhop in Estes Park. After a few days and with a few coins jingling in my pocket, I caught a ride north to Montana where I herded sheep near Miles City. Tiring of that, I jumped onto my thumb and rode it west to Seattle, Washington. There I tasted the salt water and saw all the warships sailing off to war in the Pacific. This was 1945 during World War 11. Again I jumped upon my thumb, pointed it to the east, and rode it to Ohio. Where I talked my mother into signing me into the navy. Well, I wasn't yet 17 the minimum age, and so the navy put me up in a hotel for a day and them swore me in. I spent 4 years that first time. I was called back to active duty for a year and a half during the Korean War in the early 1950's.

Earned a degree in geology, working the night shift for Chrysler Airtemp and going to school during the day. Hired on with a mining company prospecting for uranium in Utah. Next, I worked for an oil company drilling oil wells in KANSAS. THEN my luck really struck and I took employment with the Bureau of Land Management, a bureau within the Department of the Interior. This was the perfect job for a fellow with an itchy foot. While working up through the ranks, I was in California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington D.C. and Oregon. I wrote my first book, Skinner, while in Oregon. Doubleday published it. After the Bureau, I became an environmental consultant in Phoenix, Arizona. I now live in Virginia.