Customer Reviews

Backflash (Parker Novels)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book starts with a bang, moves through a mystery to a heist, and then deals with problems, clean up, and near disaster. Along the way, we see the incredibly detailed story of exactly how a gambling ship might be ripped off. We watch Parker, the hero of this series of books, as he plans, executes, and then cleans up little messes. These stories are very fun to read, combining well researched detail with a fast pace.

In this book, there is one character that stands out -- the retired state employee, disgruntled, unhappy, who leads Parker to the gambling ship. I work in state government. I have met this guy. He rings entirely true. His inclusion in the story makes the logic of the caper work, adds intrigue, and allows the author to create the sort of character seldom seen in fiction -- an interesting functionary. These books are good fun.

In Richard Stark's dark new caper, the state of New York is experimenting with riverboat gambling. A floating casino's being tested for four months on the Hudson River to see how much money it brings in, and it's all going to be cash during the trial run.

Enter master criminal Parker, who's approached by an anti-gambling former state employee with a proposal to rob the boat. Something about this guy troubles Parker, but he goes ahead anyway, assembling a crack team of specialists to plan a beautifully ingenious raid.

Parker's motto in heists is "to try to control events" but he knows all too well that "they'll still get away from you anyway." Of course that's exactly what happens here, when the scent of all that money attracts other crooks with plans of their own and Parker has to clean up the mess.

Stark is the pseudonym of acclaimed mystery master Donald Westlake, author of last year's stunning The Ax, and his expert touch is evident in every part of this tense, tough and enthralling book.

Having read a few Parker novels back in junior high (nearly 25 years ago), I can recall loving the character for his cold-eyed pragmatism and his ability to deliver a quick dose of shocking violence as needed to protect his interests. Upon hearing of Stark/Westlake's intention of resurrecting the character, I feared that the author would be tempted to "update" him, ie, start having him deliver wisecracks, worry about his relationship with his girlfriend, etc. Fortunately for us, Parker can clearly thrive in today's high-tech world and even pulls off driving a Lexus, now that those old American "hardtops" are gone. Comeback was great and Backflash is even better. The thoughts of every character in the book focus exclusively on their own pleasure and gain. Alas, just when you think Parker may have made a few mistakes this time out, he does not disappoint when it comes time to settle things in his usual ruthlessly efficient style.

Parker novels are straightforward heist novels where the plan always goes wrong and the experience and sharpness of Parker save the day. One of the strengths of this novel is that the heist involves a large crew composed of many interesting and equally talented theives, though Parker is the sharpest and hardest of them all. This novel's heist is particularly difficult and the chapters involving the heist are especially well written and deliciously describe the reactions and thoughts of the marks that are being robbed. A quick, rough subplot involving one of Parker's mistakes helps close this dark novel and cleary demonstrate just how hard and unforgiving Parker really is. It was a great close to a clever heist.

Backflash

I think I read my first Parker book sometime in the 1970's. Parker is a realistic seeming criminal who robs for a living written by Donald Westlake writing as Richard Stark. In Backflash, Parker is brought into a caper by a New York State beaurocrat who is against gambling. There is going to be a trial period where river boat gambling is allowed on the Hudson River so the Spirit of Biloxi is recommissioned the Spirit of the Hudson and it sails to the Hudson River where Parker and crew awaits all that cash.

As usual just because you think the action is all over Stark puts in a twist. That's all the hint I'm going to give to the ending.

As far as I can tell the other Parker books are:

1) The Hunter (1963; AKA Point Blank, Payback; Parker, by Richard Stark).

2) The Man With the Getaway Face (1963; AKA The Steel Hit; Parker,

3) The Outfit (1963; Parker, by Richard Stark)

4) The Mourner (1963; Parker, by Richard Stark)

5) The Score (1964; AKA Killtown; Parker, by Richard Stark)

6) The Jugger (1965; Parker, by Richard Stark)

7) The Seventh (1966; AKA The Split; Parker, by Richard Stark)

8) The Handle (1966; AKA Run Lethal; Parker, by Richard Stark)

9) The Rare Coin Score (1967; Parker, by Richard Stark)

10) The Green Eagle Score (1967; Parker, by Richard Stark)

11) The Black Ice Score (1968; Parker, by Richard Stark)

12) The Sour Lemon Score (1969; Parker, by Richard Stark)

13) Slayground (1971; Parker, by Richard Stark)

14) Deadly Edge (1971; Parker, by Richard Stark)

15) Plunder Squad (1972; Parker, by Richard Stark)

16) Butcher's Moon (1974; Parker, by Richard Stark)

17) Comeback (1997;

18) Backflash (1998; Parker)..

19) Flashfire (2000; Parker, by Richard Stark)..

20) Firebreak (2001; Parker, by Richard Stark) ..

21) Nobody Runs Forever (2004) Parker, by Richard Stark

Highly recommend for Parker fans and fans of action adventure stories.

Gunner October, 2007

An anti-gambling long time civil servant is obsessed that New York State is going to allow a four month trial run for a gambling ship the will cruise the Hudson River between Albany and Poughkeepsie. Parker,the neo-hero, puts together a group of interesting thieves to rob the ship while it is in transit. The entire plot and its characters are quite well done. The book moves along at a good clip. It is a good, enjoyable quick read.

Donald E. Westlake's alter ego Richard Stark's Parker character is back, although not his greatest novel Backflash is another extremely enjoyable fast paced easy read. Backflash is a novel both fans of and new readers to Westlake under his or his pen name Stark will read over and over again. Short chapters make putting it down when you reluctantly have to a breeze as well. As well as other Parker adventures also check out under Westlake's own name his masterpiece solution to being unemployed, The Ax. His novels Corkscrew and the Scared Stiff are also brilliant!

In Backflash a bureaucrat who was shown the door long before he planned wants Parker to take up the job which one of Parker's colleagues was set to undertake before dieing. Parker learns of his plan to have the Sprit of the Hudson robbed of its night takings. The Spirit of the Hudson was formerly the Sprit of Biloxi but has ventured into the state of New York on a trial gambling basis. Since it is a trial credit cards are not accepted so its takings will only be cash. Parker doesn't like jobs on boats but can see there is a pretty good chance of success so goes along with the plans and brings back some other criminals from former adventures. Of course it wouldn't be a great Parker adventure if other parties didn't plan on interfering and the bureaucrat didn't have his own agenda.

If you like Westlake as Richard Stark or himself but have read everything you can find by him also check out James Pattinson (Pattinson not Patterson), a British author who writes very similar quick and easy read novels.

This was my first Richard Stark book and it was worth the money. Parker's gritty, matter-of-fact way of looking at life and doing things made for an interesting character. And the way Stark tells the story, you feel as if you're an eaves-dropper to events going on -- in other words, you feel as if you're there. I appreciated the fact that Parker had a good side, as well as the bad. But Parker didn't let the good side take over his common sense when his life was at stake. He does what has to be done, like it or not. In sum, the plot was good and believable. The actions and events that unfolded were interesting, well-thought out and plausible, and the characters seemed real. The book had just enough action and suspense to keep your interest, and a good enough story to tie it all together. The book gets my recommendation.

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Parker just keeps getting better. Backflash, the eighteenth Parker novel, is an action thriller that rivets the reader's attention from the first page until the last.

Backflash begins with Parker and his friend Howell in a bad automobile accident. He and Howell had just finished a successful score and Howell lost control of their car during the escape. Since Howell was encased in the wreck and severely injured he asked parker to leave him and make his own escape. Parker complied.

Soon after he gets home, Parker receives a call inviting him to discuss a larger caper and Parker agrees to listen. The new score is complicated. A retired public employee asks Parker to rob a gambling boat that has just begun operations on the Hudson River. Although the job appears very dangerous, Parker agrees to look it over.

How does a person rob a gambling boat that: only comes to shore twice in any cruise; is heavily loaded with security on the boat; has a large group of state police gather at both ports? How can Parker rob the gambling profits from a system that only allows games using chips and sends the money for each purchase of chips through a pneumatic tube into a money room that is locked and bolted from the inside and allows no exit or entry during the cruise?

Richard Stark writes an engaging novel. The description is outstanding as he makes the boat seem real, and the small towns along the Hudson come alive with precise detailed descriptions. Stark uses careful economy of words to enhance the feeling of constant action.

Backflash is an exciting story of intrigue and rapid action. I highly recommend this novel to those who like well written crime novels.

Parker is Back to Kick Your Ass

SunPost Weekly March 31, 2011 | John Hood

[...]

Seems like only yesterday I was heralding another stack of Richard Stark re-racks and basking in the black and blue of it all. Alas that was last August, which is far too many yesterdays to let lapse before we do it all over again. No, don't worry. This won't be a repeat. Not really. It will though be another call for you to hit your local book joint and pocket a fistful of very vivid violence -- or else.

Those of you who were around during the Summer of 2010 will remember that I'd come clean on some very dirty deeds. The piece -- A Six Pack of Kickass praised to high hell the latest Richard Stark reprints re-issued by the good folks at the University of Chicago Press. Back then I'd explained that Stark was the most notable alias used by the late, great Donald Westlake, who copped the moniker by adding a suitably stoic adjective to the name Richard Widmark. Why did the grandmaster do that? Well, because the character he created to star under that guise was perhaps one of the most bleak and badass men ever to commit a crime, in fiction or otherwise. And that's saying something.

The dark star I'm referring to is of course Parker, who made his first appearance in The Hunter (1962) and didn't stop his spree until Stark did in 2008, with Dirty Money. The first dozen years of Parker's run resulted in 16 (count `em) incredibly compelling crime stories, all of which Chicago has now put back into print. The last blast of that initial onslaught was entitled Butcher's Moon (1974). And it is that very title which leads off the new three-pack.

As Lawrence Block so suitably notes in his Foreward, "for over twenty years [Butcher's Moon] looked to be the last book in the series, and while that would have been regrettable, at least Parker's saga would have ended on a high note. Because in addition to being... the strongest book in a strong series, [it] brings Parker's story to completion, if not to an end."

Now don't get Block wrong; you don't need to read the previous 15 novels to get a rise from Butcher's Moon (though naturally I recommend you do). Rather had you read the entries leading up to this crescendo, its combination of re-appearances and revisitation would add a whole new chime to the crime. Or in this case, the many, many crimes, all of which are perpetrated against criminals who haven't the sense to pay Parker what he believes he's owed.

Taking a line from Block "that is all I'm going to say about Butcher's Moon." Because to even chance spoiling the soiling Parker gives to his cutthroat adversaries would be a bigger crime than even he and his "string" commit.

Same goes for both Comeback (1997) and Backflash (1998), rounds two and three in this fight. I will though tell you that after 23 years fans of hard core unadulterated pulp unanimously rejoiced when Parker hit the racks again back at the end of the `90s. And there's little question that those keen-eyed fans of wild side reading will do likewise this time. Yes, even if you read Parker way back when, nothing is lost in the re-read. If anything, the revisit will reignite a wily smile, only this time it'll be larger for the knowledge that you were in on this from get. Those few of you who've yet to get with the most violent man in the annals of crime fiction, well, I've got but one question: What are you waiting for?