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The Black Ice Score

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"The Black Ice Score" was originally published in 1967, and for a good many years has been out of print and virtually impossible to find. Fans of Richard Stark's "Parker" series owe a debt of gratitude to the University of Chicago Press for republishing the book, along with several others in the series.

Parker is a hardened professional criminal who has virtually no moral reservations about the crimes he plans and commits, even when he must occasionally kill someone who gets in his way. He may be one of the most amoral figures in all of crime fiction, and yet Stark (a pseudonym of Donald Westlake) never wimps out and attempts to curry favor with the reader by giving Parker some ultimately redeeming feature. Still, you can't help liking the guy and rooting for him to succeed.

In this case, Parker is on vacation in New York when he is approached by the representatives of a small African nation. Their president, they claim, is about to abandon the country, taking much of the country's treasure with him. In fact, he has already sent the loot--hundred of thousands of dollars worth of diamonds--to New York ahead of him with some confederates. The men who approach Parker want to hire him to plan a way for them to steal the diamonds back and return them to the country's treasury.

Parker ultimately agrees and then, as is always the case in these books, complications ensue, testing Parker's abilities and throwing the plan and everyone involved into jeopardy.

"The Black Ice Score" falls into the middle of this series, and it's not as good as most of the other entries--which is not to say that it's a bad book, just that it's not up to the standards of many of the others.

As a result, this is a book that will probably appeal mostly to hard-core Parker fans who want to read the entire series. Readers who want to experience it for the first time, would probably be best advised to begin with "The Hunter," which is the first book in the series and a very good read. It has has also been published under the title "Payback," the title of the Mel Gibson movie that was made from the book.

A Half Dozen More Heist Books from Richard Stark

SunPost Weekly August 5, 2010 | John Hood
[...]

Gotta luv the folks at University of Chicago Press. Not only have they decided to bring back Richard Stark¡¯s belovedly badass Parker novels, but they¡¯ve been doing so in sequence, with a niftily packed series that smacks back to the ¡¯60s beginning and ¡ª Zeus-willing ¡ª won¡¯t let up till its 21st century end.

The beginning, for those few who don¡¯t know, was The Hunter (1962), which was reissued two years ago alongside the next eight in the long and lauded run. It was no happy accident that the initial nine reprints coincided with the author¡¯s death. (Stark, nee Donald E. Westlake, died on New Year¡¯s Eve 2008). What was a happy accident though, as John McNally so helpfully pointed out in a Summer ¡¯09 Virginia Quarterly Review piece on Parker called ¡°A Stark World¡±, is the series itself, which simply began as a way for Westlake to publish more books.

As Westlake told Charles L. P. Silet in a 1996 interview:

¡°[T]here¡¯s always been a belief in publishing that [a publisher] can¡¯t publish more than one book a year from any one author. So I thought it would be interesting to have a pen name¡­ to aim for a paperback original this time. So I did this book with the assumption that the bad guy has to get caught at the end . . . I sent [The Hunter] to Bucklin Moon at Pocket Books, who said, ¡®I like this book and I like this character. Is there any way you could change the book so that he would escape at the end and then you could give me three books a year about him.¡¯ And I said, ¡®I think so.¡¯¡±

Within two years Westlake, writing as Stark, would have three Parker novels in the pulp paperback racks. And by the time he was finished there¡¯d be a total of twenty three. And while 23 books in 46 years might not sound like a whole helluva lot, remember Westlake was writing Parker as a sideline, and in addition to his Dortmunder series of capers (14 novels, beginning with 1970¡äs The Hot Rock), he left behind over 100 novels.

But we¡¯re here to talk about Parker, the stoic, merciless, heist man. And it is Parker to whom pulpdom owes its love of bad guy heroes.

Or anti-heroes. Okay, so Jim Thompson did that bad-guy-as-hero thing before Westlake (or Stark) or anyone else. But as McNally also points out, though Thompson¡±took darkness to new depths, [he] used humor to offset the bleakness surrounding his characters¡¯ lives.¡±

Not so Parker. In fact if there¡¯s one instance where the man even smiles, I don¡¯t remember it. And laugh? Forget about it. Though some of the hurdles he and his ¡°string¡± have to heave over during the course of their various heists would be incredibly comic if they weren¡¯t so damn absurd.

Then again when the heists are as daring as those Parker and his crew undertake, absurdity is pretty much a given.

Take The Seventh (1966) and its robbing of a college football game¡¯s game day take. Or take The Handle (¡¯66) and its knocking off of an entire island casino. Or take The Score (¡¯64), where he and his endeavor to rob an entire town. Each begins as a brilliant plan. And each descends into a whirlwind of violence and vengeance. And through them all, Parker remains, resolute and ever ready to do whatever is required, without a hint of hesitation.

The six-pack of kickass that most recently racked consists of The Green Eagle Score (¡¯67), The Black Ice Score (¡¯68) and The Sour Lemon Score (¡¯69), as well as Deadly Edge (¡¯71), Slayground (¡¯71) and Plunder Squad (¡¯72). As you might suspect from their titles, the first three are pretty much straightforwardly crooked heist stories (the targets are, respectively, an Air Force base, an African nation¡¯s treasures, and a bank). But not one heist goes off the way they were intended, and Parker is left to pick up ¡ª and often eliminate ¡ª the pieces.

Deadly Edge, too, is a heist story, and the rock concert Parker and company knock off gives it a decidedly different beat. In Plunder Squad Parker goes head-to-head with a former accomplice who soured things in The Sour Lemon Score and it¡¯s got the giddy undercurrent of payback written right through it. Slayground, in contrast, finds Parker caught in an amusement park after knocking off an armored car, and the mobsters and cops who want what he¡¯s got never get know what hits them, even as it ¡ª and him ¡ª stares them down in the face.

Any one of the above is a worthy romp through a remarkably different America, when crime was crime and criminals took some pride in its commission. And any one of the above will leave you itchy for more. Best though would be to begin at the beginning with The Hunter, so you can see just how circumstances created the man Parker would come to be. But whether you decide to hop on at the beginning, in the middle or at the end, you¡¯re gonnawanna hold on. Because the Parker series doesn¡¯t come with seat belts or safety nets, and it¡¯s very easy to be thrown from this kinda wild ride.

BTW: If you dig this series ¡ª and you will, trust me ¡ª Hard Case Crime also has a buncha Stark/Westlake titles to choose from, including Lemons Never Lie (with Parker¡¯s occasional sidekick, Alan Grofield) and The Cutie (Westlake¡¯s debut, which was originally published as The Mercenaries).

I just finished this for the third time-- seems I read the Parkers about every ten years, and they never get stale. Though the early Parker novels were written about 40 years ago, they still sizzle with action. The characterizations are terse and to the point, and the writing is lean and propulsive.

Parker is a psychopath, but he's almost normal here-- the earliest books are exercises in single-minded brutality, but by this volume, about 4 years along in the canon, he's hooked up with Claire and is therefore vulnerable in some way that he wasn't earlier on. Still, he's all business, and when the excrement hits the fan, he's ready and willing to do anything it takes to survive and prevail.

Never read a Parker novel? Best to start with the first in the series: it's still the easiest one to find, under one of three titles, "The Hunter," or "Point Blank," or "Payback" (as a tie-in from the Mel Gibson film of some years ago). Once you meet Parker, you'll want to read more.

It's time to republish all of these in a cheap uniform edition.

Richard Stark's Parker improves in this novel. Parker is a antihero that gets us on his side despite of his being a master thief who occasionally kills people.

Parker has rules concerning whether he will get involved in a caper. First he must be getting low on funds. His pattern is to make a "score" then live a relaxed life off the profits until he again needs money. His other rules include: avoid working with amateurs - they will ruin the execution of the plan; avoid working with women as they distract the male members of the team; the prize and the plan must be secret, no one can discuss either with anyone not on the team - outsiders may interfere by notifying police or trying to get a share without earning it.

"The Black Ice Score" presents Parker with several violations of his rules. First, his team will primarily be amateurs. Next, the existence of the prize has been discussed with others before he was approached. Third, his woman, Claire, became involved from the beginning and she is certainly a distraction.

The story begins with three thugs breaking into his hotel room when Parker and Claire are on a vacation and shopping trip. Without explaining any details, they warn Parker that he and Claire will be at risk if he gets involved. Parker has no idea to what they refer. Next, a man named Hoskins approaches him and requests that they work together. Hoskins provides no information as he insists Parker already knows.
Third a group of African members of a UN delegation approach him seeking his assistance in recovering diamonds stolen from their national treasury.

Parker is reluctant, but the leader of the UN delegation, Gonor, explains that all they require is that Parker plan the operation and train them in its execution. Parker will get paid in advance and not be held responsible if the plan fails.

"The Black Ice Score" is one of the better Parker novels. Parker's plan is brilliant and his training excellent. This is a clever, suspenseful, and action filled novel. I highly recommend this novel.

Originally published in 1968 the Black Ice Score is the 11th novel in the brilliant Parker series and it's one of the best. You can read this as a standalone novel without having read the former novels, nothing is given away of those plots in this one, but you'll have a much greater appreciation of the characters Parker and Claire if you read the series in order.

In this one Parker enters his New York hotel room to find three men inside, one is going through his luggage and another has a gun pointed at him. Lucky for them they've surprised Parker and the fact that Claire, his girlfriend is being held in the bathroom has helped to keep them alive. They want to know if Parker is going to join in on a caper and warn him he should forget about it and return to Miami. Parker has no idea what they're on about but isn't one to give anything away. It isn't long before a phone call from someone else wants to know Parker's intentions. Nor is it long before while meeting up with the caller Claire calls and tells him four Africans have appeared in his room. Parker isn't a man for surprises, nor is he a trainer of amateurs who want him to plan their heist, yet the future of an African country's people may well depend on him doing just that.

If you're reading them in order the next novel in the Parker series after this is The Sour Lemon Score.

This Parker novel introduces a number of fresh ideas to the series. First, Parker reprises his traditional role of caper planner, but in a strictly advisory capacity, which is unique and intriguing. Secondly, Claire plays a prominent role in this book. The inclusion of her character shows the evolution of Parker as a person while still keeping him as the toughest guy you'll read about.

J.Ja

The Black Ice Score is the fourth Parker book I've read (The Hunter/Payback, The Man with the Getaway Face, The Outfit). Stark writes lean, concise sentences. Like his criminal protagonist, he doesn't waste time or words, and doesn't need foul language. Parker plans well, then improvises when things inevitably go awry.

Stark/Westlake published The Black Ice Score in 1968, a year of high racial tension in the U.S. The plot involves a power struggle within a newly independent African nation that spills over to New York and Miami. It is the eleventh book in the series, but like the others can stand alone. I hope Mysterious Press reprints this and the remaining out-of-print Parker titles.

My first take on Westlake's crime novel `Black Ice Score' is that it is almost not a novel at all, but instead a short story. The Parker stories usually are events that shouldn't take you more than half a short evening to read, so they are kind of like a good movie. Secondly, when I compare this book (as much as I enjoyed it) to other novels of the same genre, it just doesn't muster the highest of praise. Westlake's obvious self imposed restrictions, due to the short format, cramp all but a staccato story telling style. I think that I would probably encourage someone else to read 60-70 books of the mystery thriller genre before handing over a Westlake Parker book.

This time around Parker is approached by a small time hood that propositions Parker about a possible score. One thing in these Parker books is that if you read a whole bunch of them back to back, you will start to see re-occurring character-types. Westlake always seems to have a weasely little crook who knows Parker from the past, lets him in on a key bit of the story, seems to turn against him, and then gets offed some how. The other group that you often see in these novels is the bumbling foils, the competing bad guys who are after the same score only they mess it up somewhere along the way. The difference in this story compared to the rest of the Parker series is that Parker is trying to heist some diamonds in a somewhat good cause. An African nation will use the proceeds to prop up a new government and stave off a rebel faction.

The best thing about the Parker books, and what makes them worth reading is the character Parker himself. He is never fleshed out overly in any of the books. And in this one he is at his most cold hearted and violent. These books are bruisers that you would expect to be passed around in your local prison yards. This is not in my opinion Westlake's best series or even the best book in the Parker series. It is a little far fetched and the way the story starts off is a little implausible. Still... if your like me and want a good quick breath of something down and dirty to cleanse your mind from all of the usual sanctimonious mysteries, this is a nice palette cleanser.

I'm torn between reviewing the contents of these tapes and the tapes themselves. In both cases I give a top rating. Anyone already looking for old Richard Stark material already knows that this book is a classic. The cassettes and the package were better than I'd expected considering their age and I'm very happy with the set as well as the fast shipping.

This is a review of the audio version of Richard Stark's "The Black Ice Score" narrated by Stephen Thorne.

I have enjoyed reading and listening to the Richard Stark "Parker" series. They are fun, thrilling, and dark. I have enjoyed listening to Michael Kramer's narrations of Richard Stark books as well as Robert Davi's narration of "Backflash," and Jerry Orbach's narration of "Comeback."

I have heard a sample of Stephen Thorne's narration of "The Black Ice Score" and was immediately turned off and annoyed. Stephen Thorne has a higher pitched voice that is more suitable for children's books and novels with a much more lighter fare. Richard Stark's books are hard, violent, and dark. These books require a voice that is of a lower register, a deep and hard voice. Stephen Thorne reading these gritty crime noir novels is a complete contradiction. The spoken dialogue sounds silly. He cannot capture the edge, darkness and danger of a Richard Stark book. Stephen Thorne seems to be trying to read a completely different book than what I imagine. It is completely unappealing to me. I cannot imagine why the publishers decided on Stephen Thorne to narrate these hard crime dramas. I hope, in future, that the publisher will recast the narrator of future Richard Stark "Parker" novels.