Man with the Getaway Face (Atlantic Large Print Books) [Import] [Hardcover]

Richard Stark (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Chivers Large print (Chivers, Windsor, Paragon & C; Large Print Ed edition (February 9, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 074519317X
• ISBN-13: 978-0745193175
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,582,856 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite Simply-A Classic!, January 17, 2001

By 

Larry Eischen - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Man with the Getaway Face (Parker Novels) (Paperback)

Richard Stark is the master of the criminal tale. THis is the followup novel to The Hunter (AKA Point Blank, AKA Payback). After his run-in with the Outfit, Parker undergoes plastic surgery in order to avoid further complications. Parker's next job is an armored car heist. The entire operation is covered in detail from beginning to end. While planning the job, Parker is tracked by an employee of the doctor who reveals the doctor has been killed. Unless the chauffeur can find the killer, the new faces of his recent customers will be revealed to the Outfit. Parker finds himself in a vise as he goes on with the heist and then has to track the chauffeur in an effort to keep him alive while also uncovering the doctor's killer. AS always for Parker, nothing goes as easily as planned, there is a double cross on the armored car job and the chauffeur gets away from him. This book is a must for those just discovering Parker through the new novels and Mel Gibson's movie. Part 3, featuring the mental meanderings of the punch drunk chauffeur, reveals the slow methodical thought processes while still carrying the story along. The plodding lackey becomes a sympathetic character, maybe the only one in the book, as we follow him on his quest for justice. This book is quite simply a classic of the genre-but then again, aren't all of Stark's novels classics?

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No-Nonsense Criminal, May 30, 2002

By 

Untouchable (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Man with the Getaway Face (Parker Novels) (Paperback)

Most people who have just had their face reconstructed would be inclined to go through a period of mourning as they lament the loss of their familiar appearance. Not so with Parker. Apart from a quick glance in the mirror to make sure he looked different, he is completely unaffected.

This reaction probably best sums up this mysterious and dark character. He always prefers to take the most prudent action rather than be ruled by his emotions, giving him a cold, calculating persona. But these same qualities also make him very efficient and strangely likable.

After receiving his new appearance, Parker goes straight back to work in planning an armoured truck heist. He has some misgivings about the job because it involves someone he has never worked with before, but this is just another contingency for him to plan around. Indeed, it appears that Parker has been built with no reverse gear installed. Once a course of action has been planned, it's full steam ahead and as obstacles rise up, as they inevitably do in this caper, he deals with them head on, scarcely breaking stride.

This is the second Parker book, following his appearance in The Hunter and is a thoroughly enjoyable story. The no-nonsense attitude of Parker, whether it's going ahead with a plan or casually shooting someone in the ankle makes for very entertaining, if a little cold-blooded, reading.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Making a buck in the early '60s, March 16, 2002

By 

"curtcow" (Short Hills, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Man With The Getaway Face (Audio Cassette)

Donald Westlake writes of Dortmunder, a bumbling petty criminal it's really hard to like. Then as Richard Stark he gives us Parker, a much more competent crook who will kill when he has to, and surprisingly or not, a much more likeable character.

It was written in 1963 when the mob was "The Outfit", Exxon was still Esso and you took the ferry to Brooklyn, not the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Parker gets a new face from Dr. Adler, a plastic surgeon in Nebraska who was a pre 50s Commie, then goes back to New Jersey for an armored car heist. Skim and Elma, Skim's overbearing waitress girlfriend, set up the heist, develop an unworkable plan that Parker fixes and set up a doublecross that Parker anticipates. All would be fine except Dr. Adler has been killed, and a guy named Stubbs is sent to find the killer.

The interaction between Parker and Stubbs and their search for a swindler named Wallenbaugh, now Wells, take up the rest of the story. Parker's reasons for getting to Wells and going back to Nebraska to square things come from logic only his mind could concoct, but it makes for a fun adventure.