The Jugger [Import] [Paperback]

Richard Stark (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 158 pages
• Publisher: UK: Coronet (1974)
• ISBN-10: 0340151390
• ISBN-13: 978-0340151396
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,649,339 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What's In A Name?, October 14, 2002

By 

sweetmolly (RICHMOND, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jugger (Paperback)

Joe Sheer, a fine old man, retired safecracker (jugger), has been Parker's contact man for years. Parker receives a disquieting letter from Joe and wonders if he is getting a little old for the job. Parker decides to pay him a visit, not to present a gold watch, but perhaps to help Joe along to his eternal rest. The usually overly careful Parker flies to Sagamore, Nebraska to have a hands-on visit with Joe using his clean-as-a whistle alias, Charles Willis.

Picture Smalltown U.S.A. Friendly folks, picket fences, nicely clipped lawns, tree shaded lots, porch swings, and you have Sagamore. Now picture deadly purposeful Parker strolling down the sidewalks. Neither one of them are quite ready for the other. Alas for Parker, there is no heist this time, Joe is already dead, and the local and state police are taking far too much interest in Charles Willis. Parker has to put his superb planning abilities in high gear to settle the natives, and solve the mystery of Joe's alleged buried fortune. Parker's sole interest in this is to get Charles Willis back to Miami unknown and uninvestigated.

This is a fine Parker outing where Parker is the only one in Sagamore with good sense, and with much exasperation has to lead the law to the truth. To get the job done, a few homicides happen, and a left over lady with "the eyes of a pickpocket and the mouth of a whore" helps him out. "The Jugger" is best read after you have read a couple other Parker novels for background. For all other Parker aficionados, this is choice.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ..., March 28, 2002

By 

Jim Shine (Dublin, Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jugger (Paperback)

Talk about waking from a coma. The Jugger begins confusingly - good confusingly, that is - with Parker in a hotel room in a small town in Nebraska. There's a dead guy in the obituary column, an annoying guy hanging around Parker, a cop outside. Everyone knows more than the reader at this stage, but nobody really knows anything. Turns out after a few chapters that the dead guy is the titular Jugger - a locks man who knew too much about Parker. The annoying guy and the cop think the dead guy knew something else - like where his life's earnings are hidden. Parker needs to make sure no one else knows what the dead guy really knew.
The story unfolds piece by piece, and Parker responds in the only way imaginable for one of fiction's most amoral characters.
Tough, very tight.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Saving an Alias, February 22, 2011

By 

W. Easley "Opa" (Colorado Rocky Mountains) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Jugger: A Parker Novel (Parker Novels) (Paperback)

Parker is threatened. His long time friend, Joe Sheer, a retired safe cracker or jugger, wrote him a letter begging for his help. Joe Sheer is the only person alive that knows Parker's cover character Charles Willis. Parker spent many years and much money to build his cover and if it is exposed he would have nowhere to lay low with confidence.

Parker travels to Joe's retreat, a tiny town in Nebraska, and discovers that Joe is dead. Since he visited the town using his alias name, he realized that he was now exposed. But what happened to Joe? Why did Joe beg him to come? The Jugger is the story of how Parker survives this major threat.

Investigating Joe's death, Parker learns that several people are convinced that Joe had a large treasure stash and all of them want to find the money and get a large cut. Parker, who believes his old friend never had such a treasure, stays around to try to save his "safe" alias. This is the toughest job Parker has had. Can he save himself?

The Jugger is a violent, action packed thriller. Parker's clever and sometimes desperate actions lead to excitement and intrigue. I highly recommend The Jugger.