The Mourner (Parker Novels) [Paperback]

Richard Stark (Author)

Book Description

Series: Parker Novels | Publication Date: September 1, 2001

The statue wore white and grieved. Parker wasn't interested in its sentimental value. The thief cared more about retrieving a certain gun that came with it, the one he had used in a previous crime that could incriminate him. By the time Parker comes face to face with the 16-inch-tall alabaster figurine called The Mourner, he knows that stealing it for a rich man and his beautiful, amoral daughter is the least of his worries. New players are coming in every minute, from strutting syndicate boys to a fat man with a heavy accent who is lighter on his feet than he looks. Now in a deadly, treacherous endgame, Parker will find out who intends to bury whom-and why no one will be crying over his grave.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Cunning...courage...imagination....Parker is in action once more." -- -The New York Times

"Whatever Stark writes, I read. He's a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude." -- -Elmore Leonard

About the Author

Richard Stark was one of the many pseudonyms of Donald E. Westlake (1933-2008), a prolific author of noir crime fiction. In 1993 the Mystery Writers of America bestowed the society’s highest honor on Westlake, naming him a Grand Master.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Press; Warner Books ed edition (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446677728
• ISBN-13: 978-0446677721
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,715,555 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Whilst we all Mourn Westlake's (aka Richard Stark) Death, It's Great Parker and His Older Adventures Have Been Given Life Again!, August 21, 2009

By 

James N Simpson (Gold Coast, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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

It's great to see publishers such as University of Chicago Press republishing old classics such as Westlake's originally published in 1963 Parker novel The Mourner. They've actually republished quite a number of his novels from the start of his under Richard Stark pen name Parker novels, all have a similar gun silhouette and a couple of images in front, with of a different colour background for each book which incidentally all look quite good together on a shelf. I wasn't even alive back when this originally came out so am quite grateful to be able to read these now without having to pay a small fortune for them.

You certainly don't need to have read the three previous Parker adventures to enjoy this as a standalone read but this one (in chapter 4) does give away key happenings in those first three books so it's probably a good idea to put this one aside and pick up the other three first. In order they are The Hunter, The Man with the Getaway Face (aka The Steel Hit) and The Outfit. If you've just finished this, the next one to look for is The Score (aka Killtown).

In The Mourner, Parker needs to steal a 15th century small white statue of mourner (hence the title of the book) which a Russian diplomat named Kapor has in his collection. Unfortunately for Parker, this diplomat has funded his collection by syphoning off money that should have gone back to the Soviet Union, so KGB policeman August Menlo, has been sent to discreetly dispose of Kapor and bring back the money. However first he's got to find just where Kapor hid it, so when Parker's colleague in this caper Handy McKay shows an interest in one of Kapor's female servants, Menlo has him abducted. Parker has no idea why Handy was taken but he doesn't take kindly to someone else muscling in on his action.

This is easily the best novel in the series up to this point since The Hunter. August Menlo is an excellently written character who you'll thoroughly enjoy following his journey through the pages.

It's a shame Donald E Westlake passed away in December 2008 so the Parker adventures ended with Dirty Money published that year. It's a great series and it's great that these old adventures that were published before many of our times can be obtained again so easily through republication. Incidentally Westlake's first ever novel (not a Parker adventure) has also been republished under the title The Cutie.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Parker's Maltese Falcon, February 11, 2011

By 

Michael Gebert (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

One of the things you realize reading these in their University of Chicago "approved classic" editions is that the guy who wrote them was a working stiff trying to find what would sell; so while the character of Parker is fairly constant, the situations hop genres. This one clearly starts out in a mix of Dashiell Hammett and 60s spy movie territory, with a Peter Lorre-esque collector on the trail of a Maltese Falcon-like historical dingus also sought by KGB agents and other grotesque characters, the kind of caper that was typical back then in movies like Topkapi or The Pink Panther. At first that seems a little cheap, but in the end it's interesting to see how Parker functions in that environment-- and the answer is, ten times more unsentimentally than even Sam Spade, since he's not going to fall in love with any dame, or worry about sending one up the river, either. Still, too much of this seems out of place in Parker's world, too movieish for a guy who inhabits a lowlife world of untraceable cars and stagnant small towns, and the convenient use of a genuine piece of standard issue spy equipment to finish off one major character seems cheap and wrong. The next book, The Score, will return Parker to a world he belongs in.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We do not remember birth, and death is not a part of life, November 5, 2011

By 

H. Schneider "Hamlet" (Pandistan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

This series started at a wrong time, it went entirely against the spirit of the 60s, says John Banville in his introduction to vol 4 of the Parker series. You can say that again. Parker cares nothing about politics or wars or love, but he will rob you and kill you if you are in the way.

He cares nothing about art or history, but here he gets involved in art theft. Business is business. Parker works for money. If there is a history behind an art object, what does he care. The statuette in question, the mourning monk, hails from Dijon. Various historical events moved it to Canada, then Atlanta, then Boston, now Washington D.C. in the embassy of a fictional iron curtain country --- another intricacy that Parkers cares nothing about. Parker's patience is heavily tested by this tale. He likes his briefs to be brief.

The fact that the University of Chicago Press reprints the Parker series, and that they get highbrow Banville to write an introduction, proves at least, if nothing else, that the author Westlake/Stark has found influential supporters. It doesn't prove the high value of the writing. For that you need to see for yourself.
I have myself nearly quit the habit of reading crime series, but there are always exceptions.