Slayground [Import] [Paperback]

Richard Stark (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 157 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (1973)
• ISBN-10: 0340165294
• ISBN-13: 978-0340165294
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,117,790 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Slayground Playground, October 28, 2001

By 

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

This review is from: Slayground, (Hardcover)

This one is Super-Parker. I am in awe of Stark's (Donald Westlake) skills at placing the entire action in a closed-for-the-season amusement park with only one exit. Parker is trapped not only by crooked cops, but the bad guys as well. What a kaleidoscope of rides, color and strange machinery! Yet it is all aslant. Rather than crowds and summertime weather, it is empty, cold and bleak.

The tension never lets up. Will the bad guys find Parker's stash? Will they corner him? Can he pull another trick out of his bag? Will the scaffolding hold?

I am always baffled when people complain of lack of characterization in Parker novels. To me, the beauty is being right inside Parker's head when he meticulously plans his heists, revenge, and plans. True, we never read of honor, sensitivity, introspection, and love for the very good reason Parker possesses none of these traits. I always think Parker would be a totally successful CEO of a giant corporation if he had taken up another line of work.

"Slayground" is vintage Parker, hard-boiled, violent and as perfectly crafted as a fine watch.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Parker Emulates Rambo as he is Hunted by Crooked Cops and Mafia Thugs in a Shut Down Fenced in Amusement Park, December 15, 2010

By 

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

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

This is one of my favourite Parker novels as it is mostly purely inside the head of Parker action. Fans of David Morrell's First Blood which was actually published three years after this in 1972, will enjoy seeing Parker forced into a sort of Rambo type situation. Parker's got only 4 bullets in his gun and a lot more men than that searching a closed for the winter amusement park, wanting to end his life for the $70 thousand he fled from a car crash outside the gates with, while fleeing an armoured car robbery. There's only one exit from the park and no way Parker can sneak past those on duty. Since the only other weapons in the park are a couple of Fun Island engraved hunting knives (a bit of an odd souvenir to be being sold in amusement park but remember this was written in 1969), Parker's going to have to come up with some intelligent traps inside the various rides to kill off his adversaries, which McCauly Culkin could only dream of coming close to decades later in the Home Alone movies.

Slayground is highly entertaining. It's a little unrealistic at times, such as a scene in the park's theatre and surely Parker could have made his own second exit from one of those that is boarded up for the winter, especially when he realises no one is immediately entering the park after he did. However we wouldn't have this great read, if Parker had simply climbed the fence.

This novel can easily be read as a standalone story, as none of the previous Parker novels' plots are given away in this one. It's a simple survivor against the odds novel so you don't need to have read those either to understand or enjoy this one either. If you're reading these in order though the next in the series is Plunder Squad.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If Lee Marvin had starred in Beverly Hills Cop 3, December 27, 2002

By 

Joe Kenney "buttergun" (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slayground (Paperback)

Beverly Hills Cop 3 is also known as "Die Hard in an amusement park," due to the climactic battle in which Eddie Murphy, holed up in a deserted amusement park, takes on a tide of villains. I don't know if the filmmakers realized it, but this is the same plot as Richard Stark's Slayground, published in 1971.

The narrative is as linear as an old pulp novel. The book opens with an armored truck robbery that quickly goes wrong. Parker, alone, escapes with a satchel of money by climbing the fence of a nearby amusement park, which is closed for the winter. Parker walks right into a meeting between a local mob boss and a few crooked cops. Parker escapes into the park, only to find there's no other way out. And he can't just leave, because he knows those mobsters out there will be waiting for him. He also knows that soon enough they'll realize he's the robber being mentioned in the news reports, the robber who has seventy grand on him. So Parker sets up as many traps as he can in the park. That night the mobsters come in after him, and what follows is a nail-biting thriller that would be fit for the screen, if not for its single-track mind and lack of subplot. It's survival of the fittest all the way, as Parker does whatever he can to [detour] anyone who comes after him, and escape with his life.

The novel itself doesn't start out so linear, as first we follow Parker through his botched robbery, and then we go back to before the robbery, and meet each of the mobsters and crooked cops. Once these pleasantries are out of the way, it's straight-up action and adventure time. Parker is his usual cold, calculating, monosyllabic self, and the assortment of mobsters and cops after him are each well-drawn and memorable. There are also several reversals and surprises strewn through the plot, such as when Parker "lucks out" and kills the last person you'd expect him to. However, what at first seemed like a lucky break soon turns out to be Parker's misfortune.

All in all, Slayground is an entertaining, quick read, but has apparently not yet been reprinted. I'd suggest finding a copy at your local library, instead of paying a fortune for a used edition.