Customer Reviews

Slayground

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Stark's anti-hero Parker pulls off the perfect armored car heist, until everything goes wrong, trapping him in a theme park abandoned for winter. And to make matters worse, he's seen going over the fence by corrupt cops taking payment from the local mob. And they all want the cash he's swiped. A fun crime novel.

After getting hooked on Stark's novels since the resurgence brought on with the awful Mel Gibson flick "Payback," I highly recommend that, if you can find this one, pick it up! "Slayground" is my favorite Stark novel. If you've ever seen the films "Die Hard" or even "Reservoir Dogs," you'll note that "Slayground" was an obvious influence. This is definitely a fun book, as the other reviewer stated, but what set "Slayground" apart from the rest for me was the way he handled plotting. Anyone studying to write mystery novels where plot is a key ingredient would benefit from Stark's example, especially in this novel. My only criticism would be that which I have of the rest of the Parker novels--too short on characterization. Then again, that's also the allure, isn't it?

Anyway, a brief synopsis: Parker robs an armored car and hides from police in an amusement park that's shut down for the winter, but stumbles upon a deal between some Mob-types and some crooked cops. Both cops and crooks go looking for Parker in a place where he's trapped.

Another good Stark book, if you can find it, is "The Green Eagle Score."

It was an easy job for Parker, knocking over the armored car, but his inexpert driver takes the corner too fast spoiling the getaway. So Parker must take cover in an amusement park closed for the winter. But he's seen going in by a pair of crooked cops and the mob guys who are paying them off. And the one thing on their mind is to go after Parker and take away the money and make Parker disappear at the same time.

Donald Westlake, alias Richard Stark, really knows how to spin a tale. The plotting is tight and the prose is sparse. Parker is a tough man in a fight and it's fun watching him get out of a situation where he's trapped in a box with no way out and twenty men hunting him down. A good crime read.

This is the fourteenth entry in Richard Stark's excellent series about Parker, the amoral criminal whose carefully-laid plans almost always come undone because of some unforeseen accident or because of an act of carelessness by one of the other crooks involved in the plan. In this case, it's the getaway driver who screws everything up. This is not the driver that Parker would have prefered, but it's the driver that Parker had to settle for. And it's Parker who will now have to pay the price.

Parker and two accomplices hit an armored car for $70,000. (This is back in 1969, when $70,000 was still a lot of money.) The overconfident driver loses control of the getaway car and rolls it only a couple of blocks from the scene of the crime. With the cops hot on his tail, Parker grabs the loot and escapes into an amusement park across the street that is closed for the winter.

Parker fully expects an army of cops to surround the park and flush him out, but then several hours pass and nothing happens. It turns out that the two patrolmen who saw Parker go over the fence are corrupt cops in league with local mobsters. Rather than bringing Parker to justice, they intend to hunt him down, kill him and keep the cash for themselves. The result is a great cat-and-mouse chase in which Parker, out-manned and out-gunned, must use every trick in the bag to save himself. He's even more inventive and resourceful than usual, and Stark (Donald Westlake) produces a taut, gripping story with a great climax. Fans of this series will be very grateful to the University of Chicago Press for resurrecting this title which has been unavailable for a good number of years.
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Parker is a master criminal who regularly escapes tough situations. When trapped in an amusement park with only one possible exit, how can he escape? When facing twenty to one odds how can he survive?

Slayground begins with Parker and his team robbing an armored truck. During the escape the driver loses control of the car on an icy road and crashes into a fence. The other team member are seriously injured and comatose, so Parker escapes alone. Since the area is remote, Parker runs into a nearby amusement park to obtain cover. Unfortunately Parker soon discovers that this park has only one exit, where some mobsters are gathered.

Parker is seen going into the park by several members of the local crime syndicate and two corrupt police officers. Rather than calling in the police, they decide to subdue Parker and take the cash from the robbery for themselves.

Slayground is divided into four parts. The first part narrates the events of the robbery and Parker's initial activities in the amusement park. The second part switches focus and relates the activities of the crooked police and syndicate members. The third part recounts the battle between the syndicate and Parker. The final part switches focus back to Parker and concludes the battle. Each part is ripe with plot twists as the initiative switches back and forth between Parker and his enemies.

Slayground is an exciting novel. It is full of suspense and intrigue. From page one action is rapid and continual. Parker's situation becomes difficult as he is significantly outnumbered and out gunned. Parker's tactical planning during a seven hour period while his opponents get organized, is detailed and impressive. The battle is similar to a military battle in its difficulty and tactics .

Slayground is the best of the 12 Parker novels I have read. I highly recommend this novel.

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).

Hollywood needs to look at Richard Stark aka Donald Westlake's portfolio of work and they would have at least ten blockbuster movies.

Slayground is a fast and ferocious ride from beginning to end. Parker takes no prisoners when he is backed into a corner.Pit bulls are pansies compared to Parker.