Customer Reviews

The Split (Atlantic Large Print Books)

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Picture this: Parker and friends have pulled the perfect heist and Parker is holding the money till the heat cools down. Then an AMATEUR sneaks in, kills Parker's girl friend of the moment, finds and takes the stash, takes a couple of shots at Parker, and sets him up as the patsy for the murder. --- Parker is less than pleased.

From here on in it is non-stop action with all seven members of Parker's team hunting down the Amateur (who has a phobic fear of gunfire-someone else's, that is.) The cops get in the act and chase everyone while the body count rises.

Parker's partners are well drawn and each is sharply defined. By getting to know them, like in many Parker novels, you find yourself rooting for the bad guys. "The Split" like "Slayground" is almost total action, but Stark somehow gives us a sense of people and place, on the fly as it were. The Amateur, who is being stalked relentlessly, pauses for breath and thinks, "That's what death is; getting your heel caught in a crack of time."

This is an elegant, dark side of Donald Westlake. He should write the manual on anti-heroes. Highly recommended.

Fantastic. A stripped down, page-turner, one of the best in the Stark repertoire, and a classic of Crime Fiction.The one is currently in print under its original title, The Seventh.