Dirty Money
by Richard Stark
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 30)
Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
fans of Dashiell Hammett and Stark's alter ego Donald Westlake
"A deal is what people say is gonna happen. It isn't always what happens."
That line from Dirty Money sums up Richard Stark's entire Parker series, now at 26 books. Plans are made, plans go awry, and only Parker the thief (and murderer when necessary) seems to understand that this is the nature of life. He's a direct descendant of Sam Spade, only he works the other side of the law and has no code other than pragmatism. Parker steals because he can, and deals with the complications t...more
That line from Dirty Money sums up Richard Stark's entire Parker series, now at 26 books. Plans are made, plans go awry, and only Parker the thief (and murderer when necessary) seems to understand that this is the nature of life. He's a direct descendant of Sam Spade, only he works the other side of the law and has no code other than pragmatism. Parker steals because he can, and deals with the complications t...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
fans of Richard Stark
About halfway through the book, the understated glory of Richard Stark's long-lived antihero Parker gets a representative moment. A character who's been making Parker's relationship to some stolen money and the cops quite complicated must be dispatched, and after that character shouts,
"Parker [knew] which way he was moving. And then his ragged breath gave him the spot, and then Parker had his hands on him.
This had to be fast, and then he had to find that window and slide the plyw...more
"Parker [knew] which way he was moving. And then his ragged breath gave him the spot, and then Parker had his hands on him.
This had to be fast, and then he had to find that window and slide the plyw...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
Todd, John, Diane
When we last saw the master criminal Parker, he and his associates had seen their armored car heist in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts go spectacularly wrong. With one co-conspirator in the clink, and the money too hot to handle, Parker had to stash it in an abandoned church with hopes of going back for it later. When he hears that the jailed robber has busted out, killing a US Marshall in the process, he knows it's now or never to get the money. He hooks back up with the cons from the s...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
crime caper readers
Richard Stark’s latest Parker caper finds him trying to figure out how to ‘rescue’ $2.2 million which he and his partners in crime have liberated in their recent armored car robbery, and hidden in an abandoned church in upstate NY. After one of the thieves was nailed by police while trying to pass some of the marked money, Parker decides to launder it, and more people take an interest in getting a cut, further complicating the plan.
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If you like genre fiction, then you'll love Richard Stark's Parker books (Stark is the pseudonym for Donald Westlake). Parker is a professional criminal who lives beyond cconventional morality and in that sense a revolutionary as well. The writing in the Parker books is always a marvel of compression, Hemingway without the posing.
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Read in May, 2008
If you are looking for action, there is plenty of it in this book. Reads like a screenplay for an action flic, which is probably what it was intended for. The writing is pretty flat and Stark is not big on scenery or setting. The characters are pretty flat too. I did keep turning the pages to the end, I will give him that.
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Read in July, 2008
recommended to Nonie by:
some list
My first 'iTunes audiobook.' An 'out-of-the-fryingpan' type of book that's written from the point of view of the robbers; listened while working out at the gym & while flying across the country. I liked it well enough to want to purchase & listen to more mysteries.
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Read in May, 2008
Not the usual tight Richard Stark novel as of late. Too much dependency on references to characters from his last two novels. But hey, the author just turned 75. Some day Stark/Westlake will be dead and will mourn the loss of anticipating his next novel.
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Read in June, 2008
I can't wait for this. I might have to buy this and save it for the 14 hour flight to India. Crap, it comes out the day after my flight. Anyone work at Grand Central Publishing?
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.65 (23 ratings) number of reviews: 9popular shelves
other editions
quote
" "If you leave me here," the guy on the floor said, "he'll kill me tomorrow morning."
Parker looked at him. "So you've still got tonight," he said."
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