false<![CDATA[Flashfire (Parker Novels)]]>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174855411m/447236.jpg4472367Richard Stark's professional criminal, Parker, is so hard-boiled he could make an egg cry. Blunt and matter-of-fact (the less charitable might say cold and calculating), he has perfected the art of theft. Unfortunately, perfection can be a relative term, a concept made vulnerable by the honor--or lack thereof--among thieves. When Parker joins forces with three other crooks to rob a Nebraska bank, he's prepared for a gentlemanly division of the proceeds, not for a double-cross. But his colleagues have other plans for his share: it will be their seed money for a $12 million Palm Beach jewel heist. What's Parker to do but make his own plans to steal the Palm Beach loot from the double- crossers?<p> Working his way across the Southeast in a series of carefully executed robberies and changes of identity, Parker arrives in Palm Beach, where he finds more barriers along the path of revenge than he could have imagined. Chief among them: a diabolically clever plan by his former partners; a real estate agent named Leslie with an unfortunately sharp sense of character; and a team of professional hit men out for Parker's blood (but why?). <p> In his third outing after a long retirement by Stark (the pen name of Donald E. Westlake, revered for the comic capers of his bumbling crook, Dortmunder), Parker is in fine form: steely, sardonic, detached. Stark's acidly funny depictions of Palm Beach and its native fauna are a bonus: <blockquote>Alice Prester Young knew she was a herd animal, and enjoyed the knowledge, because the herd she moved with was the very <I>best</I> herd in all the world. For instance, here she was, at five-thirty this Thursday afternoon, in her chauffeured Daimler, with her new husband, the delicious Jack, to pick up just the <I>perfect</I> jewelry for tonight's pre-auction ball, and she knew when she arrived at the bank she would be surrounded by her own kind, chauffeured and cosseted women with attractive escorts, all coming to the bank (the only bank one could use, really) because this particular bank stayed open late whenever there was an important ball in town, just so the herd could come get its jewelry out of the safe-deposit boxes.</blockquote> Not to be missed by fans of gritty noir, nor by those who prefer their crime cocktails with a comic twist: Stark and Parker will give you both. <I>--Kelly Flynn</I>38232000Flashfire (Parker Novels)total:92|5:18|4:46|3:24|2:4|1:0|92354112740falsefalseSat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007Wed Dec 19 07:25:01 -0800 2007Wed Dec 19 07:35:12 -0800 2007
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40falsetrueSat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008Tue Feb 05 04:57:35 -0800 2008Thu Apr 03 08:40:39 -0700 2008
Flashfire had all the usual plot devices but everything was just a little bit different than most Parker novels. Here Parker is doing battle with some of his former partners along with a separate cast of ne'er-do-wells. We find him in much differ...more...]]>
30falsefalseTue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007Tue May 01 07:45:46 -0700 2007Tue Jun 12 09:47:54 -0700 2007
The Wrong Guy to Mess With. And I mean that as praise. Part of the pleasure of reading a Parker novel is knowing what you're going to get; a heist, a double-cross, a clockwork plot, and a satisfying conclusion i...more...]]>
40falsefalseThu Jan 01 08:06:13 -0800 2009Thu Jan 01 20:26:06 -0800 2009
The story starts with a crime and one member of group is asked to join the gang on their next crime. He doesn’t like the set up and says no. They give ...more...]]>
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