I am embarrassed to admit that I'd never heard of Richard Stark, and only recently discovered he is a pseudonym for Don Westlake. I have read everything written by Dashiel Hammett, Raymond Chandler, John D. MacDonald, Ross Macdonald - and missed Stark entirely. I must not have been paying very close attention.

Stark's prose is every bit as tough and gritty as all of them. His Parker character doesn't take his hat off to nobody - not even Phillip Marlowe.

This is noir at its best. No question.

Now I have another 30 or so novels to read.