The Score

Probably my least favorite Parker book so far, primarily because it was so focused on the score and less focused on the characters. But, you know, the book is called The Score so what did I expect?

This one definitely had a very Hollywood feel to it. I’m not surprised to see that it was published four years after Oceans 11 because it had the same tone, in a way - an almost impossible crime pulled off by a collection (12, in the book) of specialized individuals. If viewed as a bit of a meta-commentary on the Hollywood-ization of crime fiction it works very well, in fact, and one can certainly make the argument that this is exactly what it is. Edgars, the finger on the job, knowing what he knows from the movies. Parker, the grounded one in all of this, and his reluctance to take the job because it seemed too big and implausible. Grofield’s “background soundtrack” and cinematic take on his life in real-time. Everything going smooth until the hiccup comes, as it does in the movies, but this particular hiccup was ugly and gritty and real. Sort of a thesis on real crime vs. Hollywood crime, real victims, real people with real fears and motivations.

In a way it reminds me of Heat, showing how jobs go wrong and why and how nobody ever gets a Hollywood ending in real life. And through it all is Parker - who’s perfectly summed up in the following exchange:

“I don’t kill as the easy way out of something. If I kill, it’s because I don’t hav e any choice.”

“You mean self-defense.”

“Wrong. I mean it’s the only way to get what I want.”

I love this character. I love these books. Even a “weaker” Parker book is better than most crime fiction ever published. 

Books read in 2013:

Swallowing the Earth
The Signal and the Noise
The Mourner
The Book of Human Insects
Moonraker
Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia
The Score