Backflash


I think I read my first Parker book sometime in the 1970's. Parker is a realistic seeming criminal who robs for a living written by Donald Westlake writing as Richard Stark. In Backflash, Parker is brought into a caper by a New York State beaurocrat who is against gambling. There is going to be a trial period where river boat gambling is allowed on the Hudson River so the Spirit of Biloxi is recommissioned the Spirit of the Hudson and it sails to the Hudson River where Parker and crew awaits all that cash.

As usual just because you think the action is all over Stark puts in a twist. That's all the hint I'm going to give to the ending.

As far as I can tell the other Parker books are:
1) The Hunter (1963; AKA Point Blank, Payback; Parker, by Richard Stark).
2) The Man With the Getaway Face (1963; AKA The Steel Hit; Parker,
3) The Outfit (1963; Parker, by Richard Stark)
4) The Mourner (1963; Parker, by Richard Stark)
5) The Score (1964; AKA Killtown; Parker, by Richard Stark)
6) The Jugger (1965; Parker, by Richard Stark)
7) The Seventh (1966; AKA The Split; Parker, by Richard Stark)
8) The Handle (1966; AKA Run Lethal; Parker, by Richard Stark)
9) The Rare Coin Score (1967; Parker, by Richard Stark)
10) The Green Eagle Score (1967; Parker, by Richard Stark)
11) The Black Ice Score (1968; Parker, by Richard Stark)
12) The Sour Lemon Score (1969; Parker, by Richard Stark)
13) Slayground (1971; Parker, by Richard Stark)
14) Deadly Edge (1971; Parker, by Richard Stark)
15) Plunder Squad (1972; Parker, by Richard Stark)
16) Butcher's Moon (1974; Parker, by Richard Stark)
17) Comeback (1997;
18) Backflash (1998; Parker)..
19) Flashfire (2000; Parker, by Richard Stark)..
20) Firebreak (2001; Parker, by Richard Stark) ..
21) Nobody Runs Forever (2004) Parker, by Richard Stark
Highly recommend for Parker fans and fans of action adventure stories.


Gunner October, 2007

An anti-gambling long time civil servant is obsessed that New York State is going to allow a four month trial run for a gambling ship the will cruise the Hudson River between Albany and Poughkeepsie. Parker,the neo-hero, puts together a group of interesting thieves to rob the ship while it is in transit. The entire plot and its characters are quite well done. The book moves along at a good clip. It is a good, enjoyable quick read.

Donald E. Westlake's alter ego Richard Stark's Parker character is back, although not his greatest novel Backflash is another extremely enjoyable fast paced easy read. Backflash is a novel both fans of and new readers to Westlake under his or his pen name Stark will read over and over again. Short chapters make putting it down when you reluctantly have to a breeze as well. As well as other Parker adventures also check out under Westlake's own name his masterpiece solution to being unemployed, The Ax. His novels Corkscrew and the Scared Stiff are also brilliant!

In Backflash a bureaucrat who was shown the door long before he planned wants Parker to take up the job which one of Parker's colleagues was set to undertake before dieing. Parker learns of his plan to have the Sprit of the Hudson robbed of its night takings. The Spirit of the Hudson was formerly the Sprit of Biloxi but has ventured into the state of New York on a trial gambling basis. Since it is a trial credit cards are not accepted so its takings will only be cash. Parker doesn't like jobs on boats but can see there is a pretty good chance of success so goes along with the plans and brings back some other criminals from former adventures. Of course it wouldn't be a great Parker adventure if other parties didn't plan on interfering and the bureaucrat didn't have his own agenda.

If you like Westlake as Richard Stark or himself but have read everything you can find by him also check out James Pattinson (Pattinson not Patterson), a British author who writes very similar quick and easy read novels.

Another ingenious robbery by Parker. Parker is robbing a gambling ferry and his method of getting the loot safely away is particularly clever. My only complaint with this one is that the problems faced by Parker are a little too easily resolved and those solutions generally involve murder. It does have a nice twist when the robbery-gone-bad at the beginning is tied up in the finale.

Parker novels are straightforward heist novels where the plan always goes wrong and the experience and sharpness of Parker save the day. One of the strengths of this novel is that the heist involves a large crew composed of many interesting and equally talented theives, though Parker is the sharpest and hardest of them all. This novel's heist is particularly difficult and the chapters involving the heist are especially well written and deliciously describe the reactions and thoughts of the marks that are being robbed. A quick, rough subplot involving one of Parker's mistakes helps close this dark novel and cleary demonstrate just how hard and unforgiving Parker really is. It was a great close to a clever heist.