Books

Donald Westlake writing as Richard Stark

Master criminal Parker takes another turn for the worse as he tries to recover loot from a heist gone terribly wrong. In Nobody Runs Forever, Parker and two cohorts stole the assets of a bank in transit, but the police heat was so great they could only escape if they left the money behind. In this follow-up novel, Parker and his associates plot to reclaim the loot, which they hid in the choir loft of an unused country church. As they implement the plan, people on both sides of the law use the forces at their command to stop Parker and grab the goods for themselves. Though Parker's new getaway van is an old Ford Econoline with "Holy Redeemer Choir" on its doors, his gang is anything but holy, and Parker will do whatever it takes to redeem his prize, no matter who gets hurt in the process.

Praise for Dirty Money

"[One] of the greatest writers of the twentieth century...His Parker books form a genre all their own."

- John Banville, Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea

“Stark, Donald E. Westlake’s more bad-tempered alter ego, breaks his usual rule and gives women—ballsy Sandra and dispassionate Claire—major roles. Not that Parker takes a back seat for a minute.The man is fiercely conceived, one mean piece of work.”

- Kirkus

“The late Donald E Westlake's final novel under his Richard Stark pseudonym is as good a place as any to acquaint yourself with his taut, toned brand of noir. A kind of sequel to Nobody Runs Forever, Dirty Money finds the professional thief Parker returning to the scene of a bank heist gone wrong to recover the loot, which he was forced to stash in the choir loft of a nearby abandoned church. Will he get there before the cops? Will the owner of the B&B in rural New England, where he and his friend Claire plan to stay, swallow their story that they're tree-loving "leaf-peepers"? And what has become of Parker's partner Nick, who was picked up but is now on the run after killing an FBI marshal? Reading Stark can be like watching someone holding up flashcards ("gun", "money", "car"), but there's no denying the force of his storytelling or his flair for caper comedy: wonderfully, Parker and his gang plan to make their getaway in an old Ford Econoline van with "Holy Redeemer Choir" stencilled on its side.”

- John O’Connell, The Guardian