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Richard Stark
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Comeback: A Parker Novel (Parker Novels Book 17) Kindle Edition

by Richard Stark (Author), Lawrence Block (Foreword) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 out of 5 stars 428 ratings

After the bloodbath of Butcher’s Moon, the action-filled blowout Parker adventure, Donald Westlake said, "Richard Stark proved to me that he had a life of his own by simply disappearing. He was gone." And for nearly twenty-five years, he stayed away, while readers waited.

 

But nothing bad is truly gone forever, and Parker’s as bad as they come. According to Westlake, one day in 1997, “suddenly, he came back from the dead, with a chalky prison pallor”—and the resulting novel, Comeback, showed that neither Stark nor Parker had lost a single step. Knocking over a highly lucrative religious revival show, Parker reminds us that not all criminals don ski masks—some prefer to hide behind the wings of fallen angels.

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  1. Book 17 of 24
    Parker Novels
  2. Print length
    231 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    The University of Chicago Press
  5. Publication date
    April 15, 2011
  6. File size
    3.7 MB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Parker is refreshingly amoral, a thief who always gets away with the swag.”
-- Stephen King ― Entertainment Weekly

“Parker . . . lumbers through the pages of Richard Stark’s noir novels scattering dead bodies like peanut shells. . . . In a complex world [he] makes things simple.”
-- William Grimes ― New York Times

“Whatever Stark writes, I read. He’s a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude.”—
-- Elmore Leonard

“Richard Stark’s Parker novels . . . are among the most poised and polished fictions of their time and, in fact, of any time.”
-- John Banville ― Bookforum

“Parker is a true treasure. . . . The master thief is back, along with Richard Stark.”
-- Marilyn Stasio ― New York Times Book Review

“Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible.”
― Washington Post

“Elmore Leonard wouldn’t write what he does if Stark hadn’t been there before. And Quentin Tarantino wouldn’t write what he does without Leonard. . . . Old master that he is, Stark does all of them one better.”
― Los Angeles Times

“Donald Westlake’s Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you’ve been telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust—these are the books you’ll want on that desert island.”
-- Lawrence Block

“Richard Stark writes a harsh and frightening story of criminal warfare and vengeance with economy, understatement and a deadly amoral objectivity—a remarkable addition to the list of the shockers that the French call roman noirs.”
-- Anthony Boucher ― New York Times Book Review

"Parker is a brilliant invention. . . . What chiefly distinguishes Westlake, under whatever name, is his passion for process and mechanics. . . . Parker appears to have eliminated everything from his program but machine logic, but this is merely protective coloration. He is a romantic vestige, a free-market anarchist whose independent status is becoming a thing of the past."
-- Luc Sante ― New York Review of Books

"I wouldn't care to speculate about what it is in Westlake's psyche that makes him so good at writing about Parker, much less what it is that makes me like the Parker novels so much. Suffice it to say that Stark/Westlake is the cleanest of all noir novelists, a styleless stylist who gets to the point with stupendous economy, hustling you down the path of plot so briskly that you have to read his books a second time to appreciate the elegance and sober wit with which they are written."
-- Terry Teachout ― Commentary

"If you're a fan of noir novels and haven't yet read Richard Stark, you may want to give these books a try. Who knows? Parker may just be the son of a bitch you've been searching for."
-- John McNally ― Virginia Quarterly Review

"The University of Chicago Press has recently undertaken a campaign to get Parker back in print in affordable and handsome editions, and I dove in. And now I get it."
-- Josef Braun ― Vue Weekly

"Whether early or late, the Parker novels are all superlative literary entertainments."
-- Terry Teachout ― Weekly Standard

“The UC Press mission, to reprint the 1960s Parker novels of Richard Stark (the late Donald Westlake), is wholly admirable. The books have been out of print for decades, and the fast-paced, hard-boiled thrillers featuring the thief Parker are brilliant.”
-- H. J. Kirchoff ― Globe and Mail

“Fiercely distracting . . . . Westlake is an expert plotter; and while Parker is a blunt instrument of a human being depicted in rudimentary short grunts of sentences, his take on other characters reveals a writer of great humor and human understanding.” -- John Hodgman ― "Parade"

"Richard Stark’s Parker crime novels are the ultimate page-turners." -- Jonathan Ames ― The Boston Globe --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

Following in the footsteps of fellow-thief Bernie Rhodenbarr, Stark's hero Parker returns from a 20-year retirement in this taut caper, which begins with a routine $400,000 heist from the Reverend William Archibald's Christian Crusade (the inside man, Tom Carmody, is an angel who's gotten religion and thinks money is the root of the Rev.'s evil). The sequel would be routine, too, if Carmody hadn't told his girlfriend about the heist, and if the girlfriend hadn't told her none-too-bright kid brother, and if the brother hadn't told a couple of his lowlife friends, and if one of the original thieves hadn't decided he didn't want to split the take with the others, and if the nominal good guys--Archibald's semper fi security chief Dwayne Thorsen and sadistic local police detective Lew Calavecci--weren't a pair of borderline psychopaths. The high points are Parker's taking a bribe to look for the money he's stolen himself, and his trying to put out a fire by throwing a bullet-ridden body on it. But the real thrill is seeing Parker back in action again in a world where all the key players are so completely on the same wavelength that they know exactly what everybody else will do, and where each ruse and double-cross is good only till nightfall. If you're new to Stark's work, think of all the comic Dortmunder capers he's written under his real name--Donald E. Westlake--but with as baleful an absence of humor as in The Ax (p. 753). -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004WPK3FG
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ The University of Chicago Press; Reprint edition (April 15, 2011)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 15, 2011
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3.7 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 231 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 428 ratings

About the author

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Richard Stark

Richard Stark

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Donald Edwin Westlake (July 12, 1933 – December 31, 2008) was an American writer, with over a hundred novels and non-fiction books to his credit. He specialized in crime fiction, especially comic capers, with an occasional foray into science fiction or other genres. He was a three-time Edgar Award winner, one of only three writers (the others are Joe Gores and William L. DeAndrea) to win Edgars in three different categories (1968, Best Novel, God Save the Mark; 1990, Best Short Story, "Too Many Crooks"; 1991, Best Motion Picture Screenplay, The Grifters). In 1993, the Mystery Writers of America named Westlake a Grand Master, the highest honor bestowed by the society.

Richard Stark: Westlake's best-known continuing pseudonym was that of Richard Stark. Stark debuted in 1959, with a story in Mystery Digest. Four other Stark short stories followed through 1961, including "The Curious Facts Preceding My Execution", later the title story in Westlake's first short-story collection. Then, from 1962 to 1974, sixteen novels about the relentless and remorseless professional thief Parker and his accomplices (including larcenous actor Alan Grofield) appeared and were credited to Richard Stark. "Stark" was then inactive until 1997, when Westlake once again began writing and publishing Parker novels under Stark's name. The University of Chicago began republishing the Richard Stark novels in 2008. When Stephen King wrote the novel The Dark Half in 1989, he named the central villain George Stark as an homage to Westlake.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Jean-Marie David [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
428 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers enjoy this book, praising its fast-moving plot and well-developed characters.

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14 customers mention "Enjoyment"14 positive0 negative

Customers find the book enjoyable, with several noting it's one of Richard Stark's best works.

"...Westlake is amazing as an author, whether writing his 'Dortmunder' series..." Read more

"...Comeback is as good as Butcher's Moon and better that most action adventures. I highly recommend this novel." Read more

"This is a good, solid read. It held my interest, but it's not a knockout thriller. A decent book to wile away a few hours...." Read more

"Although a bit predictable, Comeback was still an enjoyable read. It was great to find this Stark offering after so many years...." Read more

7 customers mention "Story quality"7 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the fast-moving plot of the book, with one customer noting its crisp action sequences.

"...So some of the storytelling is a little more modern. As in all Parker novels, Parker is just as bad as he seems...." Read more

"...Overall the quality of the stories is very high. They are tightly plotted with dialogue fitted to the voices of the different characters...." Read more

"...The action in this novel is 'crisp' and unrelenting from end-to-end. Even the 'waiting' crackles with purpose and suspense...." Read more

"...Highly recommended for Parker fans and fans of action adventure stories. Gunner November, 2007" Read more

6 customers mention "Character development"6 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the well-developed characters in the book, with one customer noting how the dialogue matches the voices of different characters, and another highlighting the realistic portrayal of violence.

"...They are tightly plotted with dialogue fitted to the voices of the different characters...." Read more

"...This is a top-flight 'Comeback.' Parker is the supreme realist and the supreme rationalist...." Read more

"One of the best of the Parker books. Some interesting characters, the usual everything going wrong, and a brutal evening of the score." Read more

"Parker is uniquely genuine. He is flawed, but true to his core beliefs of the "bent" code of honor and loyalty...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Steve Paul
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great Story. Great Storytelling with Lots of Classic Parker
    Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I enjoyed Comeback. It's the 17th in the series and first after a long hiatus. So some of the storytelling is a little more modern.

    As in all Parker novels, Parker is just as bad as he seems. He possesses a professional code of honor: loyalty and respect for fellow professional thieves with whom he has worked in the past. He is deeply suspicious of new amateurish thieves. He's violent without hesitation but only if he needs to be. He misses nothing. And no Parker novel would be complete without the double-cross...sometimes multiple double-crosses.

    A Parker story generally has these parts: 1) Planning the heist and assembling the team, 2) carrying out the heist that sometimes goes bad, 3) getting away, and 4) dealing with a double-cross. In Comeback, it is mostly about the getaway and the double-cross.

    In a Parker novel, Parker doesn't always succeed. But double-crossers always regret their cheat'n ways.

    Comeback involves thieves he knows and has confidence in plus someone new...and that's the problem. The double-crossing and triple-crossing is the story involving a heist of a corrupt TV evangelist who performs for cash-only. $400,000 was the take when $400,000 was a lot of money.

    Parker is impatient with small-talk. He talks only if it serves a purpose. Odd to think that the untalkative Parker reserves for himself the most difficult task of handling people--both fellow thieves as well as the victims. But sometimes he will just wait out people...as in this storyline: "People had to tell their stories their own way, with all the pointless extras."

    Comeback is made more interesting by the fact that the storytelling is not always chronological and sometimes jumps back in time to explain why or how.

    There is lots of professional thievery-craft in Comeback such as stealing a car for a brief while and returning it to the same parking space to minimize police attention. Or choosing to be hidden in plain sight.

    I'm working my way thru the series...I'm already lamenting the day that I finish the series.

    Great Story. Great Storytelling with Lots of Classic Parker.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Sensei Mike
    5.0 out of 5 stars After over a dozen years, Parker returns tougher than ever.
    Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    This is a standard review for the University of Chicago published Parker series by Richard Stark. Overall the quality of the stories is very high. They are tightly plotted with dialogue fitted to the voices of the different characters. The descriptions of places and objects are brief but clear and connected to the characters' perceptions.

    Now the negatives: These stories average about $9.99, and I expect that some editing must have been done to warrant so high a price for what are rather short novels. There are egregious editing errors in every book in the series, some with only a few, most noticeably the first four books in the series. The rest have over a dozen spelling and grammar errors that were no doubt due to the OCR scanning process on the original books/manuscripts. The software just can't identify certain words and doesn't always fix hyphenated words back to whole words. Having the choice all over again, I would look for the paper backs and read those. The books just aren't worth the $9.99 average price.

    *****

    In this one, we see the return of Parker after over a dozen years since "Butcher's Moon." The times may have changed, but Parker hasn't. Stark still has a handle on Parker, and this book begins the final string of stories down to the author's passing in 2008. The first sentence of the story is the grabber, and it never lets you go, even when other characters share their viewpoints in later chapters.

    Oh, no real OCR errors in this one.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Steven W. Blackwood
    4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent except for scenes at the house
    Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    I would’ve given this 5 stars if it weren’t for the scenes at the house. I’ll let others discover this for themselves but this reader found them to be tedious.
    One person found this helpful
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  • James Ellsworth
    5.0 out of 5 stars Return of One of the Best 'Bad' Men
    Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2012
    Verified Purchase
    I followed after Donald Westlake as a student at Harpur College (SUNY Binghamton), where he has been a superstar alumnus. In his day, many of the students were returning veterans from WWII. Westlake is amazing as an author, whether writing his 'Dortmunder' series (which proves crime doesn't pay --his 'moll' Mae skims more shoplifting from her supermarket job than Dortmunder heists) or his 'hard boiled' Parker series. One interview quotes Westlake (aka 'Richard Stark') as saying Parker 'quit talking to him' for a few years and suddenly popped out again, like someone who had been serving a term in a penitentary. This is a top-flight 'Comeback.'

    Parker is the supreme realist and the supreme rationalist. He strips everything to its practical essence and cuts out the emotion in favor of creating a 'laser-like' focus on a usable end result. The action in this novel is 'crisp' and unrelenting from end-to-end. Even the 'waiting' crackles with purpose and suspense. All of us older people who have been 'Parker' fans know the power of this author and we revisit his works from time to time. Younger readers will find the pacing and 'special effects' in these novels to be equal to their own times. I first found these novels in a public library (support yours!) and now I want to own reprints of his work to read and to re-read. The author is that good.

    Every last 'Parker' or 'Dortmunder' novel is worth the 'price of admission' if even for a first read. When I want a funny fantasy escape, I go with 'Dortmunder' and when I want taut and hard-boiled suspense, I pick up a 'Parker.' There won't be any more of either and they should last as long as Edgar Allen Poe in American classic literature.
    2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Simon Peters
    5.0 out of 5 stars Stark reality.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 12, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    If you want dark crime, fast paced, with a great anti hero, then look no further. Donald Westlake writes better as Stark than he does as Westlake. He's dead now, but his Stark novels will last forever.
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  • Avid Reader
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in Canada on February 25, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Excellent
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  • JW Coleman
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Parker novel is always good
    Reviewed in Germany on August 5, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    If you like hardboiled, you can't beat a Parker Novel.
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  • Miezekatze
    5.0 out of 5 stars Steigert sich von Seite zu Seite
    Reviewed in Germany on June 13, 2009
    Verified Purchase
    Zugegeben, es war mein erster Richard Stark Roman, und ich habe lange in Amazon Rezensionen gelesen, bis ich mir diesen Band ausgesucht hab. Die ersten zwei Drittel von "Comeback" fand ich gut, aber nicht vom Hocker reißend - doch das letzte Drittel hat's voll rausgerissen: Parkers Auftritt als Versicherungsdetektiv ist wirklich vom Feinsten!

    Daher 5 Sterne.
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  • Kindle Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoy Richard Starks tales
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 4, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Enjoy Richard Starks tales. Also great in audio format from audible.co.uk. If you drive a lot try some audible stories. Beats the drivel on the radio stations.
    Report

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