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Dirty Money: A Parker Novel (The Parker Novels) Kindle Edition

by Richard Stark (Author), Laura Lippman (Foreword) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 423 ratings
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A master thief wraps up some unfinished business in this fast-paced, hard-boiled crime novel by the author of Nobody Runs Forever.

Parker’s got a new fence and a new plan to get the loot back from a botched job. But a bounty hunter, the FBI, and the local cops are on his tail. Only his brains, his cool, and the help of his lone longtime dame, Claire, can keep him one step ahead of the cars and the guns in this final Parker thriller.

Praise for Dirty Money

“Entertaining. . . . Stark handles the criminal aspects of his tale with his usual panache.” —Publishers Weekly

“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 Reviews

“The hard-edged Parker is as resolute and dangerous as ever, and the faithful will stand beside him through every step of this typically involved and entertaining novel.” —Booklist
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  1. Book 24 of 24
    Parker Novels
  2. Print length
    300 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publisher
    The University of Chicago Press
  6. Publication date
    September 8, 2017
  7. File size
    656 KB
  8. Page Flip
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  9. Word Wise
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  10. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Master thief Parker wraps up some unfinished business in this entertaining if relatively lackluster entry in this long-running crime series from the pseudonymous Stark (aka MWA Grand Master Donald Westlake). Lots went wrong after Parker and two partners robbed an armored car in rural Massachusetts of $2.2 million in 2004's Nobody Runs Forever. The money was "poisoned" (i.e., marked); one of his partners was captured before killing a marshal and escaping; and bounty-hunter Sandra Loscalzo wants to cut herself in on the take. The pragmatic, quick-thinking Parker must find a way to retrieve the stashed haul he and his confederates left in Massachusetts without getting caught by the law or nibbled to death by other crooks. Stark handles the criminal aspects of his tale with his usual panache, but some fans will find Parker's trademark sharp edge less in evidence this outing. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In Nobody Runs Forever (2004), Stark’s intrepid thief Parker and two accomplices waylay a caravan of armored cars carrying a bank’s entire cash assets. But a fast police response forces them to hide the money and hope to recover it later, when the heat dies down. The problems that plagued the heist continue in Dirty Money. One of the crooks is captured but escapes by killing a federal marshal, and Parker and his remaining accomplice, abetted by a female bounty hunter who deals herself in, must return to the scene of a crime crawling with local, state, and federal cops to recover the money before their former ally is recaptured and rats them out. Even worse, every serial number on the stolen bills is recorded, and if they succeed, they might net a dollar for every 10. Stark, aka Donald Westlake, seems to be drawing from his delightful criminal-caper-gone-wrong Dortmunder novels here, but the hard-edged Parker is as resolute and dangerous as ever, and the faithful will stand beside him through every step of this typically involved and entertaining novel. --Thomas Gaughan

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B074L168WJ
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ The University of Chicago Press; Reprint edition (September 8, 2017)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 8, 2017
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 656 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 300 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 423 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
4.5 out of 5
423 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars Another Brilliant Parker Novel!
Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2024
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Don Westlake is probably one of the most accomplished writers of his generation. Westlake covered many genres and was a master story teller and has been my favorite author since the sixties.
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James L. Thane
4.0 out of 5 stars A Farewell to Parker
Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2013
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This is the twenty-fourth and final volume in Richard Stark's excellent long-running series featuring Parker, a cold, amoral, methodical criminal. Parker was almost always involved in a gang of crooks that had been pulled together for some specific job, usually a robbery of some sort. In each of these capers, it always turned out that some of the gang members were more dependable than others; there was usually a weak link or a turn of bad luck somewhere along the way, and Parker would have to scramble, using all of his resources, to save himself and as much of the loot as possible.

Parker was always the most competent and often the deadliest man among the thieves and others he partnered with. He did what needed to be done, and if that involved leaving a trail of bodies in his wake, well then, that was just what the job demanded. No hard feelings.

Along the way, Stark (a pseudonym for master crime writer Donald Westlake) took an extented break from the Parker books between 1974's Butcher's Moon, the sixteenth book in the series, and 1997's Comeback, the seventeenth. The earlier books tended to be leaner and cut closer to the bone. The later ones are not quite so spare and Parker might be just a tad softer. They are still a lot of fun, but the first sixteen are grittier and generally better.

In the twenty second book, Nobody Runs Forever, Parker and his confederates knocked over an armored car that was carrying a little over two million dollars from one bank to another. But the law moved in so swiftly that the gang could not get away with the money. They were forced to stash it in the choir loft of an abandoned rurual church.

In the twenty-third book, Ask The Parrot, Parker is still struggling to save himself in the days after the robbery, and Dirty Money takes place shortly thereafter. Things are still hot; the cops still have roadblocks up searching for the robbers, and they are circulating sketches of the criminals.

To make matters worse, it turns out that the serial numbers on all of the bills the gang stole had been recorded. One of the robbers, Nick Daliesa, attempted to pass one of the bills and was caught. He then killed a deputy marshal and escaped again. Parker knows if Dalesia is caught he will try to trade the stolen money, or worse the identity of the other gang members, in order to obtain leniency.

As much as he hates to do it, Parker must return to the scene of the crime in an effort to recover the money and deal with his ex-confederate before Parker himself is compromised. To make matters worse, a female bounty hunter now inserts herself into the situation, demanding a share of the loot.

It's a lot of fun watching Parker jump from one crisis to another in an effort to keep his life from going completely off the rails, especially when he knows that, even under the best of circumstances, the money will be worth only ten cents on the dollar. A harsher man than I might argue that the book could have been a bit tighter, more along the lines of the earlier entries in the series, but that would be a small complaint and I'm certainly not going to make it at this point.

I put off reading this book for over two years, simply because I couldn't bear the thought that I would never have another fresh Parker waiting for me, and I hated getting to the last page. The book itself may rate four stars, but the series overall is five stars all the way. It's one of the best crime fiction series ever published and I'm already looking forward to starting it all over again.
9 people found this helpful
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BakerGirl57
5.0 out of 5 stars More Parker Please!
Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2024
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I need a real ending for Parker. Maybe someone who loves these novels as much as I do could write one last "ride off into the sunset" for his fans...until then I will have to be satisfied re reading these over & over.
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H. Schneider
5.0 out of 5 stars End of the road
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2012
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When Donald Westlake and Richard Stark died of a simultaneous heart attack in 2008, Parker was vacationing with Claire on a Florida beach and had no idea what was about to happen and that this was the end of the road for him. It hit him like a tsunami. His latest appearance would remain his last. Finito.

This is the last Parker novel.
It is volume 24 in a series written over a period of more than 40 years. Its hero is the non-aging professional robber Parker, who has first names only when he is using an alias. Most often he has been Ed. He never became a dad or an opa.

Parker's world has changed over the decades, but the man not much. He adapts to markets and technologies. He is a utilitarian. He has no opinions. He has no social life. He does not chat. He is monogamous since about half way through the series. He is not interested in art or music or books or movies or science or sport or entertainment or politics or history.

He follows things insofar as they affect his livelihood. He has no morals, but he does have an honor code and business ethics. Nobody survives who once tried to cheat him. He will not steal from a colleague on a job.

The only incident in the series that I can remember where racism comes into play is in Breakout, where Parker, unusually, gets caught and jailed and needs to break out. He does that in cooperation with his black cellmate. This happens in a place where races don't cooperate. Parker is not interested in such absurd rules. The breakout partner says the memorable line: he is my exit door, doesn't matter what color the door is. Straight from Michael Jackson.

Humor in the sense of jokes rarely happens in Parker. Humor in the sense of stone faced absurdity happens all the time. Take Ask the Parrot. A non speaking parrot. When he decides to come out of his isolation and begins a conversation, he will not live to regret it. Sad.

Parker has little exposure to police, as he rarely gets questioned and hardly ever arrested. He rarely shows conversational skills, unless he must, as in Ask the Parrot, where he hides among some sadly depressed people in upstate NY and must talk them out of desperate action, like a social worker. Empathy, ok, but sympathy, no way, what a waste.

Volume 24 has the unusual distinction to include 2 police officers from 2 states (NY and MA) who have seen Parker and can identify him. Vastly increased risk level.

Not all 24 volumes are quite of the same excellence. My favorite is the robbery of the Hudson river casino boat, Backflash. None of the 24 is bad or boring.
All 24 start with the same sentence pattern: when this happened, Parker did that... When volume 24 ended, Parker had just laundered and shrunk a heap of dirty money. Also, police had finally managed to put out a good likeness of his on a search poster. The noose was tightening! He needed a new identity. He needed a new project.
And then Stark goes and dies on him. The nerve!
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

M. Hunter
5.0 out of 5 stars yet again, Parker overcomes difficulties as he works his ruthless way towards the stash
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 7, 2014
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Like all the Richard Stark Parker series, excellently plotted and written. Some readers may be offended that Parker, cold-blooded robber, ready to kill when necessary, able to recover seamlessly from unexpected setbacks, gets away with it. Some may wonder whether his girlfriend Claire is a remotely credible character. But for me, personally, it is so well done that none of that matters. I am amazed that Stark can also write as Westlake, whose characters, while still criminal, are written so humorously that they seem to inhabit a different world from Parker.How can one person manage two such different feelings when recounting fairly similar plots? I am awestruck.
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Simon Northwood
4.0 out of 5 stars Typically, I start at the end
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 13, 2014
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Came to the Parker character through the gorgeous Darwyn Cooke IDW adaptations and bought the cheapest, highest rated book. I later find out this is towards the end but I don't think it looses anything for it. Tense is the word.
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t macdonald
5.0 out of 5 stars but it is looking like an other little jem from Richard Stark
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 27, 2016
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just a few pages in, but it is looking like an other little jem from Richard Stark.
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Alan JB
5.0 out of 5 stars It's a 'Parker' book - great,
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 31, 2013
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All the 'Parker' books are a great read. I have no hesitation recommending them to everyone. It's a shame Richard Stark isn't around to write any more.
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kindle customer. Tony Topley
5.0 out of 5 stars so obviously its brilliant.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 20, 2016
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What can I say, its a Stark written novel, so obviously its brilliant.
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