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Parker #17
Comeback
The frighteningly prolific mystery writer Donald E. Westlake, a.k.a. Richard Stark, ended his legendary series of books about a career criminal known only as Parker with 1974's Butcher's Moon. He cited too much competition from copycats in print, on film, and on television. Persuaded by fans and family, Westlake has resurrected Parker with a welcome burst of energy and imagination. The felon and his long-time lady friend Claire are enjoying the quiet life in their New Jersey lakeside home when Parker's invited to become part of a plan to remove a large sum of cash from a glossy TV-preacher named William Archibald. It's a heist that goes wrong from the start and turns into a tense, chaotic ballet of betrayal and death. One of Parker's partners is a weak babbler, another a cold traitor. Archibald's security chief is a tenacious pursuer, intent on retrieving his employer's money. Along the way, we learn how to hide crooks, cars, and cash in a small city with an efficient police force; how to escape from a variety of traps and sealed rooms; and most of all how Parker has managed to stay alive--in readers' minds as well as in the brain of his creator--for all these years.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
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October 29, 2020
Comeback, title of the novel under review, takes its place as number 17 of 24 in the Parker series. As for the story behind the book's title, please see below.
Richard Stark is the pen name for Donald E. Westlake, crime fiction author par excellence. Fellow novelist Charles Ardai likens Westlake to a virtuoso jazz musician who can take a familiar melody and spin off multiple stunning improvisational riffs.
Sure, the scaffolding remains the same for the Parker novels - planning the heist, assembling the crew, the heist itself, the escape - with betrayal, ineptitude and/or the double cross looming as possible obstacles thrown at Parker. But at every step, at every swivel and whirl of unfolding events, Richard Stark manages to inject surprise.
The one constant is Parker himself - firm, solid, steady, calm, eminently practical, a true professional forever at the ready whenever there's a need for careful, cold calculation.
If you're on the job with Parker, don't expect him to give in to emotion, crack jokes, look for entertainment or cloud his head with booze. Nope. On the job, Parker is all business. And make no mistake, beyond pulling off the heist, business number one is survival at all cost, even if the cost tallies a double digit body count. There's good reason why Dennis Lehane judges Parker the greatest antihero in American noir.
As Lawrence Block outlines in his Forward to Comeback, his good friend Don Westlake published 16 straight Parker novels over the course of 12 years (1962 to 1974) but then sad news for avid fans: Parker went away for more than two decades.
However, for whatever mysterious reasons, in 1997, following a gap of 23 years, Parker made a comeback in the fertile imagination of Don Westlake. Thus, once again Don sat down to write as Richard Stark, the result being a humdinger knockout of a Parker novel, a novel appropriately titled Comeback.
I can assure you Comeback rocks the house. - in this case, the house is a 20,000 seat stadium where a slicker televangelist, a guy by the name of William Archebald, leads a Christian crusade prayer meeting complete with choir of angles, bright spotlights and many well-positioned cameras. Price of admittance: $20 in cash. Whoa, baby! Do the math - a $400,000 heist.
One of the many highlights: Parker taking on the role of insurance investigator to deal with a tough ex-marine who heads up Archebald's security network.
I'd be willing to bet half a mil, for Parker fans, Comeback is among their favorites. For those unacquainted with Richard Stark and Parker, I'd strongly recommend you begin with Comeback. Apologies for the pun, but having read Comeback, you will surely come back for more.
American author Donald E. Westlake, 1933-2008
“A TV preacher, you know those guys? Evangelists."
"I thought they were all in jail," Parker said.”
― Richard Stark, Comeback
February 18, 2021
After Butcher’s Moon (1974), which in a way seemed like a series-ending #16 Parker book, bringing together many characters from previous books, with a slam bang finish, Stark stopped writing Parker novels. His buddy Lawrence Block in his introduction tells us that Stark attempted various novels over the years, and they never worked. But get this: After 23 years he got an idea and it gradually came together, resulting in Comeback (1997)—yup, that’s the only acknowledgement that Parker had gone away at all! And he hasn’t aged a bit. And Stark would write seven more Parker books until his death.
Block also says “and he never missed a step,” but I don’t quite agree. This is good, Stark is a pro craftsman, but I would say this is the first Parker novel in a while that feels like it is merely good. Better than most novels written in the genre, but I give it three stars comparing it to other Parker books. The focus of the plot is on the robbery of a fundamentalist preacher at a prayer meeting. Half-million bucks! And it works, until it doesn’t, as so often happens. Double-cross!
Notable features:
1) Parker runs into a detective while looking for the lost money after the double-cross, along and begins working with the cop as a fake insurance investigator;
2) A woman hires him in this process to help him recover the loot, actually giving him a retainer fee, which is one thing that made me smile, and
3) That whole rob the rich preacher angle is somehow satisfying.
Block also says “and he never missed a step,” but I don’t quite agree. This is good, Stark is a pro craftsman, but I would say this is the first Parker novel in a while that feels like it is merely good. Better than most novels written in the genre, but I give it three stars comparing it to other Parker books. The focus of the plot is on the robbery of a fundamentalist preacher at a prayer meeting. Half-million bucks! And it works, until it doesn’t, as so often happens. Double-cross!
Notable features:
1) Parker runs into a detective while looking for the lost money after the double-cross, along and begins working with the cop as a fake insurance investigator;
2) A woman hires him in this process to help him recover the loot, actually giving him a retainer fee, which is one thing that made me smile, and
3) That whole rob the rich preacher angle is somehow satisfying.
October 7, 2015
When Richard Stark (a/k/a Donald Westlake) wrote a new Parker novel for the first time in over twenty years, he also resumed using the gimmick of starting each novel with the word ‘When’ again. So I guess I gotta follow suit in my reviews of them.
Parker doesn’t seem to have aged a bit when he hooks up with a couple of other heisters to steal the cash collected by a big time evangelist at one of his stadium appearances. Despite their inside man being shaky the job goes off without a hitch and they’ve got an ingenious hiding place to lay low until the heat dies down. Of course it’s never that easy for Parker, and he ends up trying to keep various people from swiping the loot while eluding the police.
This edition has a really interesting introduction from Lawrence Block who reveals that Westlake never intended to stop writing Parker novels after Butcher’s Moon, but for some reason all of his attempts to start a new one withered and died until this one finally clicked.
I don’t think any of the ones written after the long lay off are quite up to the standards of the best of the earlier Parker novels. Rereading this now after going through all the others and after checking out some of Darwyn Cook’s excellent graphic novel adaptations with their retro vibe, I think that Parker worked better in that 1960-70s time frame. There was always something that seemed a bit off about Parker in more modern times. He should be working for and against sly hustlers of that era, not having to contend with punks whose idea of a big time crime is stealing tapes from video stores.
However, these are relatively minor gripes. Westlake was far too good to let this series be anything but entertaining, and a Parker novel is still a Parker novel even if he seems a bit out of his natural environment here.
Parker doesn’t seem to have aged a bit when he hooks up with a couple of other heisters to steal the cash collected by a big time evangelist at one of his stadium appearances. Despite their inside man being shaky the job goes off without a hitch and they’ve got an ingenious hiding place to lay low until the heat dies down. Of course it’s never that easy for Parker, and he ends up trying to keep various people from swiping the loot while eluding the police.
This edition has a really interesting introduction from Lawrence Block who reveals that Westlake never intended to stop writing Parker novels after Butcher’s Moon, but for some reason all of his attempts to start a new one withered and died until this one finally clicked.
I don’t think any of the ones written after the long lay off are quite up to the standards of the best of the earlier Parker novels. Rereading this now after going through all the others and after checking out some of Darwyn Cook’s excellent graphic novel adaptations with their retro vibe, I think that Parker worked better in that 1960-70s time frame. There was always something that seemed a bit off about Parker in more modern times. He should be working for and against sly hustlers of that era, not having to contend with punks whose idea of a big time crime is stealing tapes from video stores.
However, these are relatively minor gripes. Westlake was far too good to let this series be anything but entertaining, and a Parker novel is still a Parker novel even if he seems a bit out of his natural environment here.
January 9, 2011
Damn, this book was good.
Finishing it, I just went and had the brilliant idea to request the first five Parker novels from library. My brilliant idea was a little flawed by finding out that they only have four of the first five (The Mourner not being in the Queens Library system) and finding out that I think I just maxed out my requests (I went a little nuts on library website Thursday night, ordering tons of, half of which seem to be on their way to me now, opps, I guess I'll have to pick up my reading pace a little).
What I like is that Parker is a criminal who commits crimes without any extra little quirks thrown in. He isn't a burglar who quotes Spinoza or anything like that. He's just badass and living in the same world that as James Ellroy characters like Pete Bondurant. He doesn't have little one liners that he throws around, he actually barely speaks at all and when he does it's just to get to the point of what needs to be done.
I think that is my main problem with crime / mystery novels the almost insufferable cuteness that goes into some of the characters. For example I really liked the Crumley novels I read recently but could have done without all of the one liners that the main characters had to be continually spouting off. For me it's distracting and after awhile feels more like a crutch than actually part of a character's overall development.
I think I also just really like when the focus of novel is on the criminal. Even though I've only read this one Parker book, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there is something irredeemable about Parker. He might not be an evil man but there doesn't seem to be any kind of sugar coated goodness to him that makes his deeds all right in the end. I don't think I'm going to find him giving some of his cut to orphans or see him doing community service at the start of a book when a call comes in to pull a heist, or even that the marks he'll target are all necessarily deserving of having some of the money lifted from them. It's the anti-social part of me that likes being put into the frame of mind of the criminal in books or in a movie. It's the part of me that got a big kick in the late 80's at seeing a movie like Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and that couldn't understand why on the Nintendo version of Nightmare on Elm Street they couldn't have made an option for you to play Freddy as a character.
I'll try to write a better review for some of the Richard Stark books I'm hoping to read in the near future.
Oh, I almost forgot. Another part of this particular book that I think I really enjoyed was that the people being robbed from were Evangelical Christians. Crime and Christians, you can't go wrong with that combination!
Finishing it, I just went and had the brilliant idea to request the first five Parker novels from library. My brilliant idea was a little flawed by finding out that they only have four of the first five (The Mourner not being in the Queens Library system) and finding out that I think I just maxed out my requests (I went a little nuts on library website Thursday night, ordering tons of, half of which seem to be on their way to me now, opps, I guess I'll have to pick up my reading pace a little).
What I like is that Parker is a criminal who commits crimes without any extra little quirks thrown in. He isn't a burglar who quotes Spinoza or anything like that. He's just badass and living in the same world that as James Ellroy characters like Pete Bondurant. He doesn't have little one liners that he throws around, he actually barely speaks at all and when he does it's just to get to the point of what needs to be done.
I think that is my main problem with crime / mystery novels the almost insufferable cuteness that goes into some of the characters. For example I really liked the Crumley novels I read recently but could have done without all of the one liners that the main characters had to be continually spouting off. For me it's distracting and after awhile feels more like a crutch than actually part of a character's overall development.
I think I also just really like when the focus of novel is on the criminal. Even though I've only read this one Parker book, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there is something irredeemable about Parker. He might not be an evil man but there doesn't seem to be any kind of sugar coated goodness to him that makes his deeds all right in the end. I don't think I'm going to find him giving some of his cut to orphans or see him doing community service at the start of a book when a call comes in to pull a heist, or even that the marks he'll target are all necessarily deserving of having some of the money lifted from them. It's the anti-social part of me that likes being put into the frame of mind of the criminal in books or in a movie. It's the part of me that got a big kick in the late 80's at seeing a movie like Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and that couldn't understand why on the Nintendo version of Nightmare on Elm Street they couldn't have made an option for you to play Freddy as a character.
I'll try to write a better review for some of the Richard Stark books I'm hoping to read in the near future.
Oh, I almost forgot. Another part of this particular book that I think I really enjoyed was that the people being robbed from were Evangelical Christians. Crime and Christians, you can't go wrong with that combination!
April 11, 2012
When George Liss told Parker and Mackey about the job, it sounded too good to be true; four hundred thousand dollars cash, in the hands of a televangelist. Things go south when their inside man spills his guts to a woman and she tells her no good brother. With another gang gunning for the money and George Liss wanting it all, can Parker get the money and get out alive?
Here we are, the first Parker book Richard Stark wrote after 25 Parker-less years. As usual, the caper was well planned. I almost felt sorry for Carmody and Quindero. George Liss made a pretty good foil for Parker, as did Detective Calavecci, who I'm betting will show up again. Mackey and Brenda were okay but mostly bit characters. I'm delighted to say Parker hasn't lost his form and hasn't gone soft. Going up against a guy with two guns armed with only a stubby 2 x 4 and an L bracket in a burning building proved that to me.
So why only three stars? It was good but not fantastic. While Parker didn't lose anything in the 25 years off, I thought the writing was a little more Donald Westlake than it was Richard Stark. It seemed slightly padded and lacked the punch of the earlier books. Don't get me wrong, I still thought it was good and I still enjoyed it. It was just half a step behind the earlier books. I'll definitely be re-reading it along with the others when I run out of Parker books.
Parker fans, you're going to want to read this regardless of what you hear. Just expect it to be slightly less awesome than the earlier books.
Here we are, the first Parker book Richard Stark wrote after 25 Parker-less years. As usual, the caper was well planned. I almost felt sorry for Carmody and Quindero. George Liss made a pretty good foil for Parker, as did Detective Calavecci, who I'm betting will show up again. Mackey and Brenda were okay but mostly bit characters. I'm delighted to say Parker hasn't lost his form and hasn't gone soft. Going up against a guy with two guns armed with only a stubby 2 x 4 and an L bracket in a burning building proved that to me.
So why only three stars? It was good but not fantastic. While Parker didn't lose anything in the 25 years off, I thought the writing was a little more Donald Westlake than it was Richard Stark. It seemed slightly padded and lacked the punch of the earlier books. Don't get me wrong, I still thought it was good and I still enjoyed it. It was just half a step behind the earlier books. I'll definitely be re-reading it along with the others when I run out of Parker books.
Parker fans, you're going to want to read this regardless of what you hear. Just expect it to be slightly less awesome than the earlier books.
May 15, 2020
If you like crime fiction, it is a guarantee that you will go bonkers over “Comeback,” the 17th Parker novel, published in 1997 after a 23 year hiatus following “Butcher’s Moon” in 1974. It is tightly written, professionally engineered masterpiece of crime fiction. Whatever rough edges could be found in the original Parker novels written in the 1960’s and early 1970’s, those edges are gone. This is a smoothly-written, master-crafted work of art. If you have not read any Parker novels before, be forewarned that it is one of the most addictive things ever invented. You will want to pick up one Parker novel just as soon as you finish the last one. It’s simply crazy the way it works.
Parker in this one is working with Ed and Brenda Mackey and George Liss and they have a whopper of a stunt to pull off. The Right Reverend William Archibald is taking his prayer show on the road across America from stadium to stadium. The sinners on their true path to forgiveness each are contributing twenty dollars in cash at the door plus more as the pot is passed around. When the arena is filled, the dollars just add up big, estimated at about $400,000. “Even in a world of electronic cash transfers and credit cards and money floating in cyberspace, there were still heists out there, waiting to be collected.” There is an inside man part of the evangelism team, but he got involved while on parole and now he has soured seeing the man at the top collect and collect and collect.
It is a smooth, flawless heist – well, almost flawless. The inside man is nervous and panicking. There is a falling out among thieves and a betrayal. There are others riding Parker’s coattails and waiting to pick off the loot.
It is one hell of a story and you can add a few more to the list of unforgettable characters that Stark (Westlake) has dreamed up. It has a few points of view in addition to Parker’s. The reverend is hysterical, ensconced in his penthouse hotel suite with an ash-blonde “harlot” who was the only woman in the reverend’s experience “to overflow her birthday suit.” Tina “was a lush girl,” but “it was a lushness that could spill into overripeness.” The reverend’s other confidante is Dwayne, an ex-marine that ran security for these prayer events and was the reverend’s chief of staff. He is tasked with the smooth running of the William Archibald crusade and he applies his marines philosophy to the task: “Don’t ask why, only ask how.” The inside guy is Carmody and he is not built for this task. He is bent out of shape with a discouraged slope of his shoulders and a fatalistic half-grip of his hands. To Dwayne, this only means one thing: “A fellow bent on desertion.” Dwayne also describes another involved party as “Beetle Bailey without the comedy, a sad sack who would always be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The story is also filled with sage advice such as that “Relaxed guys are harder to fool, but tensed-up guys are harder to read.”
I am not sure how you decide which is the best of the Parker novels, but this one is right up there with the best.
Parker in this one is working with Ed and Brenda Mackey and George Liss and they have a whopper of a stunt to pull off. The Right Reverend William Archibald is taking his prayer show on the road across America from stadium to stadium. The sinners on their true path to forgiveness each are contributing twenty dollars in cash at the door plus more as the pot is passed around. When the arena is filled, the dollars just add up big, estimated at about $400,000. “Even in a world of electronic cash transfers and credit cards and money floating in cyberspace, there were still heists out there, waiting to be collected.” There is an inside man part of the evangelism team, but he got involved while on parole and now he has soured seeing the man at the top collect and collect and collect.
It is a smooth, flawless heist – well, almost flawless. The inside man is nervous and panicking. There is a falling out among thieves and a betrayal. There are others riding Parker’s coattails and waiting to pick off the loot.
It is one hell of a story and you can add a few more to the list of unforgettable characters that Stark (Westlake) has dreamed up. It has a few points of view in addition to Parker’s. The reverend is hysterical, ensconced in his penthouse hotel suite with an ash-blonde “harlot” who was the only woman in the reverend’s experience “to overflow her birthday suit.” Tina “was a lush girl,” but “it was a lushness that could spill into overripeness.” The reverend’s other confidante is Dwayne, an ex-marine that ran security for these prayer events and was the reverend’s chief of staff. He is tasked with the smooth running of the William Archibald crusade and he applies his marines philosophy to the task: “Don’t ask why, only ask how.” The inside guy is Carmody and he is not built for this task. He is bent out of shape with a discouraged slope of his shoulders and a fatalistic half-grip of his hands. To Dwayne, this only means one thing: “A fellow bent on desertion.” Dwayne also describes another involved party as “Beetle Bailey without the comedy, a sad sack who would always be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The story is also filled with sage advice such as that “Relaxed guys are harder to fool, but tensed-up guys are harder to read.”
I am not sure how you decide which is the best of the Parker novels, but this one is right up there with the best.
July 16, 2012
Parker is unlike anything else I've ever read
After spending a year with my eyes peeled for my first Richard Stark book, I finally stumbled across this one in a local secondhand shop. I don't think people like parting with these books, to read Parker is to love Parker it seems. It might be the seventeenth instalment in the criminal career of Parker but there was no way I was going to wait any longer for the first book to turn up.
Parker is brought in to a three man job, stealing money from a TV evangelist and things look sweet. Crosses and double-crosses ensue. Parker takes shit from nobody.
It really was that simple too. Stark has clearly had a lot of time to get to know his creation and it shows, Parker simply works. He's an intelligent, tough, bastard. He's got a job to do and he gets it done in whatever style necessary. The balls of the guy to do what he does in the middle section of this book are astounding. The physical and mental nature of his being allows him to remain cool despite being cornered and outnumbered by 5 to 1 and then calmly escape without it seeming ludicrous. Tom Cruise wishes he was Parker and not that big girl Reacher, of this much I am certain.
In addition to Parker, Stark creates a believable and enjoyable supporting cast of characters, none of whom fade in to obscurity or caricature despite their lack of page time; all of them seem human in the true noir sense - vulnerable, weak, selfish, determined, doomed and occasionally stupid. The dialogue reads naturally and never hokey or contrived. It's easy to see why Stark was considered a master of the genre.
But what genre? I've tried to draw comparisons to other books and other authors, the closest I get is to Elmore Leonard in terms of mileau and dialogue but Parker is a whole different ball game when compared to the bums and idiots that tend to populate the world of Leonard. It's noir to a certain extent but not as the genre is popularly understood that's for sure.
I know I certainly like a bastard for a protagonist and Parker is ace in my book.
After spending a year with my eyes peeled for my first Richard Stark book, I finally stumbled across this one in a local secondhand shop. I don't think people like parting with these books, to read Parker is to love Parker it seems. It might be the seventeenth instalment in the criminal career of Parker but there was no way I was going to wait any longer for the first book to turn up.
Parker is brought in to a three man job, stealing money from a TV evangelist and things look sweet. Crosses and double-crosses ensue. Parker takes shit from nobody.
It really was that simple too. Stark has clearly had a lot of time to get to know his creation and it shows, Parker simply works. He's an intelligent, tough, bastard. He's got a job to do and he gets it done in whatever style necessary. The balls of the guy to do what he does in the middle section of this book are astounding. The physical and mental nature of his being allows him to remain cool despite being cornered and outnumbered by 5 to 1 and then calmly escape without it seeming ludicrous. Tom Cruise wishes he was Parker and not that big girl Reacher, of this much I am certain.
In addition to Parker, Stark creates a believable and enjoyable supporting cast of characters, none of whom fade in to obscurity or caricature despite their lack of page time; all of them seem human in the true noir sense - vulnerable, weak, selfish, determined, doomed and occasionally stupid. The dialogue reads naturally and never hokey or contrived. It's easy to see why Stark was considered a master of the genre.
But what genre? I've tried to draw comparisons to other books and other authors, the closest I get is to Elmore Leonard in terms of mileau and dialogue but Parker is a whole different ball game when compared to the bums and idiots that tend to populate the world of Leonard. It's noir to a certain extent but not as the genre is popularly understood that's for sure.
I know I certainly like a bastard for a protagonist and Parker is ace in my book.
April 15, 2018
The 17th entry in the Parker series by Richard Stark aka Donald E. Westlake.
It's been 3 or 4 years since I read that last entry in the original 16-book run and picking this up, it's like nothing changed.
It's every bit as good as every other entry in the series.
Parker and his crew target a television preacher who is holding a mega-church rally being held in a stadium.
The heist goes off as planned but as usual, the going gets a little complicated.
I give this my highest recommendation.
If you're new to the Parker series this one is a good one to start with but I would really recommend reading this series in order of publication.
It's been 3 or 4 years since I read that last entry in the original 16-book run and picking this up, it's like nothing changed.
It's every bit as good as every other entry in the series.
Parker and his crew target a television preacher who is holding a mega-church rally being held in a stadium.
The heist goes off as planned but as usual, the going gets a little complicated.
I give this my highest recommendation.
If you're new to the Parker series this one is a good one to start with but I would really recommend reading this series in order of publication.
April 3, 2018
I'd say by now it's pretty obvious I'm a "Parker fan". I always "feel" obligated to mention that it surprises me somewhat that this violent antihero (possibly even a psychopath) is one of the characters who's story I've followed...
So the book before this came out in 1974...this one was published in the 1990s (around 1997). So for 20+ years it seemed that our favorite thief had shuffled off this mortal coil...or had at least been relegated by "Richard Stark" ( Donald E. Westlake) to some form of eternal waiting. But no like a wolf loosed from it's cage Parker makes a Comeback.
AND it's a good one. Still a great idea/planner and thief who can put together a crew and plan/run a "job" like no one else there is no loss of quality here either in story or character.
Of course sometimes it seems as though some of the people who get involved in Parker's jobs have about the same luck or fate as the Enterprise crew member with the red shirt in a landing party...
Recommended, enjoy.
So the book before this came out in 1974...this one was published in the 1990s (around 1997). So for 20+ years it seemed that our favorite thief had shuffled off this mortal coil...or had at least been relegated by "Richard Stark" ( Donald E. Westlake) to some form of eternal waiting. But no like a wolf loosed from it's cage Parker makes a Comeback.
AND it's a good one. Still a great idea/planner and thief who can put together a crew and plan/run a "job" like no one else there is no loss of quality here either in story or character.
Of course sometimes it seems as though some of the people who get involved in Parker's jobs have about the same luck or fate as the Enterprise crew member with the red shirt in a landing party...
Recommended, enjoy.
February 25, 2018
Once Donald Westlake decided to bring back Richard Stark and Parker after twenty some-odd years, he wisely also brought back everything that made the series so beloved--all of it, in one outing. A unique theft and its planning & execution, interesting cohorts, a betrayal, the avoiding and conning of the police, the recovery of stolen (restolen?) loot, and the dealing (permanently) with those still foolish enough to cross Parker. Sometimes it works to give the reader exactly what they expect. A fine welcome back.
December 18, 2015
Parker has not been written about since 1974's Hunters Moon and returns 23 years later in this apt called novel "Comeback".
Another age another heist, this time the score is the dosh scored by some Evangelist preacher, and to be honest anybody would like those characters seen robbed time after time. And enter the double cross after the heist. Parker has to go and hide while being on the hide from the police and the Evangelists stormtroopers.
But nobody has such an audacious streak in his character as Parker, who does not like to be double crossed and most certainly does not like to be taken for a fool.
A daring heist, double crossings, triple crossing, a greedy evangelist preacher, his former navy security chief, a sadistic police officer all make for an excellent few hours of reading. Parker still has it.
Another age another heist, this time the score is the dosh scored by some Evangelist preacher, and to be honest anybody would like those characters seen robbed time after time. And enter the double cross after the heist. Parker has to go and hide while being on the hide from the police and the Evangelists stormtroopers.
But nobody has such an audacious streak in his character as Parker, who does not like to be double crossed and most certainly does not like to be taken for a fool.
A daring heist, double crossings, triple crossing, a greedy evangelist preacher, his former navy security chief, a sadistic police officer all make for an excellent few hours of reading. Parker still has it.
January 1, 2021
Notes:
Currently on Audible Plus
Comeback is the return of the Parker series after a long hiatus. It was good. Though, I did want a bit more from the ending. There's a narrator change coming up and I'm not sure how I feel about that. Hmmm!
Good book to start off 2021!
Currently on Audible Plus
Comeback is the return of the Parker series after a long hiatus. It was good. Though, I did want a bit more from the ending. There's a narrator change coming up and I'm not sure how I feel about that. Hmmm!
Good book to start off 2021!
February 10, 2023
Enjoyed Westlake’s return after a 23 year absence, (hence the title), writing under the pen name of Stark. As #17 in the series there’s some familiarity and it’s enjoyable as a free Audible listen during my commute. The narrator was great voicing different characters with distinct precision so it adds to the listening experience.
August 9, 2021
Parker Returns After 23 Years
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (April, 2013) of the Warner Books / Mysterious Press hardcover (1997)
Richard Stark was one of the many pseudonyms of the prolific crime author Donald E. Westlake (1933-2008), who wrote over 100 books. The Stark pseudonym was used primarily for the Parker novels, an antihero criminal who is usually betrayed or ensnared in some manner and who spends each book getting revenge or escaping the circumstances.
Comeback finds Parker and a heist crew knocking over the box office receipts (all cash) from a shady evangelist's rally. Their inside man wants his share in order to do the actual good deeds which the scam evangelist is not doing. As almost always, one of the heisters gets greedy and soon the usual disarray follows with Parker trying to pick up the pieces.
Comeback was the return of Westlake/Stark's antihero Parker character after a 23 year hiatus following the 16th book in the series Butcher's Moon (1974). There isn't any mention of Parker aging in the meantime so it is almost as if there was no hiatus at all.
Narrator Keith Szarabjka does an excellent job in all voices in this audiobook edition.
I had never previously read the Stark/Parker novels but became curious when they came up in my recent reading of The Writer's Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives (Sept. 2020) by Nancy Pearl & Jeff Schwager. Here is a (perhaps surprising) excerpt from their discussion with Amor Towles:
The 24 Parker books are almost all available for free on Audible Plus, except for #21 & #22 which aren't available at all.
Trivia and Links
There is a brief plot summary of Comeback and of all the Parker books and adaptations at The Violent World of Parker website.
Unlike many of the 2010-2013 Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook editions which share the same cover art as the University of Chicago Press 2009-2011 reprints, this audiobook DOES include the Foreword by author Lawrence Block.
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (April, 2013) of the Warner Books / Mysterious Press hardcover (1997)
Richard Stark was one of the many pseudonyms of the prolific crime author Donald E. Westlake (1933-2008), who wrote over 100 books. The Stark pseudonym was used primarily for the Parker novels, an antihero criminal who is usually betrayed or ensnared in some manner and who spends each book getting revenge or escaping the circumstances.
Comeback finds Parker and a heist crew knocking over the box office receipts (all cash) from a shady evangelist's rally. Their inside man wants his share in order to do the actual good deeds which the scam evangelist is not doing. As almost always, one of the heisters gets greedy and soon the usual disarray follows with Parker trying to pick up the pieces.
Comeback was the return of Westlake/Stark's antihero Parker character after a 23 year hiatus following the 16th book in the series Butcher's Moon (1974). There isn't any mention of Parker aging in the meantime so it is almost as if there was no hiatus at all.
Narrator Keith Szarabjka does an excellent job in all voices in this audiobook edition.
I had never previously read the Stark/Parker novels but became curious when they came up in my recent reading of The Writer's Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives (Sept. 2020) by Nancy Pearl & Jeff Schwager. Here is a (perhaps surprising) excerpt from their discussion with Amor Towles:
Nancy: Do you read Lee Child?
Amor: I know Lee. I had never read his books until I met him, but now I read them whenever they come out. I think some of the decisions he makes are ingenious.
Jeff: Have you read the Parker books by Donald Westlake [writing as Richard Stark]?
Amor: I think the Parker books are an extraordinary series.
Jeff: They feel like a big influence on Reacher, right down to the name. Both Reacher and Parker have a singular focus on the task in front of them.
Amor: But Parker is amoral. Reacher is just dangerous.
Jeff: Right. Reacher doesn't have a conventional morality, but he has his own morality. Parker will do anything he has to do to achieve his goal.
Amor: But to your point, Westlake's staccato style with its great twists at the end of the paragraphs, and his mesmerizing central character - these attributes are clearly shared by the Reacher books.
The 24 Parker books are almost all available for free on Audible Plus, except for #21 & #22 which aren't available at all.
Trivia and Links
There is a brief plot summary of Comeback and of all the Parker books and adaptations at The Violent World of Parker website.
Unlike many of the 2010-2013 Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook editions which share the same cover art as the University of Chicago Press 2009-2011 reprints, this audiobook DOES include the Foreword by author Lawrence Block.
December 8, 2018
After a 23-year hiatus, author Richard Stark continued his Parker series without missing a beat. Approached by George Liss, a man he has worked with previously, Stark agrees to steal the $400,000 cash proceeds of an evangelist preacher's show. However, the inside man, who is angry that the preacher uses the money for a lavish lifestyle and not to help the needy, tells one person too many. Double cross, triple cross, the preacher's security man, and a vindictive police detective investigating the crime create quite a story. Parker's post-heist hideout is classic.
November 17, 2021
Asi Asi
October 30, 2013
Parker is definitely a bad boy and so I confess, I love bad boys, at least this bad boy, Parker.
Although only my second Parker book, I just love the crook.
How can I love a crook you ask? Well, he's loyal and he hates disloyalty. He's trusting of those he trusts. He's...oh forget it, I don't know why I love him. Because he kicks ass? I know, not a good reason. Because he's got brass balls? Okay, that's not a good reason either. Because the character is so well drawn by Richard Stark AKA Donald E. Westlake? That must be it.
I read GR friend Tfitoby's review which was, as usual, superb and he does a much better job than I could do explaining why I love Parker. So with that, here's Tfitboy's excellent review: Comeback
BTW, I loved Tfitoby's comment about Tom Cruise and "that big girl Reacher." Very funny especially since I'm not a big Reacher fan. Please read Tfitboy's review! It will push you into buying Parker (oh, forgot, Richard Stark.)
Although only my second Parker book, I just love the crook.
How can I love a crook you ask? Well, he's loyal and he hates disloyalty. He's trusting of those he trusts. He's...oh forget it, I don't know why I love him. Because he kicks ass? I know, not a good reason. Because he's got brass balls? Okay, that's not a good reason either. Because the character is so well drawn by Richard Stark AKA Donald E. Westlake? That must be it.
I read GR friend Tfitoby's review which was, as usual, superb and he does a much better job than I could do explaining why I love Parker. So with that, here's Tfitboy's excellent review: Comeback
BTW, I loved Tfitoby's comment about Tom Cruise and "that big girl Reacher." Very funny especially since I'm not a big Reacher fan. Please read Tfitboy's review! It will push you into buying Parker (oh, forgot, Richard Stark.)
April 4, 2012
The University of Chicago Press has been reissuing all(?) of the Donald Westlake’s Richard Stark books. Comeback was written in 1997 and the title puns on the fact that Westlake was bringing back his anti-hero Parker. This is one of the best.
Parker teams up with Brenda and MacKey to rob the cash proceeds of Archibald’s Crusade, about half-a-million dollars. The weak link is George Liss who had brought them the inside man, Tom Carbody, a disenchanted member of the Crusade. Liss tries to kill Parker and MacKey and make off with the money, but Parker, with his usual distrust and foresight had removed the shells from the shotgun before retiring in their hideout.
From there everything becomes a mess as Liss chases Parker and the crew who have the money, the cops who have caught three stumble-bums, also tracking the money. As is usual in the Parker novels, nothing ever seems to go as planned, but Parker, ever-flexible and always cognizant of the the odds, adapts.
This adaptability, I think, is what intrigues me about the Stark books. That and Parker’s lack of “cuteness” that seems to permeate many “bad guy” novels. He has his own code and set of values which just don’t happen to mesh well with society’s, and yet he seeks normality with Claire in between jobs.
Sigh. I fear I have read all of the Stark novels. I wish I had twenty more to go.
Parker teams up with Brenda and MacKey to rob the cash proceeds of Archibald’s Crusade, about half-a-million dollars. The weak link is George Liss who had brought them the inside man, Tom Carbody, a disenchanted member of the Crusade. Liss tries to kill Parker and MacKey and make off with the money, but Parker, with his usual distrust and foresight had removed the shells from the shotgun before retiring in their hideout.
From there everything becomes a mess as Liss chases Parker and the crew who have the money, the cops who have caught three stumble-bums, also tracking the money. As is usual in the Parker novels, nothing ever seems to go as planned, but Parker, ever-flexible and always cognizant of the the odds, adapts.
This adaptability, I think, is what intrigues me about the Stark books. That and Parker’s lack of “cuteness” that seems to permeate many “bad guy” novels. He has his own code and set of values which just don’t happen to mesh well with society’s, and yet he seeks normality with Claire in between jobs.
Sigh. I fear I have read all of the Stark novels. I wish I had twenty more to go.
May 8, 2015
Stark was back on track with this Parker novel. As usual, a well planned, seemingly easy job goes sideways & Parker has to be tough & quick on his feet to work it out. It jumped around a bit too much at some points trying to cover all the characters & what they were doing, but when the action got hot, he stuck with Parker, thankfully.
Very well read. I spend about 1.5 hours commuting daily, 4 hours mowing weekly (just the lawn) & many other hours weeding. Absolutely mindless chores & audio books like this make it all enjoyable.
Very well read. I spend about 1.5 hours commuting daily, 4 hours mowing weekly (just the lawn) & many other hours weeding. Absolutely mindless chores & audio books like this make it all enjoyable.
September 11, 2013
This one was a good return for Parker books and i enjoyed every page with Parker, the crooks he was working with. Maybe it lost some energy in the middle just before the last stretch but it still was a well written Richard Stark, Parker book.
Parker is as emotional cold, mean as always and that what i read these books for.
Parker is as emotional cold, mean as always and that what i read these books for.
September 11, 2018
Parker is hot on another score. This time he intends to knock off a televangelist's kitty. The stadium where the preacher is scheduled to share the good word is supposed to bring in over $400,000 of donations from those seeking guidance and salvation. With an inside man and a competent crew, this is too good for Parker to pass up. But, as always... one thing leads to another and our antihero finds himself in a struggle to reclaim lost booty while getting even with those who have done him wrong. Parker may be find himself in deep water, but he is never in over his head.
After reading Butcher's Moon I didn't know what to expect with the "newer" Parker books. Like Westlake (Stark), I took a little hiatus from the series. When I picked up Comeback I was expecting a transition; good or bad. Perhaps it would be in feel, tone, mood, character, or plot that differed from the classic Parkers. Sort of like going from Sean Connery to Roger Moore in James Bond movies.
I'm happy to report that none of this happened. The story was as tight and kick ass as the previous books, and our hero can rock and roll in the 1990s just as well as he did back in the 1960s. This is a series in which the main character and his adventures will work regardless of the setting. I would even venture that (probably better than Moonraker) if Westlake were to have written a Parker book that found him ripping off cargo from the space station and beating up martian double-crossers, I would read it in a fever and be satisfied with the enjoyable moments spent with one crime fiction's best characters.
After reading Butcher's Moon I didn't know what to expect with the "newer" Parker books. Like Westlake (Stark), I took a little hiatus from the series. When I picked up Comeback I was expecting a transition; good or bad. Perhaps it would be in feel, tone, mood, character, or plot that differed from the classic Parkers. Sort of like going from Sean Connery to Roger Moore in James Bond movies.
I'm happy to report that none of this happened. The story was as tight and kick ass as the previous books, and our hero can rock and roll in the 1990s just as well as he did back in the 1960s. This is a series in which the main character and his adventures will work regardless of the setting. I would even venture that (probably better than Moonraker) if Westlake were to have written a Parker book that found him ripping off cargo from the space station and beating up martian double-crossers, I would read it in a fever and be satisfied with the enjoyable moments spent with one crime fiction's best characters.
May 11, 2012
The coolest thing about Parker's comeback is its lack of fanfare--when it appeared, this was the first Parker novel in 23 years, but that fact is referenced only in the novel's title. Other than that, it's a completely ordinary Parker novel (which is to say, a very good Parker novel) that could just as easily have been published in 1967 as 1997, a few contemporary cultural references notwithstanding. Comeback drags only in its final act, as Parker novels sometimes do, when it becomes a cat-and-mouse game of who-is-going-to-kill-whom.
December 4, 2020
SPOILER: In the Parker novel Comeback, Parker comes back.
October 16, 2009
Probably not one of the best Parker titles, this one concerns the heist of an evangelist's pot of money collected during a stadium show. Several gangs, including Parker's, take a shine to the stolen money and chaos ensues. This title has a claustrophobic feel to it. The same dry wit and doggedness make Parker one of my favorite hard-boiled series. I'll continue reading in the series.
August 9, 2018
Funny, well-paced, thrilling/gripping and all - but too many incredibly stupid moves by the supposedly master criminal Parker make this a cowboys-and-Indians boy's book. A let-down after The Outfit, which was far more realistic and believable.
June 26, 2020
Still raced through it. Still enjoyed it immensely. Not as good as the 1962-74 books; you can feel the writer's block being wrestled down. But it brings a great series back to life, and that's more than enough.
February 9, 2016
"When the angel opened the door, Parker stepped first past the threshold into the darkness of the cinder block corridor beneath the stage.”
July 4, 2018
For an author to return to a series character after a 20+ year hiatus and make that character hit stride on page one — well, to me, that proves him a master of his craft. Richard Stark (Westlake) brings Parker back to life in the familiar tale of a robbery and its aftermath, and we're off on another dance of death. Entertaining and tense, it's good to have Parker back.
February 1, 2021
Parker's Return
After a twenty-three-year hiatus, Parker is back and he hasn't changed a bit or missed a step. The score is the loot from a televangelist meeting. The jackpot is up for grabs when a member of the heist crew decides to cut everyone else out.
After a twenty-three-year hiatus, Parker is back and he hasn't changed a bit or missed a step. The score is the loot from a televangelist meeting. The jackpot is up for grabs when a member of the heist crew decides to cut everyone else out.
August 27, 2021
My first Parker book. A ruthless crim who gets away with it, just, through great planning and anticipation.
I liked the detailed description of how he does it.
I liked the detailed description of how he does it.
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