Beginning in 1962, over the course of ten years, Donald E. Westlake wrote fifteen Parker novels, pen name Richard Stark, all hardboiled crime fiction featuring Parker, the ultimate cool, calculating heister. And all fifteen short novels follow the same four-step template: planning the heist, assembling the crew, the heist itself, the escape. But then it happened - Mr. Westlake broke the mold, changed things up, achieved a slam dunk with the publication of Butcher’s Moon in 1974. How did he do it...

This is a notable book in the Parker series because for a long time it looked like it’d be the last one that Richard Stark (a/k/a Donald E. Westlake) ever wrote since it was over twenty years before he finally did another one. This one is also a personal milestone since it’s the last Parker novel that I haven’t read before. Westlake died a few years ago, so that means it’s the last new Parker novel I’ll ever read. Stupid death.As a personal ending point for me, it’s a humdinger though. Parker ha...

“I'm only the messenger!""Now you're the message," Parker said, and shot him. Butcher's Moon, the 16th Parker book from Richard Stark (Donald Westlake), the last he would write for 24 years, is more than twice as long as any previous entry in the series, looking like a big finish, with appearances by characters from many previous books, making it feel like a Big Finale. This book is one of the best, but it is not to be read first in the series. The feel of it is on a grand scale, operatic, more

Short on cash, Parker and Grofield return to Tyler to get some money Parker stashed in an amusement park. But the money isn't there and signs point to the local mob, which is in the midst of a power struggle. Whichever party comes out on top had better remember that when Parker is owed money, he always collects, one way or another... I'd been waiting for over six months for Butcher's Moon to be reprinted by University of Chicago Press. Was it worth the wait? Hell yes!Butcher's Moon was the last

First published in 1974, this is the sixteenth book in Richard Stark's acclaimed series featuring Parker, the amoral antihero criminal mastermind. While the book can be read as a stand-alone, it is really the capstone of the series to that point and the last Parker novel that would appear until Comeback, a full twenty-three years later.The original plan seems simple enough: Two years earlier (in Slayground), Parker and several confederates hit an armored car in the Midwestern town of Tyler for $...

i never read any of Stark thrillers. do not blame me for this. it it better later than never and this one came to me like a bullet train riding full speed. this guy do not throw words ahead if they are not pure action. there is no time for almost any description, you hardly even know where it is happening beside that it is in a sin city and this guy Parker coming to collect his old due money. and when he don't get it he goes full revenge. quite amazing. the second half is much much stronger. for...

After book number 16 of this series Mr Stark took a 25 year break from creating Parker's crime infested world. I must say- he went out with a BIG ol' bang!! Everyone in Butcher's Moon is a target and as the bodies pile up it seems Parker and his ilk might have finally met their match.... Or have they?!?! Hmmmmmmmmmm? Five Fantastically Bullet Steeped Starsrunonoutandgetyousomeofthisfunkystuffyo

I can see why this was the last one written of the original series. Stark perfected the Parker story,formula. The writing,the many different viewpoints,the characters,the pace,the story,the heists. This is Parker at his most cold blooded and brutal,his smartest. He is so hardcore,ruthless when he takes on his enemies. The action,the twists, is breakneck,believable and thrilling.It is not only the best in the series, its a massive novel and an alltime great. It was truly the Parker novel to end a...

June 2017 Review I'm giving this an extra star. I still think the end was overblown, but I liked it better this time. This time I read it directly after Slayground for reasons that are obvious if you've read it. I highly recommend reading all the other Parker & Grofield books first. This one wraps them all up with a bow.April 2015 Review Twice as long as the preceding books, I was worried that Westlake had gone all Stephen King or something. He didn't. Still the same tight prose that I love. Sam...

How good is the sixteenth Parker novel "Butcher's Moon"? It's so damn good that, after reading it, people sat around with their hands folded for twenty-three long years, staring at the walls and waiting for the next Parker book. This book reminded me of the first and third Parker books when a young Parker decides the Outfit owes him money and there will be nothing but havoc until he gets his money. In fact, here, Parker even has the head of the local outfit call Karns and ask whether or not he s...

I wonder if I would still feel the same sense of closure if I didn’t already know it would be over twenty years before Parker would “comeback.” (Of course this is not counting his appearance as a character in a novel within the Dortmunder novel: Jimmy the Kid; a book I don’t consider a part of the Parker progression but still plan to read one day.) Butcher’s Moon immediately brings to mind The Hunter, where we first met Parker. Somebody has money that belongs to Parker and he’s going to get it b...

Perhaps the best of the Parker series, and what was for many years, his last book. After a series of bad luck robberies and running low on cash, Parker and the sometimes actor Grofield, go back to recover the $73,000, Parker had to abandon in an amusement park, dodging gangsters and dirty cops in Slayground. Unfortunately, the chief gangster doesn't have his money and even after checking with the big city mob boss, decides to ignore Parker, at his own peril. Parker and Grofield strike back, but

I'm a huge Parker fan and this novel is the best of an incredible series. What a perfect way to wrap up the series by making a double length novel that fits nicely into two parts. First part - Parker and Grofield team up to recover the money Parker lost in Slayground. Second part, Parker gets the gang together to rescue Grofield. Now, you might say "it wasn't the end of the series - many books came after that" BUT for over a decade it was the end and it looked like Rickard Stark (aka Donald West...

Parker and the Crime SpreeReview of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (January, 2013) of the Random House hardcover (1974)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.Butcher's Moon finds Parker ret...

I actually quite like those later Parker novels, but you can see why Richard Stark may have preferred to go out on a nitroglycerin bang with this one. The phrase that follows is normally a trite old cliché, but in this case is genuinely true – this is the Parker novel to end all Parker novels. ‘Butcher’s Moon’ rolls together all the attitude, themes and even the various crews of the earlier books into an genuinely thrilling read.After a particularly bad streak, Parker remembers that he stashed s...

Great suspense. Great read. A lot of killing. I was smiling a lot at the end.This is one of the best Parker books. It’s better if you read Slayground before this. This continues that story. This is sooo good. Great revenge! Parker takes on a local mob. They are no match for Parker. They are like children next to him.I was intrigued with a comment in the Forward by Lawrence Block. When Stark was writing the first Parker novel, Block asked Stark if he knew where the story was going. Stark said “So...

The last of the Parkers for me. And my favorite of the series.Parker is on one of those occasional dry spells and decides to retrieve the money he'd hid from a previous job so that he could manage his escape from the pursuing police and their criminal associates(Slayride). He gets his partner from the job, Grofeld, and when they get there, in the amusement park, the stash is gone.He knows the people who were looking for him back then and goes to them for his money.At the time, it was the last Pa...

The Hunter + The Score = Butcher’s Moon. For more than two decades, it seemed that Butcher’s Moon would be the last Parker novel, and I have to admit that some small part of me wishes that it were, as it makes a perfect coda to original series of novels (and is even richer still if you have read the Grofield novels, too). Having said that, however, I will relish reading Comeback, and I will not feel obligated to wait 23 years before I do it.

“Running toward the light, Parker fired twice over his left shoulder, not caring whether he hit anything or not.”Easily the best Parker novel, wrapping up the preceding fifteen novels in a neat little ultraviolent package.

The last Parker written before the long break. It's got characters from like ten books in it, but it still all works. He wants his money. People should give it to him.

The fallout from a two year old armored car robbery (Slayground) has left Parker in a tight spot. When he goes looking for his lost loot, he finds it missing. He wants his money but the "organization" who was at odds with Parker over the heist claims they don't have possession of it. So where does this leave our main man? Driving with part time thief and actor Grofield to the city of Tyler in order to reclaim Parker's money and be on their merry way. Only it's not quite that simple. The town is

This, the 16th in the Parker series, was pretty grim, longer than average, and on the whole, a bit less enjoyable for me than earlier works in this series. I really enjoy the complex, but nevertheless, rather sociopathic Parker- a tough character who is guided by his own sense of fairness, but is just as ruthless as anyone when it serves his purpose.He and a colleague venture into a small but predictably corrupt town to recover a stolen cache that Parker had stashed some time before. Unfortunate...

Notes:Currently on Audible PlusThat's a wrap for the original books in the Parker series. This one was loaded with more tension and the pragmatic, business side of Parker that no one wants to see. In 2021, I'll continue the series with Comeback. The revival of Parker. ;)

Great story, Parker and his partner go back to retrieve some money they took in a heist but had to hide and leave behind. In trying to get it back, they get stuck in the middle of a local mob war and end up calling in a lot of old partners from old jobs for one last big score. I've also been reading some Larence Block books recently and was interested to find out that Block and Donald Westlake (Stark is a pen name) knew each other and were friends in New York city. Also, Westlake had Parker die

Parker is short of cash and pissed. He knows where he had hidden a stash and takes Grofield, the actor/theater director/thief along to help retrieve it from a carnival ride where he had hidden it several years before. Problem is that the money is gone so suspecting it was found by a local mafia boss, Frank Lonzini, he decides to get it back.Unfortunately, Parker and Grofield find themselves in the midst of a mob leadership fight. All they want is to get their money back and leave town, but event...

This is the longest Parker book I've read and I think the longest in the series (more than twice as long as the others). That said you don't lose any quality here and there is very little if any flagging. Here Parker goes back to retrieve the money he left behind in Slayground. For Parker (in the book) only a couple of years have passed (though for the reader when the books were published for the first time more than 20 years had gone by). Now Parker and the surviving partner from the fiasco tha...

“Call him and ask him,” the voice said, “what you should do if you owe some money to a guy named Parker.”Boom! And off we go! THE Parker book!!! Almost twice the length of the previous books! Parker, with Grofield, are back at Fun Island Amusement Park to retrieve the money they left behind from the armored car heist in “Slayground”. The local ‘ boss’ , Lozini, is still there too, and he’s still mad! When things get heavy, Parker calls on an army of former “co-workers” - basically everyone who h...

A very fine end to the series (for quite a few years), with Parker and his cronies finally scoring big and wreaking havoc on the mob in retaliation for past dirty deeds. A great end to my marathon read of the Parker pulps - I only missed one because my library doesn’t have it. Pretty remarkable collection, considering they were written 50 years ago. Some novels were better than others but all were landmark contributions to a unique, delightful body of work. They don’t make ‘em like they used to!...

This is my favorite series of crime books Parker never gets old. I hope they make more movies of the Parker series. Ashton Kutcher would be a spot on match for Stan Devers, just as Jason Statham was perfect for Parker

A thing of beauty.If I could give this more stars, I would.