Ask the Parrot

An embittered recluse rescues Parker from the posse that is chasing him after the failed bank robbery in Nobody Runs Forever. Parker's rescuer wants his professional help to rob the racetrack that fired him for whistleblowing about money laundering. The carefully laid plan comes unglued and Parker brings his talents to bear on handling his amateur accomplice and the local law. His total amorality remains fascinating and even after 23 novels I identify more strongly with the people he meets than I do with Stark/Westlake's brutally clever antihero.

Donald Westlake, writing under the name Richard Stark, returns with yet another tale of Parker, his amoral, but always fascinating criminal.
In this one, Parker is on the lam from a heist he's just pulled that went badly wrong. The world has changed since 9/11 and Parker is left trying to elude police in an unfamiliar rural setting. He forms an uneasy alliance with a reclusive man who involves Parker in his own illegal revenge plot. This guy, writes Stark, ''sensed the othernesss in Parker, but he didn't know what it meant.''
We, as readers, do: Parker is an out and out sociopath, a hardboiled and humourless professional criminal. Stark usually makes Parker a loner, and so this adventure which forces the deadly mercenary to deal with an show more amateur in his trade, makes for a strikingly different insight into his character.
And you'll have to read it yourself to find out exactly what the parrot has to say! show less

Picking up immediately from Nobody Runs Forever, Parker is being chased by the police and dogs when he runs into a local man, Tom Lindahl, who helps Parker avoid the police. Turns out that Tom was fired from his job at a racetrack because he "outed" their illegal political contributions. Tom wants revenge, and asks Stark to help him rob the place. In the meantime, Parker does his best to blend in, but Lindahl is known as a hermit and nobody believes he has an old friend. The town is really boring, as are most of its occupants, and the book is much too long. 2.5 stars, rounded up.

I don't have a lot I'd label as a read once and get rid of it, but I think this one qualifies. Since this is the first I've read in this series and this is book 23 in that series, the characterization leaves a little to be desired, but not having read the earlier books isn't throwing me off any. You know enough to know what's going on. I can see the story line now without having to backtrack. This I like.

This is a quick read. I'd call this a beach read because it goes so simply. No real stress to reading it. Very few necessary mental gymnastics required. Sometimes hard to follow the description of the places, but one is a maze.

For the first two thirds of this book, it sticks pretty solidly in Parker's POV. Then suddenly, the author is show more bouncing among character POV for about a third of the book. This means what's happening with the primary plot has suddenly disappeared, because many of the characters touched are periphery characters that have very little connection to the main plot thread. I think this was done to tie up loose ends. Not 100% necessary, but makes sense.

Decent ending, maybe not as expected, but decent. Some action and tension, but it diffuses quickly because the main character knows what he's doing. For a disreputable type, Parker has a good honor code and a sense of what to do. He's the bad side of characters I wouldn't mind writing myself. Decent enough, but as I said, a read and discard type book. show less

This begins right where the previous book ended, with Parker on the run from the cops after the armored car robbery. And to blend in, he ends up joining a group of citizens combing the surrounding countryside - looking for him! (and the other two robbers). And, while on the run from the last job, he decides to take on a new job - robbing a racetrack! It's a good story, and interesting in that Parker teams up with a total amateur to pull of this job! Sort of a new twist for him! It's also part two of a three part story arc, so the next book will let us know how it all plays out!

Unfortunately, it is my last read in this series, which is a total bummer. Maybe in a few years I'll revisit the collection, and this time read them in order! show more I'll miss ya' Parker!

Funny thing about the title - the parrot doesn’t talk! So, um, don't do what the title of the book tells you to do. show less

Ask The Parrot is the 23rd novel of the 24 novel strong Parker series by Richard Stark, who is the most well-known of Donald Westlake's psuedonyms. Westlake has over the fifty-plus years he has professionally written assumed seven or more psuedonyms for a variety of reasons, but everyone knows Stark is Westlake and vice versa. Westlake has written over one hundred books.
Parker, who has no first name, is a professional criminal. He robs. He does bank jobs. He does armored car jobs. He is known to be cold and emotionless, but he has his own code which generally means no doublecrossing, splitting the proceeds equally, and not turning on one's allies.

Ask The Parrot is actually part two of a trilogy of novels at the tail end of the Parker show more series, starting with Nobody Runs Forever and finishing with Dirty Money. Any of these can be read by themselves or in order. One need not even be familiar with the Parker series to enjoy this.

Ask The Parrot begins with Parker on the run through the woods, dogs and local deputies on his trail. "Whatever was on the other side of this hill," he explains as the story opens, "had to be better than the dogs baying down there at the foot of the slope behind him, running around, straining at their leashes, finding his scent, starting up." Parker has $4,000 in his pocket, but its no good because the robbery was botched and his identity ruined. He needs a place to hide, to regroup, to get to safety.
In this small upstate NY town, he tries to blend in as a common person and even joins the posse trying to smoke the robbers out of the woods, but there is something about Parker that just lends itself to trouble and he can't blend in no matter how he tries. Lindahl rescues him, but wants to involve him in a racetrack robbery, a racetrack where Lindahl used to work before he got canned and for which he still has all the keys. No matter what Parker does, crime seems to follow him or somebody recognizes him and wants a cut of the robbery money, which is too hot for Parker to go back for, or someone wants to play hero and reel him in or someone makes a mistake, bringing the interest of the law on Parker.

There is something about the way Westlake writes that is compelling and, once I picked this up, I had to keep reading. The prose is not fancy. There are few memorable phrases. But, it is, like all Parker novels, one great piece of crime fiction and, for anyone who reads crime fiction, this is worth a read.
What is it that makes the Parker novels so compelling for forty-five years? I don' t know that it is the fact Parker is an anti-hero or that he is someone who the reader can identify with. I think it is that Westlake (or Stark if you prefer) has consistently created a character who is believable and who acts as one would expect him to. Parker is no saint. He has no moral compunctions about killing, but he would prefer not to since it brings the law down on one quicker.
All in all, a great read. show less

Ask The Parrot (2006) (Parker #27) by Richard Stark. Another in the fun ‘Parker’ series, this follows in the wake of a bank robbery. Parker is literally running from the law when he meets up with a man in the woods. Recognized for what he is, Parker is slightly surprised when the man offers him refuge at his home.
The pair escape the police and head to the man’s home where he relates his story to Parker, detailing just why he saved him. Seems the fellow wants some type of revenge on the race track that let him go a few years earlier, destroying his life and marriage. Now, with the help of Parker, he wants to rob the track.
As usual this is a fast past, well plotted book. The police are to be avoided but it becomes inevitable that show more they are involved. There is an attempt at blackmail by a pair of brothers who recognize Parker. and they have to be dealt with in a manner that is fitting. Parker is the competent one in the entire group, quick-witted and, once satisfied with the situation, quick to action.
There is a reason this is a long running series. Every book is a satisfying read that will leave you ready for more. Just don’t feel too sorry for that parrot. show less