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"Hearing the click behind him, Parker threw his glass straight back over his right shoulder and dove off his chair to the left." When a job looks like amateur hour, Parker walks away. But even a squad of seasoned professionals can't guarantee against human error in a high-risk scam. Can an art dealer with issues unload a truck of paintings with Parker's aid? Or will the heist end up too much of a human interest story, as luck runs out before Parker can get in on the score?Tags
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Member Reviews
Parker in the Bay Area? Woo hoo! He’s looking for work and he’s looking for George Uhl.
This almost reads like a Dortmunder book, with all of the things that go wrong in it. Except it's Parker, who doesn't have the good humored nature of Dortmunder. At all. The big art heist is the main gig in here, and it has one of my all-time favorite distractions, provided by Tommy and his girlfriend! Crazy original!
This book ends fairly upbruptly, so I'm excited to read the next one! Love me some Parker!
This almost reads like a Dortmunder book, with all of the things that go wrong in it. Except it's Parker, who doesn't have the good humored nature of Dortmunder. At all. The big art heist is the main gig in here, and it has one of my all-time favorite distractions, provided by Tommy and his girlfriend! Crazy original!
This book ends fairly upbruptly, so I'm excited to read the next one! Love me some Parker!
"Then there were fifteen minutes of small-talk. Parker never took pleasure in that kind of thing, but he knew other people found it necessary and he'd trained himself to take part in it.”
Parker was the wonderful creation of Donald Westlake, writing as Richard Stark. All of Parker titles are being reissued by the University of Chicago Press. I’ve read many over the years, bought a couple more than once because I couldn’t remember which ones I had read (pre-Goodreads,) but never-mind, they hold up well even on second reading.
Parker is the bad guy you root for in that subconscious we all have that wishes we could step out of our roles and be the tough anti-hero.
Plunder Squad, unlike many of the others, reads a little like several show more short stories linked together by two tenuous threads: the search for George Uhl who tried to kill him, and art heists populated by a motley group of thieves who often can’t seem to get it right.
Some marvelous passages. Leo Sternberg, one of the thieves, lives in London but only steals in America. He checks into the motel where they are to have their first meeting. "Ghastly. Drinking glasses in the bathroom were encased in little white paper bags imprinted with a message including the word ‘sanitized.’ A similar message was on the paper band bridging the toilet seat. It was like dating a sexual hysteric who can never stop talking about her virginity.”
All of the Parker novels are very-well done, terrific for travel reads. show less
Parker was the wonderful creation of Donald Westlake, writing as Richard Stark. All of Parker titles are being reissued by the University of Chicago Press. I’ve read many over the years, bought a couple more than once because I couldn’t remember which ones I had read (pre-Goodreads,) but never-mind, they hold up well even on second reading.
Parker is the bad guy you root for in that subconscious we all have that wishes we could step out of our roles and be the tough anti-hero.
Plunder Squad, unlike many of the others, reads a little like several show more short stories linked together by two tenuous threads: the search for George Uhl who tried to kill him, and art heists populated by a motley group of thieves who often can’t seem to get it right.
Some marvelous passages. Leo Sternberg, one of the thieves, lives in London but only steals in America. He checks into the motel where they are to have their first meeting. "Ghastly. Drinking glasses in the bathroom were encased in little white paper bags imprinted with a message including the word ‘sanitized.’ A similar message was on the paper band bridging the toilet seat. It was like dating a sexual hysteric who can never stop talking about her virginity.”
All of the Parker novels are very-well done, terrific for travel reads. show less
While planning a job, a man Parker should have finished in an earlier confrontation, tries to kill him, putting himself in Parker's crosshairs for retribution. Meanwhile, Parker needs a score and after looking over a couple of opportunities, agrees to an art heist while a heavily guarded exhibit is in transit. Working with an experienced crew, things actually go well ... during the heist; however, their buyer gets himself in big trouble, which naturally spills over onto the crew. P.S. It's hard to believe anybody can be as unlucky as Parker.
Solid later Parker where he spends more time setting up jobs and dealing with crossers than heists. Like The Getaway in that respect. But Westlake excels with the characters he creates...
The penultimate novel in the first run of Parker Books, Plunder Squad begins with Parker dealing with two immediate problems: funds are running low and a man he once left alive (not intentionally) wants revenge. A third problem immediately crops up as he discovers that the potential job that opens the novel is unworkable. Soon he finds a finds a better prospect, but while planning this one he also has to clean up the remnants of the aborted job and deal with the revenge-seeker before he strikes again. Quick and enjoyable.
Parker and the Art Heist
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (June, 2013) of the Random House hardcover (1972)
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.
Plunder Squad finds Parker and a team of heisters working on an art theft for a middle man who is hard pressed to raise the front money for the heist. Several past Parker characters make a return in this book, including George Uhl from The Sour Lemon Score and Stan Devers from The show more Green Eagle Score. The book also features a crossover scene with Dead Skip (1972) by Joe Gores, when Parker goes to the door of the squad's safe house in order to put off a skip tracer. The scene is repeated in Gores' book from the skip tracer's perspective.
Narrator Joe Barrett does a good 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 Plunder Squad 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 2009-2010 reprints, this audiobook DOES include the Foreword by author Charles Ardai. show less
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (June, 2013) of the Random House hardcover (1972)
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.
Plunder Squad finds Parker and a team of heisters working on an art theft for a middle man who is hard pressed to raise the front money for the heist. Several past Parker characters make a return in this book, including George Uhl from The Sour Lemon Score and Stan Devers from The show more Green Eagle Score. The book also features a crossover scene with Dead Skip (1972) by Joe Gores, when Parker goes to the door of the squad's safe house in order to put off a skip tracer. The scene is repeated in Gores' book from the skip tracer's perspective.
Narrator Joe Barrett does a good 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 Plunder Squad 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 2009-2010 reprints, this audiobook DOES include the Foreword by author Charles Ardai. show less
Another good Parker novel. As usual, a lot happens & Parker is perfectly Parker. The beginning of the book had me wondering as there's quite a glitch in the dates, but otherwise it hung together well. Good reader & the audio volume was a lot better on this one than the last I listened to. i can't wait for the library to get more of the series.
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269+ Works 27,797 Members
Author Donald E. Westlake was born in Brooklyn, New York on July 12, 1933. He attended colleges in New York, but did not graduate. He wrote more than 100 novels and 5 screenplays throughout his lifetime. He also wrote under numerous pseudonyms including Richard Stark, Tucker Coe, and Samuel Holt. Almost 20 of his novels were adapted into films and show more he created the television series, The Father Dowling Mysteries. He is a three-time winner of the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America and was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay for The Grifters. He was also named a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master in 1993. He died of a heart attack on December 31, 2008 at the age of 75. (Bowker Author Biography) Donald E. Westlake has won three Edgar Awards & was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for "The Grifters". He lives in upstate New York. (Publisher Provided) show less
Some Editions
Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Plunder Squad
- Original title
- Plunder Squad
- Original publication date
- 1972
- People/Characters
- Parker; George Uhl
- Dedication
- This is for Justin and Debby, who've been needing a book
- First words
- Hearing the click behind him, Parker threw his glass straight back over his right shoulder, and dove off his chair to the left.
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Statistics
- Members
- 233
- Popularity
- 137,158
- Reviews
- 8
- Rating
- (3.98)
- Languages
- English, French, German, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 11
- ASINs
- 2
