Review: The Hot Rock by Donald Westlake

The Hot Rock began life as an attempt at a Parker novel:

One day in 1967 I was wearing my Richard Stark hat, looking for a story to tell about my man Parker, and I thought, he reacts badly to frustration, what if he had to steal the same thing four or […]

News for week ending 2010-09-25

"Devotees of noir are a nasty bunch." http://richardswheeler.blogspot.com/2010/08/who-reads-what.html # Bare Bones–Crime paperbacks you might have missed: http://barebonesez.blogspot.com/2010/09/you-gotta-read-these-fifteen-paperbacks.html # Win a signed French edition (with a different, very cool cover) of Darwyn Cooke's The Hunter! (But you better hurry!) http://bit.ly/9tkpGK # […]

Review: Richard Stark’s Parker: Book Two–The Outfit by Darwyn Cooke

Update: This review is a first draft. The current version is here.

The sheer brutality of The Hunter was unsustainable for a series, and Richard Stark didn’t attempt it. Rather, he took the character and universe of The Hunter and used them for more complex tales of amorality. This isn’t to say that there […]

Hard Case Crime 10/06: The Last Match by David Dodge (#25)

In Print for the First Time Anywhere — A NEW INTERNATIONAL THRILLER BY THE AUTHOR OF ‘TO CATCH A THIEF’

When a handsome swindler working the French Riviera meets a beautiful heiress on the beach at Cannes, sparks fly. But so do bullets – and soon he’s forced to flee […]

Announcing the winners of The Hunter giveaway!

The lucky winners of our drawing for brand-new copies of the University of Chicago Press reprint of The Hunter are:

Luke S. Craig C. David M. Stephen R.

Congratulations! I have e-mailed all of you. Get back to me with your mailing address and I’ll try to get them out this week.

Thank you […]

News for week ending 2010-09-18

Comics Alliance–First images of Darwyn Cooke's The Outfit: http://bit.ly/cmV00D # I haven't swiped all of these images yet, but I will eventually. Bear Alley–A Richard Stark cover gallery: http://bit.ly/aRZ4bh # Deadly Edge is reviewed at Existential Ennui: http://existentialennui.blogspot.com/2010/09/parker-progress-report-deadly-edge-by.html # Andrew Klavan in WSJ on James Ellroy's latest memoir. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704644404575482002195060036.html # James R. at The […]

The Hunter giveaway!

Thanks to the generosity of Parker flash fiction contest winner Matt Racicot, I have four, count ’em, four brand-spanking-new copies of the University of Chicago edition of The Hunter to give away.

Here’s the catch, and it’s based on the honor system–you must not already have a copy of The Hunter. You […]

Are you ready for some football?

I’m far too backlogged on cover scans to post them all at once, so I dribble them out when I have an excuse.

Tonight’s excuse is Monday Night Football. I had a wonderful extended football weekend with both of my alma maters (Michigan, Texas) winning, and my three pro teams winning as well (Packers, […]

Review: Impossibly Funky: A Cashiers du Cinemart Collection, edited by Mike White

Cashiers du Cinemart was my favorite magazine during its existence, and I devoured every issue I could get my hands on. Its pretension-bursting title was clever enough, but its contents were the real reward–each issue was packed cover-to-cover with a wild array of film-geek topics that for the most part lined up quite nicely […]

News for week ending 2010-09-11

Added: iPod compatible (M4B) audio book of Westlake short story "The Risk Profession" https://violentworldofparker.com/?p=2809 # Badasses: http://www.nerdist.com/2010/09/top-6-cinematic-badasses/ #