Plunder Squad: A Parker Novel

Richard Stark

Sep 2010 · University of Chicago Press

About this ebook

“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?

Ratings and reviews

Parker and his "team" go to steal some valuable paintings, and get away with the first step, actually completing the robbery. But the problem then is how to sell the paintings. Each of the 5 team members wants cash, not art work. Meanwhile, a subplot goes on in which Parker is first called to the Bay Area (California) to rob a museum transport truck while it ambles along Highway 1 around Big Sur, carrying several valuable statues. That one falls through when one of the prospective team members' wife gets into the mix and Parker gets out. But he returns later when Bob Beaghler, the married guy, tells him about an old nemesis Parker has been looking for, a guy named George Uhl. Uhl is holed up in the mountains but when Beaghler takes Parker up there, in his ATV, and they approach the domicile from the back, Parker figures out that it's a trap, not for Uhl, but for himself. He takes care of that in a hurry, and also takes care of Uhl and Beaghler. But he gets no money out of this so basically he's just killing out of revenge, and to cover his back in the future. As usual, the story reads fast and is always interesting. Published first in 1972, some of the environment, like hippies, phone calls from booths on the street, and no Internet, seem a little unusual today, but that adds to the "mystique" of the book, and many of the other Parker books as well, as they were published 20 to 30 to even 40 years ago, as this one was.

About the author

Richard Stark was one of the many pseudonyms of Donald E. Westlake (1933–2008), a prolific author of noir crime fiction. In 1993, the Mystery Writers of America bestowed the society’s highest honor on Westlake, naming him a Grand Master.