The Hunter: A Parker Novel

Richard Stark

Sep 2009 · University of Chicago Press

About this ebook

She shot him just above the belt and left him for dead. Then they torched the house, with Parker in it, and took the money he had helped them steal. It all went down just the way they'd planned, except for one thing: Parker didn't die.

In The Hunter, the first volume in the Parker series, our ruthless antihero roars into New York City, seeking revenge on the woman who betrayed him and on the man who took his money, stealing and scamming his way to redemption. The volume that kickstarted Parker's forty-plus-year career of larceny—and inspired the 1967 motion picture Point Blank, starring Lee Marvin—The Hunter is back, ready to thrill a new generation of noir fans.

Ratings and reviews

Very tight writing with good time changes.nasty amoral but like tarrantino you pick the least worst character and at the end you're glad he/she survived and won. What does that say about oneself

It's easy to see how the film got such flare and panache from but this book is, amazingly, cooler, tougher, smoother and far, far darker all at once whilst still remaining almost dangerously stylish... A fantastic and thrilling read, I read this one faster than any book I've read in years.

Nothing about this book was gripping. The main character doesn't give any reason to root for him.

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.