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    Firebreak: A Parker Novel
    Firebreak: A Parker Novel
    Firebreak: A Parker Novel
    Ebook262 pages3 hours

    Firebreak: A Parker Novel

    By Richard Stark and Terry Teachout

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Between Parker’s 1961 debut and his return in the late 1990s, the whole world of crime changed. Now fake IDs and credit cards had to be purchased from specialists; increasingly sophisticated policing made escape and evasion tougher; and, worst of all, money had gone digital—the days of cash-stuffed payroll trucks were long gone.
     
    But cash isn’t everything: Flashfire and Firebreak find Parker going after, respectively, a fortune in jewels and a collection of priceless paintings. In Flashfire, Parker’s in West Palm Beach, competing with a crew that has an unhealthy love of explosions. When things go sour, Parker finds himself shot and trapped—and forced to rely on a civilian to survive. Firebreak takes Parker to a palatial Montana "hunting lodge" where a dot-com millionaire hides a gallery of stolen old masters—which will fetch Parker a pretty penny if his team can just get it past the mansion’s tight security. The forests of Montana are an inhospitable place for a heister when well-laid plans fall apart, but no matter how untamed the wilderness, Parker’s guaranteed to be the most dangerous predator around.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press
    Release dateJul 15, 2011
    ISBN9780226770666
    Firebreak: A Parker Novel

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    Reviews for Firebreak

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    • 5/5
      I only wanted to read the first couple of pages to get the feel of "Firebreak" before putting it on the shelf to wait it's turn with the others .. .. .. .. I couldn't put it down. Brilliant stuff from Parker and the crew.
    • 4/5
      Another excellent neo-noir Parker story, this one has the additional complication of two competing plot threads.Parker has been approached to help rip off a dotcom billionaire with some Dutch masters stashed in the basement. But before he can get to that, he needs to do something about the hit that's just been taken out on him. Old friends and new pop up in Firebreak, and Parker's brutal efficiency will be called upon more than once.I liked this Parker novel a lot - like all of them. Written after Stark's decades-long break from Parker, it's refreshing to see some characters from early book re-surface. It's easy to think of Parker as a Fugitive-like figure, every day a new chapter, and I enjoyed seeing his past catch up with him in positive and negative senses. The heist, as usual, is meticulously paced and plotted and - to this non-criminal - utterly plausible. Stark's age and relative ignorance regarding computers and the internet does show here - as is often the case, the "hackers" in the story may as well put on wizard caps for all the magic they're capable of. But that is a churlish, niggling criticism. The brevity of the Parker novels make reading them a breeze, and they also give the books a heady, irresistible propulsion. Something happens on every page of a Parker book, and that something is usually rough, well-written, and sometimes even funny. Great stuff.
    • 5/5
      Parker continues his brutal low-key approach to the commission of crime. This picks up strands from several previous novels as Parker and Lloyd seek to rob the secret art gallery of a dot-com magnate. It is a highly satisfying addition to the series but no place to start reading Parker stories.
    • 4/5
      With the very first line of Firebreak I had to laugh, though there is nothing funny about Richard Stark’s Parker books. If you want that, read the misadventures of John Dortmunder written under the author’s real name of Donald E. Westlake. But that opening sentence: “When the phone rang, Parker was in the garage, killing a man.” It tells you everything you need to know about Parker. The rest are details. Like that he’s a professional thief; professional meaning that it is how he makes his living and the attitude with which he goes about his work. An attitude that carries with it some hard and near-unbreakable rules. A major one is, because it brings more heat from the police, you avoid killing whenever possible. That Parker usually leaves a long line of bodies in his wake, it tells you everything you need to know about the series.It’s about the complications. It may be possible to write a story where the planning and execution of a robbery plays out perfectly--it probably has been done--but that does not a series make. When the setup and/or completion of a job encounters what seems to be unending interference and obstacles, that’s when Parker is at his most ruthlessly efficient. Everything that does not pertain to success is expendable. And everyone. And that’s what we paid to see.The man being killed in the garage was a hit man sent to kill Parker. The phone call concerns liberating some priceless but illegal paintings from their current owner. Initially Parker has to trace and eliminate the source of the first so he is free to concentrate on the second. More complications ensue.As they had to.As Parker backtracks the trail of the assassin; as we meet and learn the lives of his current colleagues and what complications their personal situations bring to the equation; and, of course, how far Parker will have to go to clear each obstruction. Otherwise what’s the point? Westlake had always meant these books to be quick, clean reads and, despite all the bodies, light entertainment. Since there are no deeper meanings or serious introspection to be found, individual success depends on each set of complications. Are they interesting? And is Parker’s response as they begin to pile up equally engaging? It’s not always the case. Firebreak is an example of when it is. Quick, clean entertainment.

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