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"When the phone rang, Parker was in the garage, killing a man."
How's that for an opening? What I have just given you, my friends, is the opening sentence of FIREBREAK, this year's Parker offering from Richard Stark. Stark is the darker, grimmer half, if you will, of mystery Grandmaster Donald Westlake. Where Westlake's touch is humorous, Stark's is...well, stark. There is no laughter, no joking. Parker lives in a world where a mistake can mean death.
Parker may well be the most amoral character in modern fiction. His rough code is based entirely on his situation. He does nothing that will not move or advance him forward. He will, on the other hand, do anything to succeed. The reason that he is killing a man in his garage is that the man had come to kill him. Parker spends a good deal of FIREBREAK finding out why, and finding out who sent the man. There are two reasons for this. The obvious one is that whoever sent him will continue to send people to murder Parker until one succeeds. Therefore, the reality of the situation dictates that Parker find out who it is and kill them, in order to stop the parade of would-be assassins.
The other reason is that Parker has been offered a part in a complex caper, which requires his utmost focus. A dot-com millionaire has a fortune in stolen art treasures stashed in a mansion-like lodge he owns in remote Montana. The artwork is stored in a hidden room, and the lodge is surrounded by state of the art security. It will require a team to bring it out, and Parker is to lead the team. He cannot do this, however, with the distraction of being hunted. So he takes steps to take his pursuer out. In the meantime, Larry Lloyd, a computer systems expert who is part of the team, has an agenda of his own. Recently released from prison, Lloyd is obsessed with taking revenge on a former business partner, and his obsession may ruin the intricate plan that he is an integral part of. Parker, busy with his own situation, soon finds himself dangerously drawn into Lloyd's problems as well as his own.
Stark continues his ongoing development of Parker, refusing to be drawn into formulaic plot development and keeping the reader constantly guessing as to what will happen next and whether the latest Parker book will also become the last. It's my gut feeling that such a novel has already been written, waiting for the demise of Westlake/Stark; in the meantime, however, Stark continues to hone his tales with a sharp poetic knife, keeping that which is aging new, fresh, and interesting.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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