Richard Stark was one of the many pseudonyms of Donald E. Westlake (1933-2008), a prolific author of crime fiction. In 1993, the Mystery Writers of America bestowed the society's highest honor on Westlake, naming him a Grand Master.
"Donald Westlake's Parker novels are among the small number of
books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you've been
telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust--these are the
books you'll want on that desert island."
--Lawrence Block
"Elmore Leonard wouldn't write what he does if Stark hadn't been
there before. And Quentin Tarantino wouldn't write what he does
without Leonard. . . . Old master that he is, Stark does all of
them one better."
-- "Los Angeles Times"
"Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her
into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is
impossible."
-- "Washington Post"
"Whatever Stark writes, I read. He's a stylist, a pro, and I
thoroughly enjoy his attitude."
--Elmore Leonard
"I wouldn't care to speculate about what it is in Westlake's psyche
that makes him so good at writing about Parker, much less what it
is that makes me like the Parker novels so much. Suffice it to say
that Stark/Westlake is the cleanest of all noir novelists, a
styleless stylist who gets to the point with stupendous economy,
hustling you down the path of plot so briskly that you have to read
his books a second time to appreciate the elegance and sober wit
with which they are written."
--Terry Teachout "Commentary"
"If you're a fan of noir novels and haven't yet read Richard Stark,
you may want to give these books a try. Who knows? Parker may just
be the son of a bitch you've been searching for."
--John McNally "Virginia Quarterly Review"
"Parker . . . lumbers through the pages of Richard Stark's noir
novels scattering dead bodies like peanut shells. . . . In a
complex world [he] makes things simple."
--William Grimes "New York Times"
"Parker is a brilliant invention. . . . What chiefly distinguishes
Westlake, under whatever name, is his passion for process and
mechanics. . . . Parker appears to have eliminated everything from
his program but machine logic, but this is merely protective
coloration. He is a romantic vestige, a free-market anarchist whose
independent status is becoming a thing of the past."
--Luc Sante "New York Review of Books"
"Parker is a true treasure. . . . The master thief is back, along
with Richard Stark."
--Marilyn Stasio "New York Times Book Review"
"Richard Stark writes a harsh and frightening story of criminal
warfare and vengeance with economy, understatement and a deadly
amoral objectivity--a remarkable addition to the list of the
shockers that the French call roman noirs."
--Anthony Boucher "New York Times Book Review"
"Richard Stark's Parker novels . . . are among the most poised and
polished fictions of their time and, in fact, of any time."
--John Banville "Bookforum"
"The University of Chicago Press has recently undertaken a campaign
to get Parker back in print in affordable and handsome editions,
and I dove in. And now I get it."
--Josef Braun "Vue Weekly"
"The UC Press mission, to reprint the 1960s Parker novels of
Richard Stark (the late Donald Westlake), is wholly admirable. The
books have been out of print for decades, and the fast-paced,
hard-boiled thrillers featuring the thief Parker are
brilliant."
--H. J. Kirchoff "Globe and Mail"
"Whether early or late, the Parker novels are all superlative
literary entertainments."
--Terry Teachout "Weekly Standard"
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