Between Parker's 1961 debut and his return in the late 1990s, the world of crime changed considerably. 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, and now Parker's after a fortune in jewels. 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.
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“All of his admirers, and all aficionados of the hard-boiled tradition, will need this book, which reaffirms its author’s position as one of the most versatile, consistently reliable figures in the recent history of American popular fiction.”
— Barnes & Noble, editorial review
“Parker is in fine form: steely, sardonic, detached. Stark’s acidly funny depictions of Palm Beach and its native fauna are a bonus.”
— Amazon.com, editorial review“This is great, dirty fun…In the twenty-three-year gap between the twentieth and twenty-first Parker episodes, Westlake has recharged his batteries with a formula he should market to other writers.”
— Publishers Weekly, starred review“If there was a Mohs’ scale for the hardness of hard-boiled crime novels, it might be aptly named for Richard Stark…Diamond-hard crime fiction.”
— BooklistBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Donald E. Westlake (1933–2008) wrote dozens of novels under his own name and numerous pseudonyms, including Richard Stark and Alan Marshall. Many of his books have been adapted for film, most notably The Hunter, which became the 1967 noir Point Blank and the 1999 smash hit Payback.
Mark Peckham is an actor and director based in Rhode Island. In addition to working with Trinity Rep, Virginia Stage Co., and many Boston-area theaters, he was the voice of Joseph Smith in the award-winning PBS documentary American Prophet with Gregory Peck.