Richard Stark's Parker - Vol 4: Slayground

I have to say that this is two in a row in terms of Cooke's adaptations of Parker that failed to impress me.  It's a bit saddening given that it was because of Cooke that I really took notice of the character and world.  In this edition especially the book is far superior to the graphic novel.  The novel was taught with fantastic suspense, where this one just feels like we're waiting around to see how well he get out of this scrape.  It's underwhelming, sadly.  If anyone out there reads this and loves it - please do me a favor and suss out the source material - likely available at a public library near you!

Richard Stark's Parker: Vol 3 - The Score

This might be the first time where I found the graphic novel version didn’t quite live up to my memory of the original novel - though it’s been awhile since I read it.  That said, it’s still a ton of fun.  This just felt like more of a coles note of a larger story.  It could be that I knew what was going to happen, but I found this lacked any real tension.  As always the artwork is goddamn beautiful and the writing is on par with the source material, but if you want the full breadth of this really fun story then you’re going to have to go back to the source.  I also just picked up the next graphic novel Slayground, and it’s…. thin… which worries me a bit since that’s such a great story.

I don’t meant to slag this book, I think if you’re just reading Parker in this medium then it’s just fine - but I’m a bit of a Parker nerd, so I found it just mildly disappointing.

Butcher's Moon: a Parker novel

So this wins the award for the best Parker novel with the absolute worst title.  Having finished the book I still don't know what the title is referring to.  The title, thankfully, is the only bad thing about this book.  Even though this is the 16th book in the series this is more of a follow-up to Slayground, although one could argue it's a pretty faithful follow-up to all the books that have come before it, and by it's end it's quite the reunion tour for Parker and his band of merry men.
Parker has had a string of bad luck and needs cash, so he decides to head back to the town where he left a fortune behind so that he could escape with his life.  And so begins an epic story for Parker, one with a delicious amount of twists and turns that ends up with him, once again, taking on a large section of the mob.
This is easily the longest of the Parker books I've read, clocking in at 300+ pages, it's almost double some of the books - and has enough story to fill two or three.  One of Stark's signature styles is to tell the story from multiple points of view, and sometimes re-tell certain moments that way as well.  Most of the time I love that aspect of this - he really gets into the persons head and lets you know how they tick.  The only problem in a book like this, which has such a driving-force-narrative, it feels like we're constantly putting on the brakes when I just want to keep moving.  And given how many characters and story there is, the brakes come out just a little too often for my liking - but that critique is only because the story was so damn good that I didn't want it to stop.
I really need to look into see who has the rights to these books.  I know that they are currently remaking The Hunter (I assume it's that one) with Jason Stathom, but I don't know if they've locked down the rights to the entire series, or just that book.  A Parker television series would be even better...
So yeah, pick this book up.  I'm lucky that I've gotten onto Parker when I did because it appears as though the reprints of these books have just started coming out recently - this one in particular was just released in April of this year, before that it was apparently impossible to get a copy of without paying an arm and a leg.  So take advantage of the re-printing and get yourself one of the absolute best crime fiction stories ever... although it might be more rewarding to pick up a few other Parker books before getting to this one.  At the very least read Slayground first.
Butcher's Moon: A Parker Novel

Slayground: a Parker novel

So this was easily my favorite of the Parker novels I've read so far.  Now it may not be my favorite story - it's hard to say since I'd read the graphic novels for The Hunter and The Outfit first.  Needless to say I haven't read a bad Parker novel yet.  But this one starts with a bang and just keeps on going.  It's probably the most limited time frame of all the books I've read.  Parker is part of a heist gone wrong and he gets trapped inside an amusement park closed for winter.  The only way out is guarded by mobsters.  He's outnumbered and outgunned.  It's a hell of a ride and it's a great read.  Things just keep getting worse and worse to the point where you really have absolutely no idea how the hell he's going to get out of the pickle he's in.  I believe that this is the 14th book in the series, which is the point at which you'd think the character and world would start to get stale, instead Stark throws all he's got at the character and story.
He wrote a sort of sequel to this story - Butcher's Moon - and that's my next on the Parker pile to read.  At one point Stark took a break (twenty plus years) between Parker books, so I'm going to try and read all the pre-break books first.  Really solid stuff.  And there is apparently a film version of this one that I'd love to see at some point.  If you're interested in reading the series I probably wouldn't start with this one, but on the other hand if you really just want one hell of an exciting crime-thriller, this one reads as a great one-off.
Slayground: A Parker Novel (Parker Novels)

The Score: a Parker novel

I have to admit that this installment of the Parker franchise was a bit of a breath of fresh air.  The usual Parker novels have a pretty by-the-numbers format, shifting in different points of the narrative, so it was nice to see a story for Parker play out, more or less, from beginning to end.  Stark has never followed Parker's point of view for an entire book, and he still doesn't here.  Given that there are a good chunk of characters what he does is tell the story from different points of view at different junctures and it works well, I find. 
In this book we have Parker and a gang of men deciding to rob an entire town.  It's a job that seems insane, but becomes really plausible... or is it?  Knowing that this particular book didn't feel the need to keep with the old format I'm exciting to keep reading the series to see how it's kept fresh.  The next two books I have jump ahead nearly half a dozen stories, which should be fine I think.  Excited to see where they'll take the character next.
The Score: A Parker Novel (Parker Novels)

The Outfit - a Parker novel

Having read the comic adaptation of this already all of the twists and turns had been known to me, so it wasn't quite the enjoyable read as it should have been.  Stark continues to dazzle with detail though, and so that was nice, and for someone who is using these books as crime story research, that sort of stuff is extremely helpful. 
This iteration of the Parker novel has him taking on the entire outfit of organized crime - it's about as big as it can get for our main man.  I think that after I get through the stack I have (three more) I'm going to take a little break from this series, just so they don't all blend together.  It would have been nice to have read this series in order, but it's also fun seeing how people that are in the later books fit in here and so forth.  Nice little treat that is. 
The Outfit: A Parker Novel (Parker Novels)

The Mourner: a Parker novel

I've reading these books out of order, mostly because I don't want to wait for them to show up in the proper order from the library.  They aren't really the kind of book that you need to read in order anyway, so that's just fine and dandy.  I'm bound and determined to read all of the Parker novels.  There are, from what I recall, two dozen of them and this was my third, and I've got four more in a stack on my desk.  Park is almost like an anti-James Bond and I think you could make an awesome film, or even television, series out of him. 
Like all of the Parker books I've read so far he really likes to play with the order of the story, and has no qualms with walking away from one character to follow another.  It's almost as if Parker isn't the main characters in the story so much as 'the job' is, and so that's what we follow.  Which is fine by me - Stark (Donald Westlake) is a master and knows exactly what he's doing.
What I thought was interesting about this one was how we got to see more of 'the job' than we normally do, in the other books those sections are often breezed over and it's more about the set-up and the aftermath. 
There's twists and turns, dames and danger, these isn't a whole lot not to like in this one.  Highly recommend checking out this series if you're into crime fiction at all.  Pretty easy to get through the Toronto Public Library as well if you happen to live in the GTA.
The Mourner: A Parker Novel (Parker Novels)

The Seventh: a Parker novel

It will please some of you to know that I finally got off my butt and got a library card.  There is a great library down the street from our place, and my son loves going there (plus I realized that they more or less have everything I want to read and so therefore, why spend the money on buying the book?)  They've also got a large graphic novel selection.  Huzzah! 
So I'm just steeped into these Parker books, they're all pretty tight as well and could probably be read in a single sitting if you've got a few hours on your hands.
This one brings Parker into a heist at a football stadium with six other guys, but after the heist goes smooth as silk the money is stolen.  Is it an inside job from one of the seven guys, or someone else entirely?  With Parker at the helm the criminals are forced to play detectives in an effort to get their seventh of the score back, all the while avoiding the cops for the robbery they committed.
Stark uses a consistent structure in his books that's a lot of fun.  He shifts the point of view of the narrative and it works well here.  I highly recommend this to anyone who digs some solid crime fiction.  Can't wait till the next is available at the library :)
The Seventh: A Parker Novel  The Seventh: A Parker Novel

The Hunter: a Parker novel

As I mentioned I'm on a big Richard Stark kick - partially for research and partially for guilty pleasure.  Parker has to be one of the most hard-ass characters ever written.  He's not a nice person, but I'll be damned if you don't want to stick around to see what he'll do next.
In this, his debut novel, Parker has been shot and left for dead... but the problem is that he didn't die.  And he wants what was stolen from him, back.  With nerves of steel Parker goes after the most powerful crime organization in the country - it's hard to mess with a guy with nothing to lose.
For those who love a good crime novel, this one is right up there.  I look forward to the rest of the series.  The writing is just a lot of fun, and clever with playful lines like:

"You want an Outfit man named Resnick," she said.  "If I know you, you want him for something he won't like."

"I'm going to kill him," Parker said.

She smiled, nodding.  "There," she said.  "That's something he won't like."

This book has been adapted into several different mediums and projects by several different people and that's just a testiment to what a great story it is, how rich in character, dialogue, and technique.  If you like crime fiction at all, I can't imagine you wouldn't like this.
The Hunter: A Parker Novel (Parker Novels)

1575 - Payback

To me Mel Gibson will always be at his best when he's showing off his wonderfully dry sense of humor, and it's in spades here.  I've been reading and researching a lot of Richard Stark lately, mostly the work containing his character Parker (you'll be seeing a review of his first book The Hunter soon).  Here the adaptation is pretty close (or so far as I've gotten anyway) and it's for the better - that book is a force of nature.  There is a scene early on involving a double-cross that plays extremely false to me.  It's actually an invention of the film, not the book, and it just doesn't make a lick of sense why it plays out as it does - that aside this is a great ride of a film.  It's fun, and it puts it's main character through a lot of hell, in a really great way.  Any budding writers would do well to check this film out for how it punishes it's main character and makes you root for them all the more. 
If you've never seen this film and you dig crime flicks and don't have a hate on for Mr. Mel then absolutely give it a shot.  Highly recommended!
Payback  Payback - The Director's Cut (Special Collector's Edition)

Richard Stark's Parker, Vol. 2: The Outfit

The previous installment The Hunter was one of those books that I just couldn't read fast enough, and this was no different.  Darwyn Cooke's artwork is stylish and distinct.  Fits with the story so well and is playful at the same time.  These graphic novels are based on the Parker books by Richard Stark - essentially about a hard-ass criminal.  To quote the slug-line, "If you're going to push Parker around, make sure it's into a grave."  That's just the kind of guy he is.  In the last installment he went after 'The Syndicate' for ripping him off and wanted what he was owed - not a penny more.  Of course he dropped a few bodies getting his money back, and now they've decided to come back at him and that doesn't make Parker very happy.
Reading these makes me want to pick up the novels that they're based on.  The nerd in me loves these old noir stories and I'm sure I'll get around to writing my own one of these days.  Given that there are twenty-four (I think) Parker novels who knows how many Cooke is planning to do of this series, but I'll keep reading them as long as he keeps writing them - and you should to!
Richard Stark's Parker, Vol. 2: The Outfit

Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter

I've never read the Stark books, but this makes me want to. Not knowing the source material, this adaptation is fucking exhilarating. You start off not sure about the character but by the end you're rooting him on as he kicks ass and takes names. I've been on a noir kick ever since the adrenaline rush that is Brubaker got me back into it. It could be my own affection for the genre, but I just can't imagine anyone who doesn't like noir a little bit, the stylized dialogue, the strong characters. Men being men, and broads being broads. I'd be very surprised if I didn't try and tackle the genre myself one day. I read somewhere that Darwyn Cooke intends to produce four of these in total - so I look forward to the second 'The Outfit' which is scheduled to come out in October. Can't wait.