You probably haven�t ever noticed them. But they�ve noticed you. They notice everything. That�s their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers� work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack. They�re thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They�re pros, and Parker is far and away the best of them. If you�re planning a job, you want him in. Tough, smart, hardworking, and relentlessly focused on his trade, he is the heister�s heister, the robber�s robber, the heavy�s heavy. You don�t want to cross him, and you don�t want to get in his way, because he�ll stop at nothing to get what he�s after. Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark�s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor-sharp prose-style�and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency�Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover�and become addicted to. Parker goes under the knife in The Man with the Getaway Face, changing his face to escape the mob and a contract on his life. Along the way he scores his biggest heist yet: an armored car in New Jersey, stuffed with cash. �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 Book World �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 �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
(less)You probably haven�t ever noticed them. But they�ve noticed you. They notice everything. That�s their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers� work habits, the positions of the security guards.
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