Ask the Parrot is a masterpiece of lean writing and tight plotting, rough humour and deft characterization, the latest in Richard Stark’s Parker series which has won him a wide following across the world of crime fiction addicts.
Parker is on the run after a country town bank robbery goes wrong. There are road blocks in the lanes, and search parties with sniffer dogs are out in the woods. Separated from his associates, Parker is confronted by a local citizen with a shotgun. But this citizen is not out to arrest him: he wants Parker to help him carry out a robbery of his own.
So Parker joins the posse looking for himself and enters into a queasy partnership with an embittered recluse intent on robbing the racetrack where he was once employed.
Parker is on the run after a country town bank robbery goes wrong. There are road blocks in the lanes, and search parties with sniffer dogs are out in the woods. Separated from his associates, Parker is confronted by a local citizen with a shotgun. But this citizen is not out to arrest him: he wants Parker to help him carry out a robbery of his own.
So Parker joins the posse looking for himself and enters into a queasy partnership with an embittered recluse intent on robbing the racetrack where he was once employed.
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Reviews
'This is classic Richard Stark, the grandmaster of American crime fiction, who brought Parker back to life by popular demand after a 20-year break. Parker, of course, is probably the genre's most captivating anti-hero ... he's showing little signs of ageing and neither is Stark's prose - it's as lean, hungry and tightly plotted as ever ... superior entertainment' Daily Mirror.
'Stark is one of the great exponents of American noir crime fiction and Parker is one of his most enduring creations' Daily Mail.
'The writing is as stripped down as a drag racer and the action is brutal and powerful' The Scotsman.
'Well-written, exciting and hugely entertaining ... Stark's crisp, convincing dialogue is as good as Elmore Leonard' The Times.