Reviewed by TONY BAER:

   

RICHARD STARK – Plunder Squad. Random House, hardcover, 1972. Avon, paperback, 1985. University of Chicago Press, trade paperback, 2010.

   So I’d already read nearly all of ’em, the Parkers. The Hunter thru Butcher’s Moon. (I ain’t interested in Comeback, etc.) But this one had passed me by. For no reason. And this one resolves the George Uhl problem left off in Sour Lemon Score. So I wanted to read it for that closure.

   Anywho, Parker’s in a rut. Things ain’t working out. And he needs money. Badly.

   But still not badly enough to take the first couple jobs lined up for him. And the one he finally takes. That one’s completely fucked up too.

   So basically this one lines up three jobs. He declines two, and the third one goes to shit.

   Meantime, two interesting things happen in this one.

   First is that George Uhl, asshole I mentioned earlier, decides it’s time to kill Parker. You can guess how that ends.

   Second is a kind of cool scene where Parker opens the door to find Dan Kearney standing there. Yeah that Dan Kearney. It’s a reverse image of a scene from Joe Gores’ Dead Skip.

   Anyway. Aside from those two things, nothing really happens in this one. And you can skip it, from a narrative stand point.

   On the other hand, why would you want to? Parker’s in good form, as is Westlake. And there’s a paucity of great hardboiled lit. So hey, why not? You owe it to yourself and I owe it to me, to read all the Parkers, Hunter thru Butcher’s Moon.

   And like it, you will, says Yoda. Like it, you will.