The Score (1964)

Also published as Killtown.

score1964

When the bellboy left, Parker went over to the house phone and made his call. He gave the operator downstairs the number he wanted, and waited while the phone clicked and ticked and snicked in his ear. He was feeling impatient, and he was about to go downstairs and put in the call from a pay phone when all the clicking finally quit and a ringing sound started instead.

While The Score may start out quietly, with a phone call, it certainly doesn’t stay that way. Parker joins a group of twelve in order to run a heist on an entire town in North Dakota. Needless to say, things go very wrong.

The Score is a break from the “get-the-money, lose-the-money, get-the-money-back” formula of the previous books. It’s an absolutely terrific story and would make a great action movie (Bruce Willis as Parker?). It has been filmed; unfortunately, Mise à Sac is not available in America in any form to my knowledge. If you can help me track it down, please do!

The Score marks the debut of Alan Grofield, who would eventually get his own series.

  • Known printings and cover gallery here.
  • The Score has been filmed as Mise à Sac (“Pillaged”).
  • William L. DeAndrea’s introduction to the Gregg Press edition of The Score.
  • To The Mourner, the previous book in the Parker series.
  • To The Jugger, the next book in the Parker series.