’17 Comeback Special – The Violent World of Parker returns

We are back!

As longtime readers know, the site has been neglected many times in the nearly two decades it has existed in some form or other. This past year-and-change is the first time it has vanished entirely.

For you old schoolers who were wondering, here is what happened. I was in one of […]

The Violent World of Mack Bolan

Reader Matt points out that the Executioner has been plundering Parker-related book titles recently…

I have plundered these images from MackBolan.com.

Gold Eagle, the division of Harlequin that published men’s adventure books including The Executioner/Mack Bolan, is being closed down after Harlequin’s acquisition by HarperCollins. I expect Mack will land on his […]

Inside the new hardcover edition of The Hunter

 

As you may not be aware because I did not give it nearly the coverage I should have, Darwyn Cooke and IDW Publishing have launched a companion line to their highly successful line of comic book adaptations of the Parker novels. They will be reprinting the original Richard Stark novels, each with ten […]

New York Crimes

I look rather the dork in this photo–we don’t have the professional pictures back yet, so we are having to suffice with whatever guests took on their camera phones–but no matter how well I photographed, I was never going to shine in comparison, was I?

After the craziest year and half of my life, […]

Darwyn Cooke to illustrate Parker prose novels

I don’t have much to add to this press release by IDW Publishing, except for awesome!

Darwyn Cooke To Illustrate Parker Prose Novels At IDW Sunday, Oct 13th, 2013 Donald E. Westlake’s Classic Stories Accompanied By Gorgeous Paintings By Cooke

San Diego, CA (October 13, 2013) – IDW Publishing announced this morning its plan […]

Trying-to-get-my-act-together filler post

As I try to get back into the groove of regular reading, writing, and posting following one of the most eventful six months or so of my life, I’m grateful for diversions like this, from reader Michael C, that give me both a chuckle and an easy post:

I thought that you […]

Fantastic article at Grantland: The Many Lives of Donald Westlake

Bookmark this one: “The Many Lives of Donald Westlake: On the man who created Parker and the quest for the perfect character,” by Michael Weinreb.

I was interviewed for the piece, but that’s not why I’m giving it its own post. (I’m barely quoted, which is fine by me as I’m not a big […]

Parker Progress Report: Flashfire (2000)

NB: A version of this post also appears on Existential Ennui.

With Backflash (1998), the second entry in the second run of Donald E. “Richard Stark” Westlake’s Parker novels, Westlake was firmly back in the Parker groove. It was a classic Parker heist tale: an intriguing target (a casino riverboat); a familiar […]

Parker Progress Report: Backflash (1998)

NB: A version of this post also appears on Existential Ennui.

In the previous Parker Progress Report, I took a look at the seventeenth Parker, Comeback (1997), originally published twenty-three years after the sixteenth Parker, Butcher’s Moon (1974). Luckily, Parker fans didn’t have quite so long to wait for the next book […]

Parker Progress Report: Comeback (1997)

NB: A version of this post also appears on Existential Ennui.

Crikey: would you believe it’s been over a year since I last posted a Parker Progress Report? Long enough that I expect most of you have probably forgotten what they are. To recap then: since 2010 I’ve been blogging my way […]