The Grofield Files: The Damsel (1967) by Richard Stark; a review

Over on Existential Ennui I’ve been making my way through Donald “Richard Stark” Westlake’s Parker novels for close to two years now, intermittently reviewing each one in turn. I followed my last review, of 1972’s Plunder Squad (Parker #15), with a review Joe Gores’s Parker-related 1972 crime novel Dead Skip, which I […]

Grofield reprint covers revealed

Sort of fooled ya there. The above image is not one of the covers. It was rejected, and I can see why. I really like it, but it doesn’t fit the book at all.

You can see the actual covers for the upcoming University of Chicago Press reprints, as well as some other rejected alternates, […]

The return of Alan Grofield

Ever since I started this site back in the olden days, I’ve gotten one question over and over again: Is anyone going to reprint the Grofield books? (If you’re not familiar with Parker’s occasional partner Alan Grofield, you can find out more by going here and clicking the links.)

And the answer was […]

Chronology blues and a note on tables

I found an error (thanks to Charles Ardai’s excellent introduction to Deadly Edge, Slayground, and Plunder Squad), that’s likely been here since this site went up in rudimentary form eleven years ago.

The Blackbird was not published in 1971. It was published in 1969. It predates Deadly Edge and Slayground.

This will […]

What do you think of audio books?

As I hope you’ve noticed, I haven’t been doing a lot at the site lately. I haven’t read any books recently so I have none to tell you about, and I’m behind on checking the latest Stark/Westlake/crime-fiction news which means I have no updates on that stuff at the moment either.

I have a […]

Hard Case Crime 7/06: Lemons Never Lie by Richard Stark (#22)

“The best Richard Stark ever.”

–PAUL KAVANAUGH, author of SUCH MEN ARE DANGEROUS

When he’s not pulling heists with his friend Parker, Alan Grofield runs a small theater in Indiana. But putting on shows costs money and jobs have been thin, which is why Grofield agrees […]

Thoughts on Slayground

There are no chicks in Slayground

I have finally written up my thoughts on Slayground over on the Slayground page (natch).

Here’s what I wrote:

Parker jumped out of the Ford with a gun in one hand and the packet of explosives in the […]

Thoughts on The Blackbird

Right after I tell you all that posting will be light for awhile, I rack up several posts in short succession. Let me modify that to say that posting may be light for awhile.

I have finally fleshed out the page on the Alan Grofield adventure, The Blackbird. […]