Backflash — Richard Stark

The master criminal gathers a gang to rob a casino boat, but things don't run smoothly in this hard-boiled caper novel.

Foreword by Lawrence Block

Parker's got a couple of rules that have helped keep him alive throughout his long career. One of those is never to work on a boat. But with a gambling boat cruising down the Hudson, stuffed to the gunwales with cash, Parker's got a plan, a team, and a new rule: a shot at a big enough score makes any rule worth breaking.

Parker and his crew hit the boat, hard, but as always, there are a lot of complications -- and a lot of bodies -- before this one's in the bag.

Praise for the Richard Stark and the Parker novels

"Fiercely distracting . . . . Westlake is an expert plotter; and while Parker is a blunt instrument of a human being depicted in rudimentary short grunts of sentences, his take on other characters reveals a writer of great humor and human understanding." ―John Hodgman, Parade

"[Parker] lumbers through the pages of Richard Stark's noir novels scattering dead bodies like peanut shells. . . . In a complex world [he] makes things simple." ―New York Times

"Elmore Leonard wouldn't write what he does if Stark hadn't been there before. And Quentin Tarantino wouldn't write what he does without Leonard. . . . Old master that he is, Stark does all of them one better." ―Los Angeles Times