Books: The Rare Coin Score by Richard Stark (1967)

 

"When it comes to heists, Parker believes in some cardinal rules. On this job, he breaks two of them: never bring a dame along—especially not one you like—and never, ever, work with amateurs. Nevertheless, with the help of a creep named Billy, and the lure of a classy widow, he agrees to set up a heist of a coin convention. But Billy’s a rookie with no idea how to pull off a score, and the lady soon becomes a major distraction."

Much like The Handle, Donald E. Westlake writing as Richard Stark sees his amoral and sociopathic thief Parker making mistakes. It’s been pointed out, Parker operates on a very strict system for each heist, but by The Rare Coin Score, the ninth volume in this series, the system is still seeming pretty strict, but cracks are appearing (I was also reminded that much later, Westlake would have his John Dortmunder character avoid stealing coins, as they’re heavy and not easily gotten rid of). So, in the last book, we learn the boatman they recruited to help with the casino rip-off is not the right person (no one likes a sexual predator), and they send him on his way. While the character did not know enough of the plan, he knew some of it, including who was going to do it. I thought at the time that the character was going to get killed; after all there is no honor among thieves. But when this does not happen, I realized Parker was making a huge mistake and sure enough the reason things go sideways in that story is because Parker forgot there is no honor among thieves and information is king, and things can and will come back to bite you on the ass.

While the unraveling here is not so much Parker’s fault, it still seems odd that the man who would rather think about a heist than have sex (though this changes here as well), Parker would’ve seen this eventuality. Yeah, I mean, it’s not like Westlake/Stark can’t change Parker’s motives as the series ages, after all, I’m only on book nine of twenty-four and as formulaic as these books are, characters still need to grow, and things change (except for Parker’s age, which is 38 here). But after telling the readers that Parker is this detail orientated man, who hates waste, who avoids endangerment, who is very studious about emotional involvement on any job and to then see him make some mistakes like he’s done in the last three or four books is weird. I can see now that he was slowly (and unintentionally) laying the groundwork for his Dortmunder character, the mirror opposite of Parker.

But in The Seventh, The Handle, and now The Rare Coin Score, Parker is making crucial mistakes (I would include The Juggler here as well), even if he ends up coming out ahead. This changes the character fundamentally, from someone who works once or twice a year to someone who needs to this continuously –with little or no explanation why these dynamics have changed. Also, The Rare Coin Score marks the first appearance of Claire, who will steal Parker’s thieving heart—while together they steal two million dollars’ worth of coins.

Publishing note:

While Westlake's titles were released through various Publishers, the Richard Stark books were first released by Pocket Books. Starting with book nine, ten, eleven and twelve, Gold Medal Books published the Parker tales. Random House would take over for thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen. Mysterious Press took over for the next seven books, along with reprinting a few Westlake titles and some John Dortmunder tales. Grand Central, a division of Hachette Book Group (and formerly Warner Books) would release the final Parker novel in 2008. 

Also beginning that year, the University of Chicago Press, one of the largest and oldest university presses in the United States, began reprinting the early Parker books that had long gone out of print. They would eventually acquire all the rights to all 24 Parker books.

Books: Fletch's Fortune by Gregory McDonald (1978)

 

"He hadn’t been a practicing journalist for years, although people remembered him and he still has a few contacts. And he’s pretty sure he hasn’t paid his dues to the American Journalism Alliance anytime recently. But somebody has. Enjoying himself on the French Riviera, developing a killer tan, and sleeping with the neighbor’s wife, Fletch is feeling pretty flush. But when agents Eggers and Fabens show up with a little more information about Fletch than is comfortable and an invitation to the A.J.A. convention, how could he refuse? So he finds himself enlisted as a spy among his peers. But before he can even set up his surveillance, there’s a murder. And almost everybody’s a suspect. Because a lot of people were employed by Walter March, and most of them had a reason to hate him."

 

Fletch’s Fortune, the third, but chronologically the seventh, volume of Gregory McDonald’s mystery series plays out like an old Agatha Christie whodunit, where a bunch of people come together at a hotel where someone is murdered and everyone has a motive, has he means, and as it turns out, can all be suspects. The problem here is that the book is somewhat dull, despite fun dialogue and farcical setting. As I’ve noted before, McDonald’s portrayal of Fletch changes from book to book, and here he’s still the playboy with ill-gotten money (Fletch), but he’s also somewhat of a ridiculous peacock, walking around shirtless, and is being clearly written as the smartest man in any room. Also, I’m not sure I agree with the way McDonald framed the story –the bugging devices given to him by the CIA were a bit too convenient for the information they revealed. Then again, he was not a cop or even a reporter, but these passages revealed not a lot of information. Still, I suppose, in those old Agatha Christie novels, these exposition scenes would’ve played out with rumors and people spying on others.

A bit of a disappointment, but still better than most.

Books: The Handle By Richard Stark (1966)

"The Baron ran a gambling island off the Texas coast in the Gulf’s blue waters. To Parker, it was just a floating crap game with class. To the Big Boys (the Oufit), it was competition they couldn’t stomach. They wanted a specialist to rob the Baron blind, pluck him like a chicken, and burn this paradise island into the sea. That’s why they sent for Parker. His price was 200 grand in cash and Crystal — a beautiful little blonde. So the pot was sweet, but the heist soon had so many twists it smelled like a brand-new lemon — and Parker knew the line between success and failure on this score would be exactly the length of the barrel of a .38."

Here's a nice throwback –plus an old story trope- where one group of morally corrupt mobsters needs the help of a former associate, a sociopathic anti-hero who seemly is just a few steps better than them in moral department, to help them crush the competition. We’ve seen this set-up before, but it’s more typically done with the villain and the hero of the story joining forces to defeat a third party. Of course, with Parker, you can’t describe him as a hero, just a killer/thief who has a set of rules which he tries to stick to, but because he continues to get caught up in all these over-the-top capers, his rules sometimes are set aside. Alan Grofield, the often funny actor turned thief, returns for The Handle. While the character does get a four-book spin-off, it would’ve been nice had Stark/Westlake kept the character around to interact with Parker more in later novels. This series does, at times, need some gallows humor. But beyond one more cameo appearance in 1971’s Slayground (which was mirrored in the third Grofield novel, 1969’s The Blackbird), the character never appears again in a Parker novel, though he gets a mention in 1974’s Butcher’s Moon.

Anyways, this eighth title resembles The Score, with another ambitious heist that devolves into violence and destruction. The novel,  like all Parker books, is good, but there’s a bit too much coincidence here and people get shot and survive way too often. And Stark gives us the wonderful Crystal, but she vanishes completely –she was very much a different girl altogether. Nevertheless, it’s still a fun book with a desperate Parker in fine form.

Books: Get Real By Donald E. Westlake (2009)

When Stan’s taxi driving Mom picks up a reality TV producer, she believes that this may help Stan with a future –after all, being a thief does not come with a pension plan. But Stan, as always, thinks there may be something else to be gained by doing something with Get Real, a TV production company. Thus, John Dortmunder, Stan, Andy, Tiny, and Judson agree to do a reality show that will capture their next score. The producer also guarantees to find a way to keep the show from being used in evidence against them. They're dubious, but the pay is good, so they take him up on his offer. A mock-up of the OJ bar is built in a warehouse down on Varick Street. The ground floor of that building is a big open space jumbled with vehicles used in TV world, everything from a news truck and a fire engine to a hansom cab (without the horse). As the gang plans their next move with the cameras rolling, Dortmunder and Kelp sneak onto the roof of their new studio to organize a private enterprise. It will take an ingenious plan to outwit viewers glued to their television sets, but Dortmunder is nothing if not persistent, and he's determined to end this shoot with money in his pockets.

Get Real, released in 2009, would turn out to be the final Dortmunder novel, as the passing of Donald E. Westlake on New Year’s Eve 2008 would bring these 14 book series to an end. While not as funny or slapstick as previous entries, the book is still a brilliant satire and take-down on the reality TV business. What is great here is that Westlake does not come across as a cynical, old-fart who does not understand today’s TV business (during his lifetime, Westlake worked on TV and movies, so he knew his way around Hollywood executives and their motivations). So it’s clear that with those experiences, he understands how things work, how the world works. Because, as noted before, while most of the characters have remained fixed –Dortmunder the most, somewhere in the 1970s when this series started I think- the world has moved on with our own and Westlake was able to fold these changes into his narrative in such a way that you don’t get distracted by fact that it’s the 21^st Century and thieves like these boys still do everything old-school, like it is 1972. Even Stan’s Mom knows his line of business is ending and he needs a career change:

“Cameras, “his Mom said, and pointed at one mounted on a nearby pole. “Security. ID. Tracking. Records of everything. Global positioning. Radio chips. It’s harder for people like you and John every day, and you know it is.”

Anyways, the book is spry, a bit tighter than the last few previous books -it’s the shortest one in ages- and its clear Westlake was having fun skewering the reality TV business. I also think this would be the easiest Dortmunder novel to transfer to the screen, as the plot is pretty straight forward. And while the gang have had their ups and downs (more downs, really), Get Real leaves them sailing into literary history with a moderately successful payoff.

While these novels are done, there remains a collection of short stories featuring Dortmunder and his gang, and I look forward to getting to that soon. For now, I move back to Westlake’s darker half, Richard Stark and his anti-hero Parker. I’ve only gotten through seven of those, with 17 more to go. But there are also many other Westlake books to go through. I hope to live and finish most of them.

Books: Confess, Fletch by Gregory McDonald (1976)

While this is the second book written about I. M. "Fletch" Fletcher, from a chronology standpoint, this is book 6. So the events in this tale take place after Fletch (1974), but this is not a direct sequel, just an episodic tale. As noted last my last review, McDonald intended Carioca Fletch (1984) to follow the first book, but held off until he spent some time in Brazil to get the feel of the country and its legendary Carnival (though I’m sure he didn’t think it would take 10 years to do that). There is no mention of Fletch’s Brazilian adventure here, beyond him mentioning he’s lived in Brazil and other locations for the last 18 months or so, but he’s now settled in as an art critic, living in Cagna, Italy and engaged to be married (again). By the way, at the end of Carioca Fletch, the reader sees our intrepid former reporter heading off to Italy (he had stolen dome $3 million dollars from the first adventure). Anyway, his fiancée is the daughter of an Italian Count who has been kidnapped and murdered recently. Fletch is dispatched to by her to Boston to recover painting which were stolen from the family a number of years ago. Upon arriving in Boston he discovers a naked female dead in the apartment he is borrowing. With police on his back hounding him to confess, Fletch must discover the real murderer while trying to locate his fiancé’s family’s painting. Compounding matters is the fact that the inspector assigned to the murder, Francis Xavier Flynn, is Fletch’s intellectual equal.

In some ways, Confess, Fletch is a better book (which won McDonald his second Edgar Award), more clever and more complex tale. Yes, it’s still somewhat funny, snarky, and has a wicked dry wit to it, but overall, a more serious mystery (very Donald E. Westlake execution, as well, with equal doses of Dortmunder and Parker within these pages) with lighthearted undertones. Flynn is a great character and the interplay between Fletch and him is the best part of the book –which is probably why McDonald spun Flynn off (though I hear the first two are the best, with three –and especially- four showing how McDonald became more conservative as he aged). I can now see, as well, why these books have some detractors. The latter books (especially the prequels) really changed and altered the circumstances of Fletch  -he is living the high life on that stolen money from the first book. I can see now why McDonald went back to writing about poor Fletch in the three prequels and the original title. He found that character more fun to write. It’s an easy read, with fun characters, a well-developed mystery, and witty lines.