J
JAMESBJOHNSON
Guest
NOBODY RUNS FOREVER by Donald Westlake
Westlake stopped writing Parker novels in 1974 then picked them up around 1994. This one came along around 2000-something, close to the end of the series and Westlake's life.
At 300 pages its twice as long as the typical Parker book. Its bloated and commits all the sins Westlake avoided when he created Parker back in 1960 or so: Navel gazing, soul searching, stopping to smell the flowers, and plenty of Dear Diary musings. But it started out well.
THE STORY
On page 1 Parker and the gang are playing poker when Parker notices one of the crew is wearing a wire. Without any alarm or hysterics Parker pulls his neck tie off and strangles the man dead, and all leave quietly with the body. The body is never found tho the Feds hire a bounty hunter to find the lost informant. The bounty hunter vanishes, too.
Parker and the rest are planning a major heist of a bank, with the help of the bank presidents wife and her lover. Things go to hell from the start because the wife refuses to take direction from Parker or stick to the plan. Parker finally sticks a pistol in her face and threatens to kill her. She agrees to get religion but doesn't, and becomes a cop magnet. Others use her fuckups for their own ends. She owns a gun, you see, and the gun has more finger prints on it than Kim Kardashian's ass.
Other reviewers report Parker captured by the cops at the end of this book, but that's not true. Capture seems likely but he's been in worse situations many times before. He's simply between a rock and a hard place at the very end.
The book is too long for a Parker book, and Westlake fled from his motto: STICK TO THE PLOT. He was like 22 when he wrote HUNTER, and 70ish when he wrote this book.
Westlake stopped writing Parker novels in 1974 then picked them up around 1994. This one came along around 2000-something, close to the end of the series and Westlake's life.
At 300 pages its twice as long as the typical Parker book. Its bloated and commits all the sins Westlake avoided when he created Parker back in 1960 or so: Navel gazing, soul searching, stopping to smell the flowers, and plenty of Dear Diary musings. But it started out well.
THE STORY
On page 1 Parker and the gang are playing poker when Parker notices one of the crew is wearing a wire. Without any alarm or hysterics Parker pulls his neck tie off and strangles the man dead, and all leave quietly with the body. The body is never found tho the Feds hire a bounty hunter to find the lost informant. The bounty hunter vanishes, too.
Parker and the rest are planning a major heist of a bank, with the help of the bank presidents wife and her lover. Things go to hell from the start because the wife refuses to take direction from Parker or stick to the plan. Parker finally sticks a pistol in her face and threatens to kill her. She agrees to get religion but doesn't, and becomes a cop magnet. Others use her fuckups for their own ends. She owns a gun, you see, and the gun has more finger prints on it than Kim Kardashian's ass.
Other reviewers report Parker captured by the cops at the end of this book, but that's not true. Capture seems likely but he's been in worse situations many times before. He's simply between a rock and a hard place at the very end.
The book is too long for a Parker book, and Westlake fled from his motto: STICK TO THE PLOT. He was like 22 when he wrote HUNTER, and 70ish when he wrote this book.
