Plunder Squad lines up as #15 of 24 Parker novels by Donald E. Westlake writing under the name of Richard Stark.Plunder Squad is one rambling, shambling tale featuring multiple heists (two of which never actually come off) and Parker on a manhunt, a novel chock-full of Parker action and memorable scenes in places like the mountains of California, posh apartment overlooking Central Park, Pop art exhibit in Indianapolis.The highlight reel on this one includes:Georgie Porgie "He didn't have a gun o...

“So Mr. Parker, how can our employment agency help you?”“Things haven’t been going well with my old job, and I’m thinking about a career change.”“Let’s take a look at your resume… It says here that you’ve been a professional thief most of your adult life. You’ve got some experience and skill with firearms, false identities, auto theft…. And you’ve done some very impressive jobs, Mr. Parker. I’m surprised you’re looking for another line of work.”“I’ve had a terrible string of bad luck. A loose en...

“Never leave a guy alive who'd like to see you dead”—StarkThe pulpily-titled Plunder Squad is one of the top five or six (of 24) Parker books. Yes, even with that dopey title. Or maybe because of it? One of the cool things about this book is that it shares a scene with characters from a novel by Donald Westlake/Richard Stark's friend Joe Gores, Dead Skip, so that's kind of cool that he's working in conversation with his buddy on their craft, right?It begins with this first line, so you get right...

Richard Stark's amoral protagonist, known only as Parker, is low on cash and looking for work. Parker specializes in planning and executing elaborate heists and this inevitably involves working with others. Sadly, not all criminals are as talented and trustworthy as Parker and this means that his first task in planning any job is ensuring that those around him are dependable and up to the task.This can occasionally be a problem, and that's certainly the case as this book opens. A man Parker know...

A hijacking job goes south when George Uhl rears his ugly head. On top of that, Parker gets involved in an art heist. Can Parker deal with George Uhl and pull off the art heist?Parker's run of bad luck continues in this one. The first heist goes bad, Parker has to take care of Uhl AND another guy, and the art dealer who hired Parker and company turns out to be in some serious money trouble. Poor Parker. The guy is as unlucky as Dortmunder in the last few books.The action is fast and furious in t...

While planning a job, a man Parker should have finished in an earlier confrontation, tries to kill him, putting himself in Parker's crosshairs for retribution. Meanwhile, Parker needs a score and after looking over a couple of opportunities, agrees to an art heist while a heavily guarded exhibit is in transit. Working with an experienced crew, things actually go well ... during the heist; however, their buyer gets himself in big trouble, which naturally spills over onto the crew. P.S. It's hard

The penultimate of the original Parker novels. Plunder Squad has quite a few things going on in it. Unlike other Parker novels this one has some side stories going on aside from the usual heist that is the focus of the novels. An old enemy returns to try to kill Parker. A couple of jobs fall through and another one is executed. Some characters from past novels return, actually some surprising characters, or at least ones I didn't think were necessarily that memorable the first time around to thi...

"Hearing the click behind him, Parker threw his glass straight back over his right shoulder, and dove off his chair to the left.”

Well...if things keep up the way they've been going Parker may have to go on Welfare (or was it still called "Relief" then, I can't recall when it became "Welfare".) Anyway, with the last several jobs all going bad (following the books in order you get to see that) Parker has not only been expending a lot of effort for.... Oh wait that would be a spoiler as would the body count here.So guess you'll have to read the book to see how bad things are getting for Parker. I'm still "enjoying" (I always...

This is the first Parker book I read where I had to put it down to read something else due to work. And I didn't bother to re-read the first part again, I just got into it right away. I love this Parker because everything turns out bad. Parker is still highly professional and deadly, but ....things are now more funky. In fact it is professional way of doing business saves him in the end of the day. Nevertheless people die, money doesn't get made, and things get worst. There is a humor strain tha...

Another good Parker novel. As usual, a lot happens & Parker is perfectly Parker. The beginning of the book had me wondering as there's quite a glitch in the dates, but otherwise it hung together well. Good reader & the audio volume was a lot better on this one than the last I listened to. i can't wait for the library to get more of the series.

This is the ultimate "can't get a break" Parker novel. Two false starts and one heist that goes predictably wrong. Start -- or rather Westlake -- is also starting to show reactionary responses to modern art and the effeminate men involved with it. Hippies are a squirrely lot as well.

3 ½ stars. Pretty good. Not the best in the series but worth reading.Interesting the way Parker has no normal social interaction with others. A married woman knocks on Parker’s motel door, hoping to get something going with Parker. He won’t even answer the door. And then he packs and leaves the job. He won’t be part of a group that includes a woman like her.The ending action scene was good - how he got out of a bad situation where he was outnumbered. There were two other good scenes where Parker...

The third times the charm? A heist plan is interrupted by an old enemy of Parker's. A second heist is ruined by the green-eyed monster called Jealousy. And the third heist is put on hold for a short time. We finally learn the outcome between George Uhl (The Sour Lemon Score) and Parker. Parker refuses to make the same mistake twice? And Devers from The Green Eagle Score makes an appearance. What does Parker have to do with Joe Gores' private detective Dan Kearny's search for a Dead Skip?

This is a long running series with the main character a tough criminal with a very tight code of honor. Always good tight stories.

Parker in the Bay Area? Woo hoo! He’s looking for work and he’s looking for George Uhl.This almost reads like a Dortmunder book, with all of the things that go wrong in it. Except it's Parker, who doesn't have the good humored nature of Dortmunder. At all. The big art heist is the main gig in here, and it has one of my all-time favorite distractions, provided by Tommy and his girlfriend! Crazy original!This book ends fairly upbruptly, so I'm excited to read the next one! Love me some Parker!

The fifteenth Parker book is "Plunder Squad" and it's about old friends making new appearances and Parker hitting a string of bad luck with jobs going sour in ways that would even surprise the most dedicated Parker reader. George Uhl from "The Sour Lemon Score" reappears and duels Parker. "Stan Devers" from "The Green Eagle Score," where Parker raided an airbase reappears.One job goes sour and another is worth doing. It is filled with Parkerisms, such as when he spots Sharon in the meeting place...

One of the longer of the original 16 Parker books, this book weaves two smaller stories together: one in which Parker tries to correct a past mistake and kill George Uhl (from The Sour Lemon Score); and another in which we see Stan Devers (from The Green Eagle Score) join the string for a great heist story involving a truck full of paintings. I like that Richard Stark is pulling threads from previous books and taking care of loose ends (in George Uhl's case, anyway). Parker has a bad streak goin...

After taking a kind of vacation in Slayground, Parker gets back to work in Plunder Squad, and it is, as always, the kind of book that Starklake does best: a slice of life from the career thief. Whereas Slayground was a set piece, Plunder Squad is tangle of events from the ongoing story of Parker's criminal career. And it is, as well, the clearest evidence you could want that Parker is a pure sociopath: Any sane person would work in a McDonald's rather than deal with Parker's problems.

Classic Parker. Lucky to escape with his life from this heist. But if I were him, I would start to consider another career path given his on-going lack of success on the dark side of the pursuit of earning a living.

Excellent as always by Donald Westlake, aka Richard Stark. It's a short book and a quick read. I finished it in one day when I also played golf and mowed the yard. It seems Parker is having a run of bad luck. The first two jobs in this book fall apart before they even get started. The third one seems to be working out until it doesn't and along the way Parker has to take care of someone he should have taken care of a long time ago.It seemed to make sense to read the first few books of this serie...

Solid later Parker where he spends more time setting up jobs and dealing with crossers than heists. Like The Getaway in that respect. But Westlake excels with the characters he creates...

Economic downturns stretch everybody a little thin, especially art dealers and heistmen. Parker finds himself short on funds and looking for a job. Just when he thinks he is on to something good, an unexpected complication arises in the form of a loose end he neglected to take care of on a previous job: George Uhl. Uhl’s appearance complicates Parker’s role in a couple of heists and requires our anti-hero to take care of this nuisance once and for all before he can move on with his next job. In

"Then there were fifteen minutes of small-talk. Parker never took pleasure in that kind of thing, but he knew other people found it necessary and he'd trained himself to take part in it.”Parker was the wonderful creation of Donald Westlake, writing as Richard Stark. All of Parker titles are being reissued by the University of Chicago Press. I’ve read many over the years, bought a couple more than once because I couldn’t remember which ones I had read (pre-Goodreads,) but never-mind, they hold up...

things hadn't gone well for Parker recently. He'd had to hide the take from the last job in order to escape, and it would be a long while before the hear died down. Then during the first meeting of the crew for a new job, the last man in takes a shot at Parker, killing one of the others, and igniting a running gun battle. An old enemy, George Uhl, that Parker, in a rare moment, had let live, caused that job to die. Time sensitive, it would be another year before it could be tackled.The next job

The only thing that could make the Parker novels more perfect would be if Donald Westlake were still alive enough to be writing more. So if anybody knows a little necromancy, I'd like to see him as some kind of undead author lich, churning out novels into eternity. My birthday is in August. I eagerly await the fulfillment of this request.

Other than Parker being Parker, it's always fun to see if Parker and his merry band of thieves can actually get away with the swag. In some novels he does, in others he is thwarted by circumstances or by partners that have their own idea of 'fair'. Whatever the outcome, getting to the end game of the novel is a fun read.

Rating between 3.5 and 4another good entry in the Parker series that brought back some previously seen characters and directly referenced earlier story lines. I wonder of this was deliberately leading up to 'Butchers Moon' which was the final Parker novel for quite some time.By the end of this one Parker has had a job fallen through, a returning character trying to kill him and a second job that paid nothing but caused even more problems for him. Considering his apparent reputation, he appears t...

Stark has created a modern-day gritty hard-boiled novel in "Plunder Squad". It's a tough, straight-forward, fatalistic, economic novel that pulls little punches. After Parker's previous caper in "Slayground", he got away with the cash but he had to hide it in a closed amusement park and now just waiting for the heat to cool down, but in the meantime, he's low on funds.The book starts with a bang as Parker begins planning a new heist, and a shot is fired, killing one of his partners. It turns out...

It's no surprise Parker took a 20 year break after this novel. Parker just can't seem to make a buck. Lately all his capers are failing. This one was a bit of a mess. It starts with a failed robbery, then Parker looks into a crime but aborts (then there's some vengeance), then finally another heist. This is always the best part of any Parker story but there was too much stuff till the reader gets to the good stuff.One comment on the audiobook. The narrator usually reads me Scudder books so it wa...