Mystery Book Reviews

Book Review: Dirty Money

By Sandy Amazeen Apr 14, 2008, 16:13 GMT

"[One] of the greatest writers of the twentieth century...Richard Stark, real name Donald Westlake...His Parker books form a genre all their own." --John Banville, Booker Prize-winning author of The SeaMaster criminal Parker takes another turn for the worse as he tries to recover loot from a heist gone terribly wrong. In Nobody Runs Forever, Parker and two cohorts stole the assets of a bank in ...more

The story picks up shortly after the armored car robbery in Nobody Runs Forever that saw Parker and his duo of criminals stashing their haul of 2.2 million dollars to elude capture. What they failed to realize at the time was that the money had been marked so when Nick, one of the partners spent some of the loot, he ended up getting captured. Nick escaped after killing a marshal and now everyone from Parker to the police are looking for him to turn up. Parker fears Nick will attempt to remove the money from its hiding place and keep it all for himself, the police hope he will lead them to it where they can recapture him red-handed. Bounty hunter Sandra Loscalzo is not above working both sides of the law and convinces Parker to give her a share of the money in return for the assistance she can provide. Without identification including a driver’s license, Parker relies heavily on girlfriend Claire’s assistance to remove the stash with an old Ford Econoline reborn by a judicious paint job. With so many people trying to get their hands on the money, there’s plenty of room for things to go wrong in a hurry and they do.

A solid pace and a host of shady characters challenge Parker at every turn as he struggles to stay a step ahead of the police and fellow criminals. Stark fans may find themselves a bit disappointed in this latest Parker tale as it lacks the fine edge found in his other misadventures but it’s still a decent read.