Backflash

by Richard Stark

Years ago, I read the first Parker book, The Hunter. I remember finishing it and thinking it was okay, but I didn’t need to keep reading the series. But recently, the character of Parker came up again in Quentin Tarantino’s book Cinema Speculation. So when I saw this book at Half Price, I picked it up.

Overall, it was entertaining. A heist with complications. Very plot driven, not a lot of character development. There is a new gambling boat in New York, and Parker and his team are going to rob it.

It repeatedly violates Chekhov’s Gun. For example, in the middle of the heist, it cuts to Cathman (the character who hired Parker to do the heist) and establishes that Cathman has figured out where Parker lives. But that never comes up, and he never goes there!

Part of the heist involves a guy pretending to be an Assemblyman (politician) on the ship. But we learn that there’s a reporter on the ship who has interviewed the actual Assemblyman, so he knows this is an imposter. This could lead to some interesting complications… but it doesn’t. The reporter asks advice from a guy pushing a girl around in a wheelchair for some reason. And they are in on the heist, so they knock out the reporter, take his camera, and dump him in a life boat, probably to wake up after the book is over. You never hear about him again. Too easy.

The author makes a point of explaining that some on the heist have been on this boat before, when it was down in St. Louis. And that the crew on the ship might be some of the same people who worked in St. Louis. But does a crew member recognize one of them? Or does familiarity with the ship’s layout help? Nope. Just a meaningless fact, I guess.

That kind of thing bugs me, but I still liked reading the book. It just wasn’t meaningful or important. It didn’t have much to say about humanity. The character Parker, who’s supposed to be a total professional, who will always kill someone if necessary to tie up loose ends, doesn’t kill a guy at the beginning of the story, and that’s the cause of a bunch of trouble. So the lesson is, always kill people who might cause you trouble later.