The Black Ice Score

I'm torn between reviewing the contents of these tapes and the tapes themselves. In both cases I give a top rating. Anyone already looking for old Richard Stark material already knows that this book is a classic. The cassettes and the package were better than I'd expected considering their age and I'm very happy with the set as well as the fast shipping.

My first take on Westlake's crime novel `Black Ice Score' is that it is almost not a novel at all, but instead a short story. The Parker stories usually are events that shouldn't take you more than half a short evening to read, so they are kind of like a good movie. Secondly, when I compare this book (as much as I enjoyed it) to other novels of the same genre, it just doesn't muster the highest of praise. Westlake's obvious self imposed restrictions, due to the short format, cramp all but a staccato story telling style. I think that I would probably encourage someone else to read 60-70 books of the mystery thriller genre before handing over a Westlake Parker book. This time around Parker is approached by a small time hood that propositions Parker about a possible score. One thing in these Parker books is that if you read a whole bunch of them back to back, you will start to see re-occurring character-types. Westlake always seems to have a weasely little crook who knows Parker from the past, lets him in on a key bit of the story, seems to turn against him, and then gets offed some how. The other group that you often see in these novels is the bumbling foils, the competing bad guys who are after the same score only they mess it up somewhere along the way. The difference in this story compared to the rest of the Parker series is that Parker is trying to heist some diamonds in a somewhat good cause. An African nation will use the proceeds to prop up a new government and stave off a rebel faction. The best thing about the Parker books, and what makes them worth reading is the character Parker himself. He is never fleshed out overly in any of the books. And in this one he is at his most cold hearted and violent. These books are bruisers that you would expect to be passed around in your local prison yards. This is not in my opinion Westlake's best series or even the best book in the Parker series. It is a little far fetched and the way the story starts off is a little implausible. Still... if your like me and want a good quick breath of something down and dirty to cleanse your mind from all of the usual sanctimonious mysteries, this is a nice palette cleanser.

I just finished this for the third time-- seems I read the Parkers about every ten years, and they never get stale. Though the early Parker novels were written about 40 years ago, they still sizzle with action. The characterizations are terse and to the point, and the writing is lean and propulsive. Parker is a psychopath, but he's almost normal here-- the earliest books are exercises in single-minded brutality, but by this volume, about 4 years along in the canon, he's hooked up with Claire and is therefore vulnerable in some way that he wasn't earlier on. Still, he's all business, and when the excrement hits the fan, he's ready and willing to do anything it takes to survive and prevail. Never read a Parker novel? Best to start with the first in the series: it's still the easiest one to find, under one of three titles, "The Hunter," or "Point Blank," or "Payback" (as a tie-in from the Mel Gibson film of some years ago). Once you meet Parker, you'll want to read more. It's time to republish all of these in a cheap uniform edition.

The Black Ice Score is the fourth Parker book I've read (The Hunter/Payback, The Man with the Getaway Face, The Outfit). Stark writes lean, concise sentences. Like his criminal protagonist, he doesn't waste time or words, and doesn't need foul language. Parker plans well, then improvises when things inevitably go awry. Stark/Westlake published The Black Ice Score in 1968, a year of high racial tension in the U.S. The plot involves a power struggle within a newly independent African nation that spills over to New York and Miami. It is the eleventh book in the series, but like the others can stand alone. I hope Mysterious Press reprints this and the remaining out-of-print Parker titles.