The Seventh: A Parker Novel

You could read The Seventh as a standalone thriller if you haven't read the first six Parker novels and nothing will lessen the enjoyment factor. Although they do follow a timeline and small references to things like Parker's new face are appreciated a bit more if you've read the books where these things happened, there's nothing that as a first time reader of the series you wouldn't understand. Nor is anything major given away of the first six novels. However if you are planning on reading these in order the title of the book is quite handy as it also coincidentally is the same title as the order it was published. No Donald E Westlake (aka Richard Stark) didn't just get lazy, the previous wasn't called the sixth (it was The Jugger) and next in the series isn't the eighth (it's called The Handle). The title refers to the split that each of the seven men involved in a robbery at a football game receives, each character from the robbery refers at least once to their seventh during the book questioning if sticking around and risking themselves is worth it for that seventh of a split or should they just forget about it and go home). In fact this story has actually been republished with the alternative title The Split over the years. Thankfully the republication of this classic series by University of Chicago Press has gone back to the original names. The Seventh was originally published in 1966. Basic plot of this one is after the events of The Jugger, Parker now has no one to fish for work for him while he remains untraceable in the background. He is short on cash, so has to directly approach other criminals and indicate he's up for something if the caper is good enough. And a good enough scheme there is, robbing the takings of a football game. The robbery is successful and Parker's the one trusted to hold onto the money until they meet again to divide it up. Only when Parker steps out to grab some beer and returns less than ten minutes later, the girl he is shacked up with has a sword pinning her corpse to the bedhead, and the loot which includes everyone else's seventh is gone. There's also a couple of police officers tipped of by a phone call standing in the doorway. Parker only knew one man before this caper, it seems one of the others wants it all for himself, but why kill the girl like that? He'll have to make some enquiries Parker style to solve this, but straight away it's apparent the robber/killer hasn't finished trying to take Parker out of the picture either, it just seems they are a bit of an amateur at it, which is weird as he had assumed everyone else involved in the caper was a professional.

a great book, the heist pulled off in this one is intricate and exciting. but then someone steals all the loot! the story details parker and his crew of seven thieves trying to track down the robber that robbed the robbers! keeps you reading with great story telling and has some crazy scenes from a shoot out at a forest resort to a deadly cat and mouse chase in an unfinished high rise! and you'll find out why it's called the seventh on the very last page;) also, very refreshing if you've ever read a book in which the author disgustingly over describes everything; two pages to describe a room, three to describe someones feelings, a chapter to describe a single conversation about some unnessecary story, examples are anne rice (interview with the vampire, queen of the damned, etc.) and robert ludlum (the bourne identity, ultimatum, etc.). good writers, but five hundred pages of fluff make you want a more readable two hundred page story that you may even have the patience to re-read eventually. this is that kind of writing, constantly gripping, no boredom, and no non-sense. not to say that the parker novels are devoid of description but that you don't get bored wondering if the author was just trying to make his book bigger by cramming in more information about what a character was thinking, wearing, feeling, seeing, what he had for dinner the night before, what color hair his mother had, where he went to high school, rather than just what is pertinent to the immediate story. in the jacket of one of the books is a quote by someone that talks about how parker is the non hero. not the anti-hero (criminal with a good heart or something) and certainly not the hero, i thought this was very accurate, parker is just a bad guy. he is out to make money and anyone who gets in his way is so much chaff to be discarded.

a great book, the heist pulled off in this one is intricate and exciting. but then someone steals all the loot! the story details parker and his crew of seven thieves trying to track down the robber that robbed the robbers! keeps you reading with great story telling and has some crazy scenes from a shoot out at a forest resort to a deadly cat and mouse chase in an unfinished high rise! and you'll find out why it's called the seventh on the very last page;)

Very short in length but a great read. The Parker of old. Made me realise why I've always been waiting for his next book - vale Donald Westlake.

Picture this: Parker and friends have pulled the perfect heist and Parker is holding the money till the heat cools down. Then an AMATEUR sneaks in, kills Parker's girl friend of the moment, finds and takes the stash, takes a couple of shots at Parker, and sets him up as the patsy for the murder. --- Parker is less than pleased.From here on in it is non-stop action with all seven members of Parker's team hunting down the Amateur (who has a phobic fear of gunfire-someone else's, that is.) The cops get in the act and chase everyone while the body count rises. Parker's partners are well drawn and each is sharply defined. By getting to know them, like in many Parker novels, you find yourself rooting for the bad guys. "The Split" like "Slayground" is almost total action, but Stark somehow gives us a sense of people and place, on the fly as it were. The Amateur, who is being stalked relentlessly, pauses for breath and thinks, "That's what death is; getting your heel caught in a crack of time."This is an elegant, dark side of Donald Westlake. He should write the manual on anti-heroes. Highly recommended.