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Quercus/Murdoch Books, This edition first published May
2007
Reviewed by Sally Roddom
ASK THE PARROT opens with our hero Parker running up a hill away from
police and dogs, who are hunting him after a botched bank robbery. At the
top of the hill waits Tom Lindahl, an armed local who has come out looking
for one of the bank robbers. However Lindahl isn’t looking to catch a
robber. He is looking to recruit one. Lindahl was a whistleblower on
political money laundering at the local racecourse. Things didn’t go
according to plan, and instead of receiving protection, he has lost his
job and his wife, and now lives as a hermit on a disability allowance. The
money laundering is still occurring and he wants Parker to help him steal
the money. Parker needs to be able to keep his head down, so he agrees to
help. Circumstances see Parker and Lindahl joining a posse to help search
for the missing bank robbers, and a murder occurs, giving yet another
twist to the story. Add to the mix two brothers who think they recognise
Parker as one of the bank robbers and want him to give them some of the
stolen money for plastic surgery; and you have a lot of twists and turns
for Parker to juggle through.
It is an interesting concept that author Richard Stark has – building a
series around a criminal. Parker robs, kills, tortures and lies; he does
whatever it takes to survive. He is not a nice person, yet you can’t
dislike him. Parker is always in control of the situation – even when
situations change beyond belief, he thinks on his feet and comes up with
an alternative plan without missing a beat. The reader never learns
Parker’s first name, although his aliases are all full names. Parker the
character is hard to explain – he has no feelings of guilt – in fact he
expresses no feelings at all, not laughter, not love, not even hate. He
just is. He obviously has an agenda, but what it is the reader doesn’t
know.
I have never read any of Stark’s novels before. This book read well as a
stand alone, and I didn’t suffer because I started in the middle of a
series of around twenty-three previous titles. The book is written in four
parts. The first three parts each end with a seemingly impossible twist to
the tale, leaving the reader wondering how Parker is going to get out of
the situation. The final part concludes this adventure, but leaves it wide
open for another book. THE HUNTER is the first book in the ‘Parker’
series; it was brought to the big screen in the 1960’s as Point Blank and
the 1990’s as Payback.
Aug 2007 review originally published on Murder & Mayhem
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