"Parker" by "Richard Stark"

O.K. This is fun.

I've been on a quest for some time now to track down all the original "Parker" (no first name) novels by Richard Stark. These were potboilers written by Donald Westlake.

Thing is, I've tried reading the Westlake novels starring Dormunder several times, and it just wasn't my cup of tea.

But the Parker novels. Fun and quick and intriguing. He's a bank robber, no apologies. A pro.

Of course, the most famous manifestation of Parker was Lee Marvin in Point Blank. One of the all time great 'noir' movies, though I don't think it's aged very well.

Ironically, Mel Gibson was raked over the coals for coming up with his own version of Parker, Payback, which was really much closer in tone and style to the original novels.

Anyway, fan favorite artist, Darwyn Cooke is going to be adapting the Parker novels, and I'm kinda excited by it. This is one of the synchronistities that make me believe I'm in the right business....

See....the real irony....the Parker novels have been out of print for a long, long time. Don't know why. But I just can't buy any. A few have been reprinted under the Hard Case Crime imprint, but I can only find one for sale.

This seems to happen a lot in book publishing. Seems strange to me, but there it is.