Firebreak

A Parker Novel, Book 20

By: Richard Stark

Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne

Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Between Parker’s 1961 debut and his return in the late 1990s, the world of crime changed considerably. Now fake IDs and credit cards had to be purchased from specialists; increasingly sophisticated policing made escape and evasion tougher; and, worst of all, money had gone digital - the days of cash-stuffed payroll trucks were long gone. Firebreak takes Parker to a palatial Montana "hunting lodge" where a dot-com millionaire hides a gallery of stolen old masters - which will fetch Parker a pretty penny if his team can just get it past the mansion’s tight security. The forests of Montana are an inhospitable place for a heister when well-laid plans fall apart, but no matter how untamed the wilderness, Parker’s guaranteed to be the most dangerous predator around.

©2011 Richard Stark (P)2013 AudioGO

Critic reviews

"Parker…lumbers through the pages of Richard Stark’s noir novels scattering dead bodies like peanut shells…In a complex world [he] makes things simple." ( New York Times)

"Whatever Stark writes, I read. He’s a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude." (Elmore Leonard, New York Times best-selling author)

"Parker is a true treasure…The master thief is back, along with Richard Stark." ( New York Times Book Review)

2 ½ stars. I kept getting distracted.

My mind wandered.

There seemed to be more characters than normal in this book. Toward the end I was confused about some of them. Maybe because a lot was going on in my personal life. Or maybe the book wasn’t as good as others in the series.

There are two stories. The better story is about a hit man after Parker. It’s a continuation with Paul and Max who Parker met in Bk 12 “The Sour Lemon Score.” I loved the scene where Parker gets to them. It reminded me of feelings of fear in the movie “Jaws.”

The second story is about stealing art from a hunting lodge in Montana. An interesting part of that story was Parker interacting with a young-computer-hacker-genius. But the rest of the story about the heist was muddled. It might be better read than listened to. Not sure.

I was disappointed that the 2011 Forward by Terry Teachout was in the physical book but not in this audiobook. I’ve enjoyed all the forwards in this series.

The narrator Stephen R. Thorne was good, but I wish he had a rougher, darker, more menacing voice for Parker. His Parker voice was too clean cut and normal sounding.

THE SERIES:
This is book 20 in the 24 book series. These stories are about bad guys. They rob. They kill. They’re smart. Most don’t go to jail. Parker is the main bad guy, a brilliant strategist. He partners with different guys for different jobs in each book.

If you are new to the series, I suggest reading the first three and then choose among the rest. A few should be read in order since characters continue in a sequel fashion. Those are listed below (with my star ratings). The rest can be read as stand alones.

The first three books in order:
4 stars. The Hunter (Point Blank movie with Lee Marvin 1967) (Payback movie with Mel Gibson)
3 ½ stars. The Man with the Getaway Face (The Steel Hit)
4 stars. The Outfit.

Read these two in order:
5 stars. Slayground (Bk #14)
5 stars. Butcher’s Moon (Bk #16)

Read these four in order:
4 ½ stars. The Sour Lemon Score (Bk #12)
2 ½ stars. Firebreak (Bk #20)
(not read) Nobody Runs Forever (Bk #22)
2 ½ stars. Dirty Money (Bk #24)

Others that I gave 4 or more stars to:
The Jugger (Bk #6), The Seventh (Bk#7), The Handle (Bk #8), Deadly Edge (Bk#13), Flashfire (Bk#19)

GENRE: noir crime fiction

Red Ball Express!

We join Parker in the process of killing a hitman, Victor Charov in his garage. No one else around. Parker took the dead man and his car, dumping it in a flooded ravine. Via the man’s wallet, Parker checked the man’s apartment, finding money, guns, and potential clues to the client. Parker had Claire go to New York. Silently returning to Claire’s home, he found it bugged with cameras. No idea why, or who was behind this and the hitman. Meanwhile, Parker receives a call from Frank Elkins for a job if he’s interested. They met; there’s Frank, his partner Ralph Witt, and a new man Larry Lloyd, an electronics expert. The job is some dot.com billionaire’s home who has a stash of great masters paintings in a not-so-secret room. There was pressure on Elkins and Witt to get the job done quickly. They knew the setup; blueprints, maps, alarms, the works, but were unsure if additional security had been added lately. They met in Havre, Montana to recon the house and surrounding grounds. Lloyd inspected the underground cables coming into a guard shack, stating he could hack the security. So much for the setup of this dual plot story. The hitman story was quite interesting with some very tense moments. Parker playing detective to find who was behind it. The proposed art heist story included much background and detail on Lloyd. It also revealed a connection to the hitman involving Matt Rosenstein and Paul Brock, characters from a prior novel, “The Sour Lemon Score”. They say that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. In this case, it was a roller coaster of anxiety, chaos, and adrenaline. Will our boys end the series on a high note?

Another Parker Novel Masterpiece

If you’re a fan of the Parker series you’ll love Firebreak. I’ve been reading the series in order and after 17 or 18 books, you figure “there’s no way” he can keep the plots fresh: WRONG!!!! How does he keep coming up with new and novel ways to chronicle the robberies of Parker?? Bravo!

much better! the last one suckd! figures !

worlds better than the book before this one! It just figures that they would use the worst book of the series and make that into a movie!
especially the narration was 1000x better! incredible!

Another reason to love Parker

Just a well told story not a lot of violence not a lot of action, but not too much dialogue somehow -it’s done very well. A very good read, and as always, I love Starks endings to stories.

Parker never gets old

I dig these books so much and this is one of the best. Steady Parker with a cast of recurring characters and new ones to see later. They also brought back one of the good narrators Stephen R Thorne.

Tense and engrossing

The action begins immediately and doesn’t let up until the last page. A whirlwind of intrigue and danger. A few complaints, minor ones though. The foreword seems missing from the recording (usually they have some great insights on Stark, his writing process, or the history behind the series). The second is plot related, and I can only assume Stark did this for brevity and pacing. The returning villains who are behind Parker’s personal troubles are revealed slowly then dispatched “off-screen” suddenly. It’s makes sense but it would have been nice to hear Parker’s reaction to their current state, or how he plans to break into their lair. Even their preparation for his arrival seems cartoonishly lax. Those aside, another cracker of a story.

Another fine Parker book

it's hard for me to imagine Parker operating in the Internet era after following him through the 60s with his cold-blooded style and machismo.