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    Ask the Parrot: A Parker Novel
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    Ask the Parrot: A Parker Novel
    Unavailable
    Ask the Parrot: A Parker Novel
    Ebook240 pages3 hours

    Ask the Parrot: A Parker Novel

    By Richard Stark and Duane Swierczynski

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    In Ask the Parrot, Parker’s back on the run, dodging dogs, cops, and even a helicopter. His escape brings him to rural Massachusetts, where he meets a small-town recluse who Forced to work with a small-town recluse nursing a grudge against the racetrack that fired him. Even on the run, Parker manages to get up to no good. It'll be a deadly day at the races.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press
    Release dateSep 8, 2017
    ISBN9780226485799
    Unavailable
    Ask the Parrot: A Parker Novel

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    Reviews for Ask the Parrot

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      An embittered recluse rescues Parker from the posse that is chasing him after the failed bank robbery in Nobody Runs Forever. Parker's rescuer wants his professional help to rob the racetrack that fired him for whistleblowing about money laundering. The carefully laid plan comes unglued and Parker brings his talents to bear on handling his amateur accomplice and the local law. His total amorality remains fascinating and even after 23 novels I identify more strongly with the people he meets than I do with Stark/Westlake's brutally clever antihero.
    • 4/5
      This is more of a psychological mystery. After a bank robbery, the three robbers are fleeing. Parker tries his luck in a rural area, but is put by a resident (Tom Lindahl), not by giving Parker to the police or accusing him directly as a bank robber. It is much more a purposeful community. Parker takes part in the search for himself. He can deceive many community members, but not all. Lindahl has not participated in community activities for a long time. He worked until his release on a racecourse. There is every Saturday night, the money stored in the cellar. Since he still has a key to the race track. he has long been fond of making money and starting a new life in another place. Parker was just about to get him going. Parker encourages and supports Lindahl by killing unloved persons.The story is written very subtle.
    • 4/5
      Picked this one up because of the title. It was very short, only 5 disks, but was funny and moved at a good pace. Didn't realize it was part of a series until I read the other reviews.Parker and two other guys rob a bank but the escape goes awry when the police respond quickly with everything they have. As he's running through the woods in his dress shoes with dogs close behind, a local man rescues him. Lindhal is an angry man who has been stewing in bitterness since he was fired from his job at the racetrack for blowing the whistle on a money laundering scheme. He impulsively rescues Parker after watching live coverage of the robbery and manhunt. His plan is to get Parker's help to rob the racetrack. But his fantasy doesn't take into account whether he can control a master thief.William Dufris does an excellent narration.
    • 4/5
      Slightly-better-than-average installment in Westlake's deservedly popular series about his "hardcase" criminal hero, Parker.
    • 4/5
      Listened to the audio. Typical Richard Stark, aka Donald Westlake, but if you don't care for amoral heroes, you won't like Parker. Parker is the ultimate narcissist who sees the world only as how any action will affect him. If that means shooting someone who gets in the way, so be it. Nary a sign of remorse. This one gets complicated, a heist within a heist, while Parker is being pursued by the police from all over because of a botched bank robbery. Really good escapist reading.
    • 4/5
      Ask The Parrot is the 23rd novel of the 24 novel strong Parker series by Richard Stark, who is the most well-known of Donald Westlake's psuedonyms. Westlake has over the fifty-plus years he has professionally written assumed seven or more psuedonyms for a variety of reasons, but everyone knows Stark is Westlake and vice versa. Westlake has written over one hundred books.
      Parker, who has no first name, is a professional criminal. He robs. He does bank jobs. He does armored car jobs. He is known to be cold and emotionless, but he has his own code which generally means no doublecrossing, splitting the proceeds equally, and not turning on one's allies.

      Ask The Parrot is actually part two of a trilogy of novels at the tail end of the Parker series, starting with Nobody Runs Forever and finishing with Dirty Money. Any of these can be read by themselves or in order. One need not even be familiar with the Parker series to enjoy this.

      Ask The Parrot begins with Parker on the run through the woods, dogs and local deputies on his trail. "Whatever was on the other side of this hill," he explains as the story opens, "had to be better than the dogs baying down there at the foot of the slope behind him, running around, straining at their leashes, finding his scent, starting up." Parker has $4,000 in his pocket, but its no good because the robbery was botched and his identity ruined. He needs a place to hide, to regroup, to get to safety.
      In this small upstate NY town, he tries to blend in as a common person and even joins the posse trying to smoke the robbers out of the woods, but there is something about Parker that just lends itself to trouble and he can't blend in no matter how he tries. Lindahl rescues him, but wants to involve him in a racetrack robbery, a racetrack where Lindahl used to work before he got canned and for which he still has all the keys. No matter what Parker does, crime seems to follow him or somebody recognizes him and wants a cut of the robbery money, which is too hot for Parker to go back for, or someone wants to play hero and reel him in or someone makes a mistake, bringing the interest of the law on Parker.

      There is something about the way Westlake writes that is compelling and, once I picked this up, I had to keep reading. The prose is not fancy. There are few memorable phrases. But, it is, like all Parker novels, one great piece of crime fiction and, for anyone who reads crime fiction, this is worth a read.
      What is it that makes the Parker novels so compelling for forty-five years? I don' t know that it is the fact Parker is an anti-hero or that he is someone who the reader can identify with. I think it is that Westlake (or Stark if you prefer) has consistently created a character who is believable and who acts as one would expect him to. Parker is no saint. He has no moral compunctions about killing, but he would prefer not to since it brings the law down on one quicker.
      All in all, a great read.
    • 3/5
      I don't have a lot I'd label as a read once and get rid of it, but I think this one qualifies. Since this is the first I've read in this series and this is book 23 in that series, the characterization leaves a little to be desired, but not having read the earlier books isn't throwing me off any. You know enough to know what's going on. I can see the story line now without having to backtrack. This I like.This is a quick read. I'd call this a beach read because it goes so simply. No real stress to reading it. Very few necessary mental gymnastics required. Sometimes hard to follow the description of the places, but one is a maze.For the first two thirds of this book, it sticks pretty solidly in Parker's POV. Then suddenly, the author is bouncing among character POV for about a third of the book. This means what's happening with the primary plot has suddenly disappeared, because many of the characters touched are periphery characters that have very little connection to the main plot thread. I think this was done to tie up loose ends. Not 100% necessary, but makes sense. Decent ending, maybe not as expected, but decent. Some action and tension, but it diffuses quickly because the main character knows what he's doing. For a disreputable type, Parker has a good honor code and a sense of what to do. He's the bad side of characters I wouldn't mind writing myself. Decent enough, but as I said, a read and discard type book.
    • 4/5
      A twist on the standard thriller in that the protagonist is an anti-hero. Parker, a professional thief and career criminal, in on the lam following a failed bank heist. Stuck in an isolated rural community, Parker is taken in by a local recluse, in exchange for his help in robbing the local racetrack. Everything goes pear-shaped and Parker needs to rely on his criminal expertise to get a handle on the situation. An entertaining read, with punchy, short chapters good for those with little reading time on their hands. This is number 23 in the series written by Richard Stark/Donald Westlake.
    • 3/5
      The poor parrot!
    • 4/5
      The penultimate Parker picks up exactly where the ante-penultimate Parker ended. As usual Parker has to deal with situations not entirely of his making and, as usual, he is able to improvise to turn a buck and save his own skin. Only one more to go and I'll be sorry when it's done.
    • 5/5
      What can I say about Donald Westlake/Richard Stark that I haven't already said. Everything is great as usual. This was 2nd in the final trilogy of Parker Books. I am looking forward to reading the next one.