| Title | : | Slayground (Parker, #14) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0749000031 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780749000035 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 192 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1971 |
"Super-ingenious. Super-lethal... Parker is super-tough." (New York Times Book Review)
Slayground (Parker, #14) Reviews
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I’ve fallen in love with the existential crime noir novels by French writer Pascal Garnier (1949-2010). In their write-ups of Pascal Garnier's work, a number of reviewers, including the great Irish author John Banville, cite the Parker novels by Richard Stark. What's that? Richard Stark books share much with Pascal Garnier, you say. My interest was piqued - thus my reading and posting a review of Richard Stark’s Slayground.
As any aficionado of crime fiction knows, Richard Stark is a pseudonym for outstanding American author Donald E. Westlake (1933-2008). And all 24 Richard Stark novels feature Parker, a tough, supersmart master of his chosen craft - just the man to plan and pull off a seemingly impossible heist.
Slayground makes for one hell of an exciting, action-packed yarn, the literary counterpart of riding one of those world-class loopy, high-speed roller coasters - thrills from start to finish.
Here's the set-up in a nutshell: It’s winter, all ice and snow, and Parker’s driver crashes the getaway car. Parker grabs the sack of dough ($73,000) and makes a run for it, solo. There’s only one escape route - an amusement park. Little does Parker know this amusement park, Fun Island, currently shut down for the winter, is completely surrounded by water, the only entrance/exist being the front gate. Parker also doesn’t know the amusement park is under the control of big-time mobster Al Lozini.
With the help of 2 crooked cops and nearly two dozen of his own thugs, Lozini wants the money and he wants Parker dead. After a 7 hour delay (damn those 2 cops who can’t get off of road block duty!), Lozini and his small army enter Fun Island to hunt down Parker. But head honcho Lozini fails to realize what caliber of pro he’s up against.
In the book's Forward, Charles Ardai asks if Richard Stark aka Westlake could invent a situation so extreme even he as author couldn't get Parker out. In other words, is Parker tough enough, smart enough, resourceful enough to handle 20 to 1 odds when he's trapped on a small island in freezing winter?
I'll leave the tale's unfolding slam-bang-boom to each reader.
Permit me a segue for several strokes of compare/contrast. Recall I mentioned Pascal Garnier. Here's how a Richard Stark novel stacks up with a work by Garnier:
Parker is all action. As Charles Ardai puts it, Parker is a doer and doesn't spend a lot of time on contemplation or introspection. Pascal Garnier's men are the exact opposite: continually brooding over the past and more inclined to cynicism and reflection than action.
Slayground is an intricately constructed, complex puzzle with one possible solution: Parker escaping out the front gate. With Pascal Garnier there's no constructed puzzle and no clear-cut solution; rather, what happens at the conclusion of each tale, who lives and who dies, is anybody's guess right up until the final page.
With a Richard Stark novel, the reader knows exactly what they are getting: Parker and a hoist. With Pascal Garnier, each novel features a different main character, the reflective, morose chap can be a hit man, journalist, retired bureaucrat, artist, fiction writer or railroad worker and the arc of action can veer off in any number of directions.
However, there are similarities between the two authors: the length of their novels tends to be on the shorter side, their language is crisp and accessible, there's a strong element of violence, they both write compelling page-turners.
I admit my comparison between Richard Stark and Pascal Garnier is unorthodox but I wanted to take a stab. I also wanted to let Richard Stark fans know about a French crime noir author that's absolutely first-rate.
American author Donald E. Westlake
"Parker said nothing, but glanced at the back of Dent's neck, and the two tendons were standing out there, just as Dent had said. The elevens are up. When the number eleven shows in the tendons on the back of a man's neck, he's finished, everybody knows that. Parker didn't waist time trying to lie to the old man." -- Donald E. Westlake, Slayground -
Slayground, Parker #14, is surely one of the best of the series. Parker faces cops, corrupt cops, thugs and principled thugs, (he is himself a principled criminal), in a web of doublecrosses that are woven like an intricate spider web. A preface by Charles Adai makes it clear Stark is an artist; just as a poet may work within the constraints of the sonnet to create very different effects, so does the master detective storyteller work creatively within this genre.
Slayground begins not with a usual slow, careful tale of planning, but in the very frantic middle of an armored car heist which goes sour only when the driver—the best guy they could get at the time, apparently; Parker’s first mistake—rolls the vehicle in a chase. Parker has the satchel with the loot in it, and walks on to nearby Fun Island, an amusement park featuring various smaller “islands”—Treasure Island, Manhattan, Hawaii, even Alcatraz (which includes a wax museum with famous murderers and thieves; cute?).
This is Parker’s second mistake. Some cops see Parker go on the island; presumably they know the heist took place. Soon Parker realizes there is only one exit to the island, and that these cops have made a decision. And others—including the corrupt owner of Fun Island—are making decisions, too. And all of these decisions have to do with doing mean things to our (anti-)hero Parker.
One cop makes suggestions about how to catch and kill Parker based on his reading of detective novels, particularly ones focused on “closed room” mysteries (such as those written by Agatha Christie, some of which also take place on islands).
Carnivals and amusement parks are good places for misdirection, and booby-traps, if you are an escape artist—fun houses with distorting mirrors, exploding fireworks, flashing colored lights and loud calliope music, canned creepy clown laughter—Parker might be able to distract his predators and get out.
Mayhem happens.
That’s Slayground, not Playground, kids.
I really really was entertained by this tale. 5 stars. A master at work.
Slayground as imagined and illustrated by Darwyn Cooke:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A trailer to the Peter Coyote film (very) loosely based on Stark’s novel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP09J...
Slayground shares the first chapter with The Blackbird, which tells the story of what happened to partner-in-crime ladies man and actor Alan Grofield, who also escaped from the rolled car after the heist, which I will read and review asap. -
He leaned against the wall beside the window and watched the gates. Very soon now, the hunted was going to become the hunter.
After a botched armored car robbery (hint - when pulling a heist, make sure your wheelman is well vetted), Parker grabs the loot and heads for the nearest refuge - a closed-for-the-season amusement park. Before long, the place is surrounded by crooked cops and mobsters. They want the money, and they want Parker DEAD. Now it's Parker, with four bullets in his gun, versus fifteen well-armed men.
I've only had one previous
Richard Stark experience - Parker's first escapade -
The Hunter. It held my interest enough, though I wasn't sure I wanted to continue with the series. And, while this entry was entertaining, I'm now pretty sure that two is enough for me. Keep in mind - most people liked this one WAY more than I did. There is a lot here to delight fans of the series - taut suspense, tricky situations, and well written dialogue. The action is pretty realistic, and even though he is outmanned and outgunned, Parker does not come across as an over-the-top, one-man army.
Unfortunately, I think part of me was really looking forward to that. I wanted more of a slam-bang, shoot-'em-up. This book offered a roller coaster ride all right, but one that consisted of a long, slow trip up the hill; the suspense and tension were palpable - this was going to be SO good! Then there was a not-very-big drop, and we pulled right back into the station. The whole thing kind of ended with a shrug. I was not enthralled.
In other words .. . . worth the ride for the great build up, but I probably wouldn't do it again. -
I didn’t realize this for a long time but my first exposure to Parker was in the movie loosely based on this book starring Peter Coyote that ran on cable a lot in my teen years. I only vaguely remembered it, mainly for it’s use of George Thorogood’s Bad to the Bone in the early scenes of the movie. (Thank you for writing that song, George. If it weren’t for you, there would have been countless film and television scenes where we would have had no clue that the character was ’bad’ without your helpful lyrics on the soundtrack.)
Fortunately, the movie bears so little resemblance to the book that I didn’t even realize the two were connected when I started reading the Parker novels or I may have discounted them because the movie is kind of a crappy horror story with a deadly hitman killing off some thieves. Hell, they don’t even call him Parker in the movie, he’s known as Stone. I don’t know why they bothered buying the book rights because the two share so few similarities that Stark (a/k/a Westlake) couldn’t have won a lawsuit over it.
It’s really a missed opportunity because in the right hands, this could have been Die Hard if they would have filmed the actual story. After a car crash during the getaway of a heist, Parker flees with the loot and tries to hide in an amusement park closed for the winter. Some gangsters and dirty cops see him go in and decide to kill him and take the money, but they make a critical mistake when they allow Parker enough time to get ready for them.
Carnage ensues.
It is awesome. -
to hell with y'all and all your crummy new years resolutions: 'lose weight, stop smoking, go vegetarian (<--although, that you should do!), be more/less adventurous, etc...' boring. totally boring. my resolution: gonna read every one of richard stark's 'parker' novels this year. and they're all gonna be those lovely gorgeous knockout new U. of Chicago editions. y'know what... lemme throw a few more chips in the pot: i'm gonna read all the ones currently available - that's 15 of 'em - this month. and then in april, when they release the next nine, i'll pound through those. so i'll have two months in between to recuperate or go into withdrawal... we'll see what happens.
it doesn't always work out as planned, but i try and divide my life bilaterally: the one half is a blur of lost days, days of adventure, dementia, drunkenness, travel, etc.; the other half is leaving the house as infrequently as possible and consists mostly of sitting in my office subsisting on a diet of massive amounts of coffee, books, music, dog-cuddling, masturbation, writing, and crap television/movies. the end of january marks my 37th birthday and what better way to celebrate than to head back to nyc for a week and run around like a chicken with its head cut off revealing me, in truth, as some pathetic rapidly-approaching-middle-aged loser still chasing his childhood... so in the weeks running up to my birthday it's the 'quiet' side of the equation, which means headphones roaring with the likes of bitches brew, new tijuana moods, singles going steady, and live dead; the oaks (my local coffee spot); working on these two stupid stupid scripts; editing this stupid stupid film; golden-hour hikes with my doggie; and total immersion in the world of 'parker' -- a great world to inhabit assuming, of course, you don't end up on parker's bad side.
and why the parker books? well, because they're the best. i've been hearing this forever. boorman's point blank, his version of the hunter, is some kinda loopy, jagged masterpiece. God(ard) based made in the usa on the jugger. tosh is a massive fan. as is mike reynolds. so i finally hunkered down at the book store and read a few chapters of slayground and the deal was sealed. i raced home, blasted through the book in an afternoon, immediately went back to the store, grabbed the score, and finished it that night (even better than slayground!)
i'll prolly jot down a few sentences after each book so ain't gonna blow my wad just now on why stark is god and parker a greater creation than adam, eve, light, earth, and any and all of us. just this: so far as i can tell, stark's plots are totally nutso. dig slayground: parker and two men crash the armored truck they just hijacked, parker snatches the satchel of money, and he escapes into a closed-down (it's winter) amusement park with only one entrance and exit. a bottle narrative deluxe! as 20 men (gangsters and crooked cops) come in to get him, parker's gotta booby-trap the hell outta the place and we get all the good stuff: shoot-outs in the house of mirrors, guys getting trapped in carnival rides, money stashed on fake pirate ships, standing painfully still in house of wax displays, fist fights, stabbings, shootings, etc...
now y'all keep quiet about this guy. i've gotta finish these scripts, build up my cred, and convince some studio bitch to buy the rights to one of these books for me so i can show boorman and God(ard) how it's really done.
next up: the score -
The title "Slayground" is a takeoff from the phrase "Amusement Playground." It is the fourteenth Parker novels, following "Deadly Edge" and preceding "Plunder Squad." "Lemons Never Lie" comes between "Slayground" and "Plunder Squad," but that is really one of the four Grofields, not a Parker. "Slayground" is the flip side to the Grofield novel "Blackbird." Parker, Grofield, and another guy pull off an armored car heist and the car flips over in the getaway process. Grofield ends up in the hospital where he is recruited by the CIA in "Blackbird."
Parker, however, gets away and hides inside an amusement park, that is shut down for the winter. In front of the park as Parker makes his entrance, a pair of hoodlums is busy paying off a pair of cops. After hearing a radio report of the armored car heist, a crack team of professional hoods enter the park to hunt down Parker and the $70,000 he is reportedly carrying with him. There is but one entrance and one exit and the hoods can keep calling in reinforcements while Parker has but one gun and a limited number of bullets.
This is quite different than most other Parker novels as it really doesn't center around the planning and execution of a heist. This is more like a horror movie with the serial killer chasing the teens around the funhouse, popping out at the oddest moments and creating general havoc Parker-style.
It is a solid, quick read that is about as fun to read as any crime novel ever has been. No, the plot is not all that complicated, but it doesn't need to be with Parker ingeniously improvising as he darts from one amusement park ride to another. How many hoods does it take to take down Parker? Gotta wonder.
Giving this one high marks not on its depth and complexity, but on the absolute amount of fun and enjoyment this was to read. -
The armored car heist would have gone without a hitch if Parker hadn't been saddled with a second-rate driver. Now Parker's holed up in an amusement park that's shut down for the winter. Only mobsters and crooked cops are after the $73,000 Parker has from the heist and know where Parker is...
The non-standard Parkers are some of my favorites and this is one of them. We only get to see the aftermath of the heist. The rest is one long cat and mouse game involving the park's attractions between Parker and Lozini's men. Some of the tricks Parker uses seem familiar but that's probably because movies and tv have used them since the book was written. Parker is shown not to be invincible several times but that just adds to his charm.
Stark's prose is as powerful as ever. Even though I was sure Parker would get out, I found myself doubting a couple times. -
3.5 stars. A relatively easy armored truck rip-off goes awry when a second rate driver skids on ice and flips the car. Parker sees his partners immobilized, grabs the loot, and seeks sanctuary in a local amusement park, closed for the winter. Some crooked cops and gangsters see Parker entering the park, and decide to relieve him of his ill-gotten gains. The rest of the novel is Parker seeking to escape the park alive (with scant resources) against formidable odds as the gangsters call in reinforcements. Think of the movie Home Alone as Parker booby-traps stuff awaiting the dragnet.
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June 2017 Review: Rereading with a group. I'm surprised so much time has passed since I last listened to this. Parker is put into a seemingly impossible situation & the action never stops. The situation & solutions are very realistic, too. No superman antics. A lot of hard thought & patience punctuated by ruthless action.
My comments on Ardai's foreword still mostly stand, save that I liked it better.
I don't think Ardai did it on purpose. IIRC, he was asked to write something about the Parker novels & then the publisher decided to slap it into a foreword when they were republished. I believe he set me straight on that score when I complained about it in a group. The way it is packaged, it's not easy to skip, but that is the audio book publisher's fault. I wish they'd make forewords a distinct file, but they didn't in this case. Otherwise, Ardai was right on with his assessments.
Once again, I was very impressed by the writing. I loved the way Westlake built up Very well done, so I'm bumping this to 4 stars from 3.
--------------
March 2013 Review: (3 stars) My edition is by Audio go, narrated by Joe Barrett with a foreword by
Charles Ardai. The foreword isn't bad, but is ironic since Ardai actually talks about how Stark continually surprises the reader even if the formula is the same & then he goes on to provide spoilers for the book. Ardai is the editor for Hard Case Crime books, so you'd think he could have contained himself.
It didn't help that my library & Fantastic Fiction both list this book as #13 in the series instead of #14 & the library doesn't have the real #13,
Deadly Edge, so Ardai provides spoilers for that as well. I wish they would make the foreword a track by itself so I could make it an afterword instead. This is the second time that's happened. Luckily, they weren't terrible ones.
The story itself was perfect Parker. As usual, I wonder where he got some of his skills, but he never does anything too far out. Everything is perfectly logical & I just have to admire his control & toughness, if not his morals or choice of profession. Quite a fun trip & I wonder if Stark will follow up on this caper. I can't wait.
This book marks where Grofield gets a book of his own. I haven't seen that available from the library, but I'll keep an eye out. -
One man with a S&W Terrier and couple of souvenir-shop knives versus 20 mobsters. Yes, the escape and evasion was thrilling, but my scalp got sore from all my nitpicking. I usually don't make a stink about a couple of far-fetched plot devices, but Stark writes with such photographic detail that I couldn't stop myself.
Nevertheless, I'm still looking forward to reading the sequel,
Butcher's Moon. -
If you liked the movie Home Alone and could do without the comedy bits then you might be interested in trying Slayground, the fourteenth Parker novel by Richard Stark.
A relatively easy job just bungled by the poor driving of a second rate wheelman Parker knew he shouldn't have brought on to the job. Stuck near an amusement park as police arrive he jumps the fence to the park and finds himself stuck with only one possible exit and mobsters descending on the back looking to relieve him of the loot.
The rest of the novel is Parker trying to stay alive and escape the park with the odds against him.
I don't know if there is something to be said about the novel being the only Parker novel that incorporates the dreadful mystery novel use of a pun in the title. Is it a homage to the locked room who-dunnits that are mentioned by a corrupt cop while he is helping to find Parker in the fun park? Or did Westlake just think that Slayground sounded pretty bad-ass and appropriate for a Stark/Parker novel? I don't know, maybe the introduction to the book would have answered this question for me, but I haven't enjoyed any of the introductions to the Parker novels, so I stopped reading them (and they annoy me because the same introduction will be used for all the novels re-issued in a particular season, so you get three or four novels all with the same introduction).
The book is more fun than a three star book but I've gotten into some weird rating system for these Parker novels and they should be taken as being relative only to the other Parkers, and not in relation to other books I've read.
Two more of the original 1960's / 70's novels to go! -
This is the fourteenth entry in Richard Stark's excellent series about Parker, the amoral criminal whose carefully-laid plans almost always come undone because of some unforeseen accident or because of an act of carelessness by one of the other crooks involved in the plan. In this case, it's the getaway driver who screws everything up. This is not the driver that Parker would have prefered, but it's the driver that Parker had to settle for. And it's Parker who will now have to pay the price.
Parker and two accomplices hit an armored car for $70,000. (This is back in 1969, when $70,000 was still a lot of money.) The overconfident driver loses control of the getaway car and rolls it only a couple of blocks from the scene of the crime. With the cops hot on his tail, Parker grabs the loot and escapes into an amusement park across the street that is closed for the winter.
Parker fully expects an army of cops to surround the park and flush him out, but then several hours pass and nothing happens. It turns out that the two patrolmen who saw Parker go over the fence are corrupt cops in league with local mobsters. Rather than bringing Parker to justice, they intend to hunt him down, kill him and keep the cash for themselves. The result is a great cat-and-mouse chase in which Parker, out-manned and out-gunned, must use every trick in the bag to save himself. He's even more inventive and resourceful than usual, and Stark (Donald Westlake) produces a taut, gripping story with a great climax. Fans of this series will be very grateful to the University of Chicago Press for resurrecting this title which has been unavailable for a good number of years. -
I prefer to read novels knowing as little as possible about them going in, so Slayground represents a special achievement for me: I began reading the often-discussed, often-praised fourteenth Parker novel knowing absolutely nothing about it--I even managed to tune out the illustrations on the cover of the Chicago reprint (except for the always-present Big Gun). So, in that spirit, I'm not going to tell you anything about it, either.
-
More thrill-ride than heist tale: can Parker survive being hunted by twenty(ish) armed men inside an otherwise empty amusement park??
And the answer is............hold on to your hats!!!
Three Screaming Stars -
One of the best Parker books. It opens a little slowly and then slams into what is generally called a thrill ride. Trapped in a closed down amusement park with killers "stalking" him. The account(s) of Parker moving through the closed rides and booths, trying to find something he can "use", the picture of him searching for a place to hid the loot (mcguffin?) all come together to give you a sort hold your breath story.
It's one of those that you kind of go Whew once you finish it.
I find myself a little ambivalent about liking the Parker books. I mean the guy's a thief and arguably a psychopath. But he's interesting...
Maybe give the Parker books a shot (get it??? "a shot"??? yeah alright I'll move on). Anyway if you like action, crime etc. maybe try them yourself. -
The late Donald Westlake is another one of those authors who's been praised to skies (especially after his death) and whose work I've been meaning to check out--again.
I can't remember which Westlake book it was that I tried first--something with Dortmunder in it, I think. It had to be Dortmunder because that was his comic character and Westlake was trying so hard to be funny. Ha ha, I said, and put the book down without finishing it.
Then I read all those glowing post-mortems on Westlake's career. I wondered, "Is it me? Maybe I should try another one."
I saw from the retrospectives that Westlake wrote under no less than three names. (Wow, I thought. It's hard enough just to write under one. And, if you read Wikipedia, it'll tell you he used many more.) And, under the name Richard Stark, he wrote about a hard-edged anti-hero, a cynical robber named Parker. And one Parker novel drew this blurb from Anthony Boucher: "Nobody tops Stark in his portayals of a world of total amorality." Wow, Anthony Boucher said that? I'm in.
SLAYGROUND starts with an armored-car robbery gone wrong. The getaway car in which Parker and his two cohorts flee the scene gets into a terrible crash. Parker grabs the cash and leaves the cohorts to their own devices. He runs for the nearest hiding place he can find--an amusement park called Fun Island. (Can you feel the irony yet? Don't worry, you will.) As he climbs the gate with the cash, he notices two men in hats and dark overcoats (it's winter and the park's closed) with two uniformed policemen--out there in the middle of nowhere. One of the cops is holding a long white envelope. And we all know what that means--it's not a love letter inside that envelope, it's cash, and that means that the cops are being bought and that means that the men in hats and overcoats are "wise guys." The Mob. And they notice Parker noticing them.
Parker realizes he's in big trouble when he finds out there's no other way out of the park. He can't go out the gate, because then the bad guys will nab him. So he knows they'll eventually be coming in for him. And he gets ready for this. He runs from one section of the park to the other--from New York Island to Alcatraz to Treasure Island and Voodoo Island and so on and so on--setting up traps (it doesn't say so, but it's pretty obvious that's what he's doing) in the funhouse the various boat rides and the submarine ride and so on and so on. And his circuit of the park is described in "over the river and through the woods" detail from about page 15 to about page 38, at which point, it's night and Parker is waiting and wondering why those guys haven't come after him yet. And I'm thinking bo-o-o-ring and I'm almost ready to put the book down. But I always give a book 50 pages. And the next 12 pages made all the difference.
That's when you get to meet the bad guys--the two cops and the two hoods--each of them interesting characters. You get to find out about each of their agendas and why they waited so long to come in. Once they're inside--let in by a hapless night watchman who ends up tied up, blindfolded and gagged in the watchhouse--all the fun starts. It starts with a bang and things seem to go well for Parker at first. But then things take a turn. And Parker suddenly finds himself in deep doo-doo.
The rest of the book is Parker versus the bad guys. Parker's movements continue to be described in great detail ("over the bridge, past the tiki hut, into the blacklight ride . . ."). I think the description is supposed to reflect the cold nature of his character--his sheer calculation--because Parker really hasn't much personality to speak of. Or maybe it was just the author's style. I don't know. Anyway, Parker is so thoroughly a man of strategy and action, without those attributes he'd be as colorless as the invisible man. Yet, oddly, I got used to the cadence of description and the level of detail as Parker plays cat-and-mouse with the Mob.
I got so caught up in the suspense, I stayed up late reading because I simply had to finish the section (the book's divided into four) that I'd started. So did this book work for me? Well, yes. It was exciting, well-written, escapist fun. (I did blow through the description a bit, but still . . . I liked the story.) Would I agree with Boucher's assessment? Well, Boucher wrote it in 1966--before The Sopranos, The Wire and all sorts of other tales of amoral folk. I suppose, for its time, this was pretty harsh stuff. Nothing about the people in this book particularly shocked me in the amorality department, but it's not 1966 anymore, is it? The book ends on a note that practically begs for a sequel. And there is the small matter of the hapless watchman. I wonder what happened to him? -
Different than previous installments, Parker #14 is a fun, quick book about hiding out in an amusement park which is closed for the season. Hiding out because he has the loot from an armored car robbery and the hoodlums are right around the corner.
🎢
I liked the break from the planned heist and occasional double cross. This was concise and the narrator’s depiction of the different characters was impressive. On to #15. -
The non-standard Parkers are not my fav type of a Parker book, i enjoy the heist planning,the build up,the betrayels and so on most. But this one was amazing,so different,such a thrill reading Parker stuck in an amusement park with mobsters chasing him,his 72 000 dollars.
Great sparse,lean prose as usual, makes me think of Hammett in the best Parker books.
Parker was shown not to be invincible in that he was weakened in his usual tough body by the weather,his other problems. I also liked how it wasnt shoot your way out alà Die Hard movie but he fought back by being smart and mental tough. -
Wow!!!!! I was surprised and so impressed with what Parker did to outsmart these guys. It’s scary and suspenseful.
A normal person would be helpless, but not Parker. I read a lot, and I think I’m hard to surprise, but this one did it. This book is a great example showing how Parker is a brilliant strategist with keen insight into others.
I usually don’t like “first person” stories. This is an example of how rich a story can be when you don’t use first person, because you get inside others’ heads. This was great because we were in the heads of Parker and various bad guys. The characters were richly developed and intriguing. I loved how Parker decided which guy to use or kill first.
This is book 14 and has a complete ending. But book 16 (Butcher’s Moon) continues the story with Parker visiting the same mobsters two years later.
STORY BRIEF:
This book starts after a robbery with the getaway car crashing. All the guys are unconscious except Parker. Sirens are on the way, so Parker leaves with the money. He climbs the gate of a nearby amusement park which is closed for the winter. Some local mob guys see him do this. They tell the cops that Parker drove away with the money. Then they enter the park with a crew intending to kill Parker and take the money. There is no way out but the front gate which they guard.
NARRATOR & FORWARD:
The narrator Joe Barrett was good, better than Stephen R. Thorne, but not as good as Keith Szarabjka.
I liked the Forward by Charles Ardai. It appears in both books 13 and 14.
THE SERIES:
This is book 14 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)
DATA:
Narrative mode: 3rd person. Unabridged audiobook length: 5 hrs and 16 mins. Swearing language: damn and Christ, each used once. Sexual content: none. Setting: around 1971 mostly New Jersey plus other U.S. locations. Book copyright: 1969 and 1971. Genre: noir crime fiction. -
Quick and very entertaining read about Parker trying to evade Mafia hoodlums in a fairground where there is only one exit and he has to improvise regarding weapons. 14th in the series but hardly any reference to previous books so fine to read as a standalone. How no-one has managed to make a decent movie of this, I don't know as the story seems to be ideal for that.
Having read the first three Parker books, I have skipped to book 14 and am going to read books 14 to 16 in sequence finishing off with Butcher's Moon as that one seems to get really good reviews. This one was close to a five star read for me - particularly liked the characters of the boss of the bad guys, Mr Lozini and of course, Parker himself. -
Most everyone’s consensus favorite as Parker novels go and I can see why. Trapped in a closed-for-the-season amusement park, Parker is hunted by a seemingly endless supply of killers. The environment allows for countless ways to outsmart and outmaneuver his adversaries. Very enjoyable but my favorite of the “classic” Parkers remains The Black Ice Score, which, not surprisingly, seems to most people's least favorite. So it goes.
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“Parker jumped out of the Ford with a gun in one hand and a pocket of explosive in the other.”
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Parker and two accomplices rob an armored car. Their driver flips the getaway car on an icy road, and Parker, along with $73,000 in a duffel bag, is the only one to walk away from the accident. He is near the entrance of Fun Island, an amusement park closed for the winter. From here, Richard Stark throws himself onto thin ice of coincidence and a style of flashy plotting her seldom indulges. Two cops see Parker enter with the bag, but since they are in the process of getting the monthly pay-off from local gangsters they are unlikely to pursue him. At least not until the legit police can be deflected, a deal struck with the crooks, and backup brought in to hunt down and kill Parker. The amusement park setting provides Parker with minimal weaponry but many chances to set booby traps for the killers he knows will be coming. This could all devolve into Home Alone for adults, except for Stark’s shifting of the story between Parker to the hoods, the excellent characters he creates for Parker’s hunter’s, and the opportunity he finds for Parker to display the ruthlessness that defines his character.
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PROTAGONIST: Parker
SERIES: #14
RATING: 4.0
WHY: Parker and 2 colleagues pull off an armored car heist when things go wrong. They have a car accident, and Parker escapes with the loot. He scales the wall of a nearby amusement park but is seen doing so. There is only one exit, and it is being watched. Parker sets up a series of traps, and soon a flock of mob men and cops are looking for him. It’s not a spoiler to say that he eventually gets out. The book is different from the others in the series—it’s as if Parker were trapped in a locked room surrounded by rats. I appreciated his ingenuity and the not-quite-happy ending. -
I probably liked/disliked this book for completely polar opposite reasons than most reviewers. I thought the claustrophobic feel of Parker being trapped in a “fun” amusement park and the entire setting of this to be a major plus of the book. I mean, here is Parker with nowhere to go, nowhere to run. Outmanned, with only one means of escape. He’s in quite a jam. This really heightens the tension really from the opening moments. Where this book excels is giving you a clear picture of Parker and his overwhelming situation. And the atmosphere of the bizarre scenery and rides and, well, “fun house” make for an interesting touch to the plot, as Parker desperately hopes to escape and keep his loot, the big prize.
There are some really tough hoods out to get Parker, and one really, really tough leader of the gang (who more than one time will let you know he is tough. Really, really tough). Not to mention, there are two crooked cops in on the mix with the hoods after Parker as well. But, the hoods are quite bumbling and things seems pretty convenient for Parker sometimes. Some of the dialogue between the hoods is a bit cringe worthy, and Parker, being outmanned, has a bit of a Rambo-esque escape instinct that seem slightly over-the-top. Definitely a fun ride, Slayground is as mere entertainment, but not sure if I’ll continue on. -
Notes:
Currently on Audible Plus -
Some what a departure from the previous novels. It's all about the unfortunate aftermath to what would have been an otherwise successful heist.Parker is trapped in an amusement park closed for the season. Needless to say - he survives to continue on in this excellent series. It's how he survives that makes this interesting and different.
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I love the Darwyn Cooke comic book adaptations of the Parker novels but have never read one in the original prose-only format. Slayground jumped out at me as the place to start partly because that’s the next one Cooke’s adapting and I want to see the difference between the original and the adaptation, but also because of the delicious setup.
Parker is a master thief who, alongside two accomplices, one of them his longtime partner Grofield, knocks over an armored car and makes off with $73k. But things go pear-shaped as the unreliable driver crashes the getaway car. Parker is the only one conscious in the wreck so he grabs the loot and runs for cover - in a nearby amusement park! Except some gangsters and crooked cops are nearby doing a deal and see the suspicious figure of Parker toss a satchel over the fence and jump in after it just as dispatch alerts the cops to a recent and nearby robbery. Trapped inside the amusement park (which is shut for the winter), Parker must lay out traps in order to survive from the cops and gangsters preparing to storm the park, kill him, and take his money. Game on!
It’s a great setup, right? Buuuuuuut... I didn’t love the book like I thought I would. Westlake is a fine writer - his prose is lean, his dialogue is crisp, and he writes at a decent clip. No wonder Elmore Leonard found him such an inspiration, Leonard’s style is clearly influenced by this earlier master crime writer. But nothing really happens in the first half of the book. Sure, we get the burst of action that comes with the initial robbery but once Parker’s in the fairground? The cops/gangsters stand around waiting for their group to gather while Parker wanders about discovering his surroundings, making plans, setting traps - all fine, but boy, is it boring to read!
Once the action does start I did notice a difference between Westlake and Cooke immediately - whereas with Cooke, who can convey action quickly and effectively with his art, Westlake must use his words to set the scene, and the description, of which there are paragraphs and paragraphs for a single scene, overwhelms the action, slowing it down immensely to become almost inaction. Couple that with the character of Parker who barely says two words at the best of times, and you’ve got a near dialogue-silent novel with Westlake’s descriptive writing carrying the entire book.
The most disappointing thing about my first Richard Stark Parker novel was that I knew what the story was as soon as I read the synopsis - and after I put the book down I realised Stark/Westlake hadn’t surprised me once. The last prose novel I read before this was The Believers by Zoe Heller and if I were to explain the plot of that book - family drama where its discovered the patriarch has a secret second family - and you read it, you would see how reductive and misleading the synopsis actually is. With Slayground, it is exactly what the synopsis says it is, and nothing more. This is the story of a stoic master thief, surrounded by danger, who lays traps in an amusement park to escape from that danger - and that’s what you get with the book. Fair enough, The Believers is literary fiction and Slayground is genre fiction, a crime thriller, but I think it’s clear that Westlake’s prose is good enough to surpass the genre label and be considered literary. In this way he joins fellow crime writers Chandler, Cain, McCoy, Higgins, and Leonard, who’ve escaped the tags of their pulpy roots to become revered as literary masters in their own right. But while there is a certain charm to the simplicity of a story like this, delivering exactly what it says on the tin, I found it a bit unexciting in its predictability. Although I did like that Parker was vulnerable in this book - the Cooke adaptations have shown him as impossibly flawless in his approach to heists and his encounters with other crooks. Here, he is cowed and weak, albeit temporarily.
Maybe Slayground wasn’t the best Parker novel to start with? Although I wasn’t put off from reading any more Parker novels in the future, I wasn’t impressed enough to reach for another one immediately after. -
Cornered like a rat in a maze, Parker is stranded in a closed amusement park after an armored car robbery turns sour. Mobsters, thugs and half-assed cops are waiting to get one over on Parker but little do they know ... the hunters will be become the hunted.
Slayground is top notch. By maxing out creativity and fun in this entry, Stark (Westlake) hits a home run as this book is by far one of the most unique offerings in the series. Let's stop and think about it for a second ... a career criminal trapped inside an amusement park??? What!? It sounds pretty bizarre but Stark crafts the story into a suspenseful and entertaining adventure. Imagine a very adult Home Alone where the booby traps are more deadly and the thugs are scarier than Marv and Harry. The park's attractions come alive in Stark's writing and you will find yourself smiling throughout the book.
This one doesn't fit the normal Parker formula which is a good thing. The repetitive nature of the previous entries are welcoming, comforting, and entertaining but the survival twist is fresh. As I read these novels for the first time, the ones that bend the rules and establish their own feel (e.g. The Outfit, The Score, The Green Eagle Score) have been an absolute joy to read.
This book was sooooo much fun that I envy those reading it for the first time. Get ready for some surprises and thrills. I lost count of how many times I muttered "badass" out loud. However, if this is your first Parker experience...DO NOT READ IT. Be smart and begin with The Hunter and proceed from there. I could not imagine reading these books out of order. They build off one another very well and Stark peppers in easter egg references from previous books. This is my first time through the Parker series and as I get closer to Butcher's Moon my excitement and anticipation grows. I do wish I would have savored them a little more but oh well...it is/has been a hoot reading these from start to finish. -
Die Hard Parker at the Fairground
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (February, 2013) of the Random House hardcover (1971)
Richard Stark was one of the many pseudonyms of the prolific crime author
Donald E. Westlake (1933-2008), who wrote over 100 books. The Stark pseudonym was used primarily for the Parker novels, an antihero criminal who is usually betrayed or ensnared in some manner and who spends each book getting revenge or escaping the circumstances.
Slayground finds Parker on the run after a heist gone bad and his crew member Alan Grofield arrested. It turns into a Die Hard situation at an amusement park with the local mob and their corrupt cop associates hunting down Parker, who had infringed on their territory without approval. Parker waits them out and sets up boobytraps and diversions during the all-night siege. The fate of the loot becomes the MacGuffin for Parker #16
Butcher's Moon.
Narrator Joe Barrett does a good job in all voices in this audiobook edition.
I had never previously read the Stark/Parker novels but became curious when they came up in my recent reading of
The Writer's Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives (Sept. 2020) by Nancy Pearl & Jeff Schwager. Here is a (perhaps surprising) excerpt from their discussion with
Amor Towles:Nancy: Do you read Lee Child?
Amor: I know Lee. I had never read his books until I met him, but now I read them whenever they come out. I think some of the decisions he makes are ingenious.
Jeff: Have you read the Parker books by Donald Westlake [writing as Richard Stark]?
Amor: I think the Parker books are an extraordinary series.
Jeff: They feel like a big influence on Reacher, right down to the name. Both Reacher and Parker have a singular focus on the task in front of them.
Amor: But Parker is amoral. Reacher is just dangerous.
Jeff: Right. Reacher doesn't have a conventional morality, but he has his own morality. Parker will do anything he has to do to achieve his goal.
Amor: But to your point, Westlake's staccato style with its great twists at the end of the paragraphs, and his mesmerizing central character - these attributes are clearly shared by the Reacher books.
The 24 Parker books are almost all available for free on Audible Plus, except for #21 & #22 which aren't available at all.
Trivia and Links
Slayground was loosely adapted into a film version
Slayground (1983) dir. Terry Bedford, which had very little to do with the book's plot. Peter Coyote plays the Parker role, which is renamed as Stone.
There is a brief plot summary of Slayground and of all the Parker books and adaptations at The Violent World of Parker
website.
Unlike many of the 2010-2013 Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook editions which share the same cover art as the University of Chicago Press 2009-2010
reprints, this audiobook DOES include the Foreword by author
Charles Ardai.
