Breakout

By Richard Stark

     In the first few pages of the book, master criminal Parker finds himself in jail as a result of a botched caper. Needless to say Parker's focus is on getting out of jail but he cannot do it alone. So he needs to find a couple of fellow cons who he can trust with planning the jailbreak. He chooses his cellmate, Brandon Williams, and Tom Marcantoni as his co-conspirators. Ed Mackey is Parker's guy on the outside who helps him because he owes him a favor from the past. The jailbreak is successful but that is when the real excitement begins. Parker agrees to help one of his conspirators with a heist once they are free. When the heist goes bad, Parker and his partners find themselves in a lot of hot water and running for their lives.

     Breakout is Richard Stark's (pseudonym for Donald E. Westlake) 21st installment in the Parker master criminal series. Westlake is also the author of the Tucker Coe (ex cop/private investigator) and John Dortmunder (comic thief in New York) series. He has also written a number of non-series mystery books as well. The characters in Breakout are classic Stark/Westlake, running the gamut from cops to snitches, and including your basic run-of-the-mill neighborhood thugs. Parker is a dark character but a likeable one.

     The book is well written with a plot that is crisp and fast paced. This is the first book in the series that I have read; I most highly recommend it and plan to read others in the series as well.