Stuck in jail without bail while awaiting trial, Parker builds a network among his fellow cons to assist him in getting out of trouble, but when he becomes involved in a heist set up by one of his co-conspirators, Parker and his fellow escapees suddenly find themselves on the run for their lives. 20,0000 first printing. Tired of do-gooder heroes saving the day? Meet Parker--just Parker to you, bub--a one-man wrecking crew, cunning, fearless, and more than just a little cold-blooded. Writing again under hard-boiled alter-ego Richard Stark, Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Donald E. Westlake returns to the violent world of his legendary criminal creation with Breakout . This time around Parker has picked certain members of his crew wrong and the job goes south right into the county lockup. Alone and isolated, the antihero finds himself without much wiggle room. But experienced Stark readers know, wiggling is what the slippery Parker does best. In Breakout , he wiggles himself out of jail and right into an even more dangerous situation involving an armory, a tunnel, and a jewelry wholesaler. While there are rough spots here and there, Breakout is simply another fun-to-read Parker novel, taking readers again to the flip side where the bad guys win and the good guys are never as good as they should be. Call it a great escape because, with this Parker novel in particular, that's just what it is. --Jeremy Pugh If nothing else, Breakout proves that it's hard to get good help nowadays. Returning under the guise of the Stark pen name (following last year's Firebreak), mystery author Donald E. Westlake has Parker, a.k.a. Ronald Kasper, involved in the heist of a pharmaceutical company warehouse that goes terribly wrong owing to the ineptness of a confederate. Ending up in the stir, Parker identifies the two prisoners he can depend on to help him break out of their maximum-security prison. Once out, Parker discovers that he's not rid of his colleagues, who then involve him in the knockoff of a wholesale jewelry company, housed in a supposedly impenetrable ex-armory. After the trio successfully gains entrance to the company, they find that extricating themselves from it proves a lot more difficult. When they effect their escape via the good offices of a pizza delivery man, they are faced with having to elude the police as well as the prison authorities before Parker can gracefully excuse himself with the meager swag he's managed to retrieve. With help at such a premium, fans will thank Stark/Westlake for assisting them in making it through another night of guaranteed spare, straight-ahead action and dark humor. For all public libraries. Bob Lunn, Kansas City P.L., MO Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. *Starred Review* Writing once again as Richard Stark, Donald E. Westlake delivers an immensely pleasurable entry in the Parker series. After a pharmaceutical heist goes south, Stark's strong, silent antihero faces a dose of hard time. While awaiting arraignment in an overcrowded detention center, Parker formulates an escape with the help of two fellow prisoners, a crooked defense attorney, and sometime-partner-in-crime Ed Mackey. A series of breakouts follow, as Parker and company hit pothole after pothole on their crooked road to freedom. The escapes are by turns clever, desperate, entertainingly frustrating, and flat-out thrilling. No matter the problem, Parker attacks it with relentless, amoral logic. At times, his pragmatic approach is refreshing--if a smart guy is available for your prison crew, who cares what color his skin is? At other points, as when Parker considers abandoning Mackey in a pinch, his attitude is appalling. But by keeping dialogue and character detail to a minimum, Stark invites readers to project themselves onto the always-assured Parker, making him a frighteningly easy sociopath to root for. And watching knowledgeable bad guys ply their shadowy trade under pressure is always fun. Simply put, Breakout is great escapist fiction. Frank Sennett Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Richard Stark, who is also Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Donald E. Westlake, lives in upstate New York. Used Book in Good Condition