So this is Breakout, where Parker gets caught in a heist and goes to prison, for the first time in the series, and it’s a new maximum security prison no one has ever broken out of. Look at the title and guess what happens. For the first time, I think, I actually read the hardcover, since the last four books are not yet audiotaped. This is #21 of 24, and is one of the post-Butcher’s Moon books, after which he stopped writing the series for more than twenty years, and it is—again—not as good as an...

Parker's facing a long spell in jail. Busted during what should have been a simple heist -generic drugs from a warehouse- due to a local hire going greed hog and setting off the one alarm the mechanics hadn't figured they needed to jam up.The screws know him as "Ronald Kasper". "Ronald Kasper" was the name Parker was using back in one of the 1st 4 entries in the series when he had to break out of a California prison killing a guard in the process. Parker was fingerprinted as "Kasper".These flat-...

The robbery of a pharmaceutical wholesaler goes south and Parker winds up in the clink. The cops have his prints and link him to the killing he did as Ronald Kasper when he escaped the work camp ages ago. Can Parker bust out of the hoosegow? And what's waiting in the wings when he does?I've been complaining about the post-Butcher's Moon Parker books not being as good as the early ones for quite some time. They're too long and don't have the punch of the earlier books. So, is Breakout more of the...

my third post-hiatus parker book. and it's good. a tightly plotted story involving three breakouts:1. parker assembles a string in prison to break the hell out before they're transferred to high-security. 2. parker and crew have gotta break out of an armory once their entry/exit tunnel has collapsed. 3. parker and mackay have gotta use legal maneuvering and intimidation to break brenda out of a police holding tank. and i particularly love the final few pages as parker hitches a ride with a middl...

Donald Westlake has been a favorite of mine for years. It wasn't to I joined GR that I found out he also wrote under Richard Stark! I have just started to read the Parker series from Stark. Parker is Stark's answer to Westlake's Dortmunder. Both are likeable thieves that you root for against the Law! Looking forward to reading more of his Parker series.

Parker has miraculously avoided the law until a knucklehead on a pharmaceutical warehouse job goes into the alarmed office, and the whole crew goes to the pokie. The cops are trying to get each to rat out the others, but Parker has the most to lose since his fingerprints are in the system from his previous prison sentence where there is an inmate murder so Parker needs to get out. He recruits his cellmate and another inmate, and they do what has never been done in this overcrowded facility, with...

In the 21st of 24 Parker novels “Breakout,” Parker is arrested and placed into a detention center, awaiting arraignment. Although Parker once mentioned he had been temporarily on a prison farm in California under an assumed name, throughout all the Parker novels, he has been this invincible behemoth who never gets picked up, never does time. The authorities don’t really know who he is. Therefore, if you have been reading these novels, you rarely think about the possibility of Parker being taken

It's been awhile since I read a Parker novel. Ever since Donald Westlake (Richard Stark) died, I've been spacing them out a little more, since I know there won't be any more of them.At first, I thought "Breakout" was a little lazy. After Parker and his hastily assembled crew of cons break out of jail, they're immediately embroiled in a caper, and the way in to the former armory/current jewel warehouse seemed overly simple. One of the things I love about this series is the way Westlake sets up a

Review from 12/2020:Mr. Stark's protagonist Parker is like an evil (or indifferent/amoral) Jack Reacher. He's a criminal who handles crazy situations as they come, is unafraid to use extreme violence in said crazy situations, and lives by a code (that only he knows) to help him survive said crazy situations. This time out the law catches up with our favorite anti-hero, and it's a whole lotta fun reading his attempt at......a......BREAKOUT!! RunonoutandgetyousomewiththequicknessyoReread 1/2022:T...

In the long list of 24 Parker novels, Breakout by Donald E. Westlake writing as Richard Stark takes its place as #21. But Breakout is singular. Breakout is unique in that the novel covers the other side of the world Parker inhabits. As every Stark fan knows, in each and every Parker novel there was always, always the chance of Parker getting nabbed by the law and sent to prison. Oh, yes, ever since Parker walked across the George Washington Bridge back in The Hunter (Parker #1), Parker faced the...

The Parker series of books by Richard Stark have enjoyed perennial popularity--and that’s with a 23-year hiatus in its run. But why? Evan as an enthusiastic member of the club, I cannot say definitively. The protagonist has no redeeming attributes. Even traits like his professionalism and single-minded determination, which could be seen as positives in certain situations, come at the expense of any humanitarian impulse. And his ultimate goal in each story contains nothing resembling beneficial i...

Excellent Parker novel. Not much goes right for Parker this time, but it's an exciting twist when he's arrested. Some new partners (and an old one) make for an entertaining read.

3 ½ stars. This book is more about Parker reacting to things instead of planning.A couple parts were slow, but several parts had good tension. Parker has to breakout of two different places: he’s in jail and then he can’t get out of an armory. Then he has to break someone else out of jail. I liked his mental process, what he does, what he plans, and his actions when on the run. It’s fun being in Parker’s mind.THE SERIES:This is book 21 in the 24 book series. These stories are about bad guys. The...

"When the alarm went off, Parker and Armiston were far to the rear of the warehouse, Armiston with the clipboard, checking off the boxes they’d want.”

Parker and the Break-ins & BreakoutsReview of the University of Chicago Press paperback edition (May 2013) of the Mysterious Press hardcover (2002)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.As Breakout begi...

This was one of the Parker books I had not read so when I found a copy and purchased I was looking forward to reading and put it away with the other ones from the series and I discovered the exact duplicate I bought a few years earlier. Well dear old me buying the book twice, it must be old age I guess.Another Parker novel in which the robbery goes all wrong in the start of the book and Parker ends up in prison, while they might not know his true identity his fingerprints are on file and the sta...

Parker in jail! That's a place he's avoided for a long time & it's great how he manages to make that seem like the most pedestrian problem in the book. There are plenty of more interesting ones. The writing isn't as tight as the original ones, but it's better than some of the others this far into the series. There's a bit more story here than there has to be, but it was fun. On to read the next.

A Vicious Cycle.A failed breakout during a heist leads to a short stint in prison which leads to a prison break that leads to a failed heist and another breakout from another type of prison. And then Mackey's wife is put in jail on trumped up charges. The finale shows that crime only pays if you're a criminal defense attorney. Sadly, the latest Kindle version fails to allow the reader to provide a review at the end and fails to mark the book as "Read" on Goodreads. Thanks for Nothing to either t...

Spoiler Alert! The following review reveals something very, very important that happens on page 6 of this book. Now, having said that, you may not think that spoiling page 6 can be spoiling much, but I found the image of (spoiler alert!) Parker putting his hands on top of his head and meekly submitting to arrest to be stunning (even though, given the title Breakout, I thought it might be coming). Taken collectively, the first 20 Parker novels (Breakout is the 21st) give the lie to the idea t

Awhile back I started reading Richard Stark’s Parker novels from the beginning. I got as far as #20 (Firebreak), which is when the store I was buying them from stopped carrying them. Anyway, recently I managed to get a copy of #21, and here we are. In this instalment, the title is taken literally – the story opens with Parker in the middle of a heist that’s just gone wrong, and he gets caught and sent to Stoneveldt, a local transit prison that’s never had an escape. As you might imagine, Parker

Richard Stark is a pseudonym for Donald Westlake, and Parker is a career criminal like Dortmunder, but more hard core (and efficient) than he is. I didn't find him as likable, but it's still a fascinating story. I think I may have read earlier ones in this series, but if I did it's been so long I don't really remember them, so I may have to go back check them out. 3.5 stars

Entirely too much grinning in this one. There's one guy in here, Williams, who I swear every time he has a line of dialogue, it goes like "[speech]," Williams grinned. Really started to take me out of it after a while. Nobody should be grinning that much, especially not in a Parker book.

Second read (having gone through a frustrating run of bad to mediocre 2020s novels, I'm re-reading what my library has of this series instead for the week). I'll stick with three stars for this one, which was my initial rating. Parker has to break out a few times in this outing. Trigger alert: claustrophobia, speluncaphobia. (Though if you are the kind of person who needs trigger alerts, probably this is not the series for you anyway.) My quibbles (with minor/vague spoilers): None of the seconda...

Simply put, the Parker series in an outstanding series. It was so nice to see Parker again though he seemed to get in a lot of trouble this time. I kind of count on him to get out of any situation, smoothly and with finesse, but not this time. He's well and truly caught after a pharmaceutical heist goes wrong, off to the Stoneveldt Detention Center he goes. Incidentally, there's never been an escape from this facility, but they don't know Parker. The escape is daring, the result perfect. And the...

I've only read a couple Parker novels,, but, I've liked them both. Unfortunately my library doesn't have anymore kindle versions of them, so, I'll have to get the printed versions of them.Parker is a criminal. Of that there can be no denial. But, he has a code and he operates by that code. In Breakout, Parker is in prison. And, he needs to get out of prison. Staying for his sentence isn't how he'll get out. He needs out. Now. So, he gets himself a crew that wants the same thing, is professional

After a robbery goes south, Parker ends up in prison, cut off from his usual string. He manages to get word out to Claire who arranges to have a lawyer really work for him: enter Mr. Jonathan Li, a character I hope to see more of in the next three (and final) books. Also back for another go-round are Ed Mackey and Brenda. Always a pleasure to see those two. Ed helps Parker get some background info on a few fellow inmates so he can get a crew together and plan a breakout. There's your title. A go...

Another classic Richard Stark, a.k.a. Donald Westlake, or vice versa if you prefer. Again featuring that completely amoral thief, Parker, as usual, several things go wrong with the caper forcing Parker to extricate himself from a mess. Unusually, Parker finds himself in prison (again due to a colleague’s carelessness and his own use of a name that had a record from another state) and must breakout. This he and a couple of colleagues accomplish but then he reluctantly becomes involved in another

I'm on the countdown to finishing the entire Parker series, and I always enjoy these books. I will be so sad when I am through! I liked this one, but the middle lags a little bit. This plot is about Parker and some other prisoners breaking out of prison, and what they encounter afterwards. I have a favorite quote from this book that just about sums up the amoral thought process between these criminals, and it made me smile. Speaking about what to do with a man they just held captive, the charact...

I am a huge Parker fan and I would put this one up there with the great ones simply because it is a great read and has so many nice pieces to it and great characters (especially the corrupt lawyer Li). As I said there are many great parts, a breakout from jail, a heist, another escape, another breakout of a captured member of the gang and finally a breakout from the city/state itself. Parker is pure Parker, thinking on his feet, never at a loss for a plan of action. We get to see Ed Mackey again...

This is another in the long-running Parker series by Richard Stark, aka Donald Westlake. This one starts out with Parker running into problems with the police, resulting in all sorts of problems for our favorite anti-hero. As usual, this is a well-written, well-plotted crime thriller. It's not the best in the series, but it's well worth reading, especially for the sections where Parker has to try to create relationships with people to get what he needs. The third section dragged a bit for me, bu...