Donald E. Westlake, writing under the pseudonym of Richard Stark, wrote 24 novels with the tight-lipped tough guy Parker as his main character. The challenge for a fiction writer in having a main character who doesn’t like to talk is that stories can get a bit too much stripped down to action. So what do you do? Create other characters for Parker to work with who talk a lot, and well, and humorously, and Alan Grofield is one of those characters. Grofield is an actor who supports his ill-paid tra...

As virtually all crime fiction fans know, "Richard Stark" was one of the several pseudonyms used by the prolific author, Donald Westlake. Writing as Stark, he was best known for his series featuring the amoral criminal known as Parker which ultimately ran to twenty-four novels. As Stark, Westlake also wrote four novels featuring Alan Grofield who appeared in several of the Parker novels as Parker's sidekick.The Blackbird is the third of the Grofield novels and, in an interesting move, shares a f...

This starts with the same incident as Slayground, the 14th Parker book. Parker gets away & deals with his issues. Grofield winds up dealing with his own in this book & damn, but he deals. It was neat the way Stark worked him into international espionage since that's about the last situation anyone would ever expect Grofield to show up. His practicality rivals Parker's & he is much more likable & witty about it. It's the best of the 4 Grofield novels, IMO. It does rely on the first 2 for its setu...

Apparently, Richard Stark used the Grofield novels to experiment with different types of stories. Whereas his justly famous Parker novels all follow exactly the same brutal format, these spin-offs were looser and more playful. A way for Stark to try new things and have fun doing it.Sharing pretty much the same opening chapter as the Parker novel, SLAYGROUND, this whacks his cohort, Grofield (an actor who moonlights as an armed robber) swiftly into over-the-top international espionage which aims

One reason that the Parker novels are superior to the Grofield novels is that, over the long haul, it's more pleasant to spend time with a sullen sociopath than a smartass. In The Blackbird, Grofield's schtick begins to wear thin around page 100, but the book has more than enough action and intelligence to keep you going.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter substance that influences our sensation of pleasure, among other things. The Blackbird, by Richard Stark (a pseudonym used by Donald Westlake), offers up its literary equivalent-- generating sensations of pleasure with each fast-moving chapter.Featuring Alan Grofield, a witty, and for the most part, non-violent thief who is included in several "Parker" novels by the same author, this story is a fun romp that is a bit of a stretch in terms of credulity. Nevertheless...

"Grofield jumped out of the Ford with a gun in one hand and the empty satchel in the other."

I'm still binging on Stark (Westlake). There is one more Grofield novel and that's next up for me.

Grofield was in trouble. Again.THE BLACKBIRD and the Parker novel, SLAYGROUND, share the same first chapter. The pair are hitting an armored car on a country road. The job was cursed from the beginning. The driver they'd lined up didn't make it, arrested by a redneck cop, and they'd had to recruit local talent. Good driver, but to nervous. Fleeing the scene, with the police a mile away, he drove too fast into a turn, rolling the car. Parker slips out with the money, Grofield is unconscious, the

What is it with these Alan Grofield novels and their far-fetched, unlikely plots? This is a character that seemed great in the Parker novels, and him having his own adventures seemed like a good idea, but so far I must say I'm disappointed. About the only interesting thing about this book is the very beginning, where Grofield is pulling a heist with Parker. Stark used the same chapter to open Slayground, only this time it's told from Grofield's point of view, and not Parker. The book is an easy

This book starts off exactly the same as the Parker novel Slayground. While Slayground follows Parker the getaway car crashes. This novel follows Alan Grofield. Alan is not as dark and methodical as Parker. He's more of a comedian and a ladies man. However, he is sort of a deciple of Parker's. I intend to read the other 2 novels about Grofirld as well. If you're here by chance. Go see what got this entire party started. Read 'The Hunter' ; Parker book 1. Then I dare you not to devour all 24 of t...

“No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come.”This starts off with the same heist that "Slayground" begins - Grofield, Parker, and Laufman's hold up of an armored car! However this one is from Grofield's point of view, as "Slayground" was from Parker's! In "Slayground", Parker doesn't know what happened to Grofield. "The Blackbird" then is the rest of that story. ("Slayground" is the rest of what happens to Parker after the hold up!)In "Slayground", Parker ends up in an amu...

(More like 3.5 stars but I'm rounding up.)The Blackbird's opening chapter is almost the same as the first chapter of Slayground from the Parker series. While Slayground follows Parker, Blackbird follows Grofield, who is caught and then offered his freedom in exchange with helping an unnamed agency of the US government. So Grofield is off to Quebec, where he's supposed to report on a meeting of third world leaders (which just happens to involve characters from the two previous Grofield novels). A...

One thing I love about Westlake is how he often seems to be amusing himself by playing with the genre and formalist conventions of the pulp novel--but he never does so in an ostentatious manner. Observant readers will note that THE BLACKBIRD has almost exactly the same first chapter as SLAYGROUND. While Parker winds up in an amusement park in that novel, Grofield wakes up in the hospital, and soon finds himself shanghaied into a job as an agent for the US government, deep undercover in rural Can...

Two roads converged with an armored car heist. And sorry he could not travel both, Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake) decided to follow both anyway. One road pushes Alan Grofield to become a reluctant spy (with the threat of prison). It reconnects Grofield with some of the characters he met in his previous solo outings and gives us the full Grofield spectrum: self-interested, sarcastic, and self-indulgent to extremely capable.(view spoiler)[I really enjoyed the clear decision by Grofield to kil...

Alan Grofield is a character who has more humor than the Parker character, but who still is capable of some violence. Unlike Dortmunder in the Donald Westlake books, Grofield is more than a bumbling criminal caught in capers that take very bad, humorous turns. But Grofield doesn't have the sharp, amoral attitude of Parker, a character who has absolutely no humor. In my opinion, the Parker novels by Richard Stark work much better, but The Blackbird is a fast-paced Grofield caper. Because of the t...

Alan Grofield, who supports his life as theatre actor with scores made as a professional thief, is captured during the same getaway that opens the Parker novel Slayground. “Thankfully” Grofield is offered a way out by a federal agency due to acquaintanceships established in his previous adventures. A meeting of nefarious people representing nefarious nations is taking place in Quebec, and no one seems to know why. Grofield becomes our government’s last ditch attempt at discovering what it is. Th...

Blackbird is my favorite Grofeld novel thus far - not only is it humorous, action-packed, James Bond-esque and tightly written, it also ties other elements (including some of their more intriguing characters) from previous Grofeld books into this fast-moving tie-together story, which is attention-getting from its first word to its last. Like every Stark work I've read this is worth owning.Followed by Lemons Don't Lie. (This review originally appeared on the Reading & Writing By Pub Light site.)

2.5 starsGrofield and international political intrigue. Fun read, but it doesn't quite work. Added .5 star because Grofield amuses me. This book shares a chapter from the Parker series Slayground and answers the question as to what happened to Grofield.

Such a great change of pace from the Parker novels and a spy story that is constructed in such a way that you are not rooting for the bad guy (like in the Parker series) but you're rooting for the least-bad guy among all the bad guys.

Richard Stark's novels may not be deep, but they're extremely competent palate-cleansers with no pretensions.

Despite the worst cover ever on my library's copy this is a fine comic crime caper.

.The Blackbird: An Alan Grofield Novel • By Richard Stark (Published 1969, about 200 pages)The author Donald Westlake using his nom-de-plume Richard Stark wrote 24 Parker novels about a professional thief whose jobs are increasingly fraught with trouble and double-crosses. In that same Parker world the author also wrote a short series from the perspective of Alan Grofield one of Parker's cohorts. In The Blackbird a successful armored car heist goes bad during the getaway when the driver loses co...

I finished the classic era of Parker novels, ending with Butcher's Moon a while back and thought I'd read the Grofield books before I picked up with Comeback. I've not read Donald E. Westlake's humorous crime writing's previous to this. I'm not sure if these, being Richard Stark books, are put on that shelf generally, but that's definitely the skill set he's working from with these, and it makes sense for the character.I'm more fascinated that he made them all, so far, tales of international int...

The Blackbird is the third of four Alan Grofield novels by Donald Westlake's alter ego, Richard Stark. There are four Grofield novels in all, The Damsel, the Dame, The Blackbird, and Lemons Never Lie. The Vlackbird is the weakest of the four. Grofield was a minor character in a couple of Parker novels (specifically the Handle). The Parker series consists of 24 novels about a tough-as- nails thief. Grofield is also a thief, but a different kind of character. Grofield lives in a small midwestern t...

The Blackbird is the third of four Alan Grofield novels by Donald Westlake's alter ego, Richard Stark. There are four Grofield novels in all, The Damsel, the Dame, The Blackbird, and Lemons Never Lie. The Blackbird is the weakest of the four. Grofield was a minor character in a couple of Parker novels (specifically the Handle). The Parker series consists of 24 novels about a tough-as-nails thief. Grofield is also a thief, but a different kind of character. Grofield lives in a small midwestern to...

In Stark's third Grofield novel, the actor-turned-thief has finally evolved into a full-fledged James Bond-type spy -- against his will! -- with the same comic underpinning as detective Nick Charles at his best. I was disappointed with the first Grofield novel, but the second one grew on me, and by this third effort, I'm very much a fan. In fact, I enjoyed The Blackbird better than a couple of the previous Parker novels and am sort of sad that there is only one left in the series, although I kno...

I just wrote a review for The Black Mountain (a Nero Wolf story), in which I complained about the characters' absurd venture into international espionage. Deja vu! But it worked better for Grofield than Nero. Grofield stories are already just a little silly. He's an actor and thief with an easygoing demeaner and the skills to get out of sticky situations, not a cold calculating thinker like Nero or Parker. This book reads like a short Dirk Pitt novel, with people acting more logically and less r...

This was the last Richard Stark book I had left to read. I finished with the Grofield novels, which were not nearly as good as the Parkers, although, I must say, Grofield was a good foil for Parker. I would have liked to have seen more novels with the both characters. But, alas, Grofield didn't make to the 1970s.

Short but good. Almost didn’t persevere but when I realised that reality needed suspending I got into it and subsequently devoured it (all 183 pages !)Better than Parker who bores me a bit now (after book 5)Good, fast paced, unrealistic, action book. Well written by Westlake