The Jugger, a propulsive novel, a novel with drive, a novel hard to put down. However, in the stack of 24 Parker novels, The Jugger is the odd book out - and here's the reason: Parker novels include a four part heist structure - 1) planning the heist, 2) assembling the crew, 3) the heist itself, 4) the escape. With The Jugger, none of these four steps apply since there is no heist. In case you're wondering about the title, one prime reason: a bank robber is called a jugger, jug being criminal sl...

The Jugger, Stark’s sixth Parker novel, is not written in a typical Parker formula. Parker travels from Miami to Nebraska ostensibly to help his old colleague, Joe Sheer, a jugger (safecracker!) and finds him dead. The most scathing review of this book is by Donald Westlake (using Richard Stark as a pseudonym) himself:“I spoiled a book by having him do something he wouldn’t do. The sixth book in the series is called The Jugger, and that book is one of the worst failures I’ve ever had. The proble...

Richard Stark doesn't give much a description of what Parker looks like. He's a big guy with gnarled tree trunks for hands. This description is given in just about all of the early novels. It's probably safe to think of Parker as looking sort of like a Lee Marvin type, and since he has probably most famously portrayed Parker, maybe this is what some readers use as their mental image:Some people might like to think of him as a raving wife-beating anti-semite:Parker has also been portrayed as an A...

Jug, back when this was written, was slang for bank, so a jugger was a bank robber, and Joe Sheer was a safe cracker. Our protagonist, Parker, had worked jobs with him before, and used him now as a go-between when someone wanted to get hold of Parker.Parker heads to Nebraska to check things out, and ends up between a slimy cop and another hoodlum and his girl looking for easy cash.Parker is a hard case, but I was surprised at the unexpected violence 2/3 of the way through. Well written crime/noi...

Parker heads to Nebraska to help out a friend in trouble, Joe Sheer, a retired safecracker (or jugger). Only when he gets to town, Sheer is dead and a crooked cop and a crook both think Parker knows where to find Joe's stash of stolen money. But does the money even exist?The Jugger is a break from the usual Parker formula. Instead of planning a job, Parker has to get a crooked sheriff off his back and convince the interested parties that Sheer didn't have any money. Of course, Parker does it in

In Richard Stark's The Jugger, everybody's favorite sociopath Parker (AKA Charles Willis) has to beat cheeks to Green Acres when his osteoporotic middle man Joe Sheer sends out a distress signals, and Parker, looking out for Numero Uno, is worried that Sheer's goose is cooked and that there might be a lot of bread crumbs lying around the joint leading straight back to him. And—as we all know—Parker doesn't do criminal celebrity. This leads to successive run-ins: first with a shady crook from Par...

The sixth Parker novel is somewhat of an oddity, there is no heist involved at all. Parkers' general job as organizer and enforcer does not come into play this time. Parker gets a letter from one of his previous work-partners, a safe cracker aka a jugger, who due to his retirement became a go-between for Parker and something that resembles a acquaintance in Parker his world. This letter makes Parker seek out his previous co-worker and if necessary take action. Parker finds the man deceased and a...

When Parker gets a couple of letters from retired safe cracker Joe Sheer saying that he’s having problems, he’s worried that the old man is getting pressured into revealing secrets. Since some of those secrets would be about him, Parker packs a bag and is off to Nebraska thinking that he may have to permanently shut Joe up. After he arrives in the small town that Joe had settled in, Parker learns that Joe is already dead, supposedly from a heart attack. But the police chief is instantly on Parke...

Parker surprised me in this book. In previous stories I'd come to think his thieves' code made him moral. His behavior isn't out of character here, but I mistakenly started thinking he was basically a good guy.....not really. He can still shock me with swift brutality. Great book.

A bit of a departure from the usual Parker fare. One of his old comrades, Joe Sheer, writes to Parker, initially telling him he has some problems he is handling, but then asks Parker to come help. Joe was a safecracker and one of the people who could reach Parker about a job. Parker decides to help his friend, but arrives too late: Joe is dead and the circumstances of his death are shrouded in mystery; however, another crook shows up looking for money and the local sheriff wants the loot too. As...

I was dead if I didn't have goodreeds & its information!!!PARKER....😭

‘The Jugger’ is an atypical Parker novel. There are others, true, which don’t focus on a robbery, but instead deal with the aftermath. But in ‘The Jugger’, there’s no robbery in the background, it’s all aftermath. Yet even though this is quieter and more restrained than other Parker novels, that doesn’t mean the stakes aren’t high, as what ends up being threatened here is one of the most fundamental things of all – Parker’s secret identity.We’ve already in these books seen Parker come back from

An average story most of the way, but I liked the twists and turns at the end.Parker comes to town after receiving a strange letter from one of his guys. The guy died after sending the letter. Strange things are happening. A bad cop is involved. Parker is trying to figure it out. Then Parker kills someone which shocked me. I shouldn’t like this because he killed a kind-of-good person. But the “shock” was what I liked. And the ending I liked. It seemed Parker had everything all nice and neat and

I guess a "jugger" is a guy that breaks into safes, and Joe Sheer was one of the best, was being the operative word. Now he's come down with a bad case of dead and Parker's concerned, not because Sheer was his golf buddy or anything, but he was one of the few people with a direct connection to Parker and Parker's got a sweet little cover identity set up. He doesn't want anyone nosing around Sheer's death to blow it. Throw in an aging crook who looks like he failed an audition for The Monkees and...

I remember the description of Reacher by another character in Tripwire: a condom stuffed with walnuts. That was how Lee Child described Reacher as being in shape. Now here's the description of Parker by the police chief in Jugger: "There was something almost frightening about Willis [Parker's pseudonym in the book]. He was big and rangy and hard-looking, with the coldest eyes Younger had ever seen, and hands as gnarled as tree branches. His clothes fit him like an impatient compromise with socie...

Stark broke the mold with this particular Parker tale! Well maybe he didn't break it so much as just bend it all outta wack... And I mean that as a compliment. Said tale involves no heists per se, but still manages to contain all the double crosses, missing monies, murder and mayhem expected. Loving these lil' compact criminal capers!!! runoutandgetyousomeothis

I really liked this one. Stark was getting too formulaic & this one broke out of that mold in a great way. Parker is still himself, but the circumstances were not what he's used to. As usual, Steven R. Thorn did a good job of reading. Very well done!

Parker and the Corrupt CopReview of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (May, 2011) of the Pocket Books paperback (1965)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.The Jugger finds Parker performing

Notes:Currently on Audible PlusI liked the first half more than the conclusion. It's cool to see the way Stark can draw out a scene with just a few sentences and then go off on a rambling flashback. lol Contrast. =P

Any time you discover an author for the first time you think, how did I miss this??? I started with no. 6 in the series but can't wait to begin with no. 1 "The Hunter" to see the character development.

Parker is a problem-solver, and usually these problems arise in the course of planning and committing robberies. In The Jugger, however, Parker's problems are the residual result of a life of crime. Sometimes, Parker must solve problems not to earn money but just to stay out of jail. The staying-out-of-jail Parker is less interesting than the earning-money Parker, but Parker is always Parker, which is to say that The Jugger is a good read.

"When the knock came at the door, Parker was just turning to the obituary page.”

Jugger (Noun): Box man, Safe-cracker.The Jugger is the 6th book in the gritty, hard-nosed, action, suspense, thriller series by Richard Stark (a Donald E. Westlake pseudonym). The novel opens with Parker (under the guise of Charles Willis), in Nebraska, trying to find out how a friend and former heist partner Joe Sheer (aka Joseph T. Shardin) died. Joe had retired from the heist game and lived a quiet existence in the American heartland until his untimely demise. Parker is forced to match wits a...

A little slow developing, but the last third was excellent. Parker is a viper; don't mess with him.

The Jugger is the 6th novel in the Parker series. “Where’s the money?” Everyone is looking for Joe’s elusive stash, but does it even actually exist? Parker lands in the middle of it all and tries to sort out who is who, who knows what and who has blood on their hands. The local police captain Younger soon becomes the ball on Parker’s proverbial chain. Together they rush headlong to the inevitable conclusion.For someone who churned out two or three Parker novels a year during the time this little...

Not bad, but kind of a clusterfuck. The premise is very seducing, Parker's trusted man Joe Scheer has recently passed away and left an intangible treasure and a bunch of greedy rats in his wake. The idea was great, but the execution left to be desired. The characters keep shuffling and bumping into each other to try and get to Joe's money and miserably fail while Parker has to keep up appearanced at all times because someone always finds a compromising piece of information on him. There's a sati...

Somewhat of a depature from Parker's usual storyline, we find our favorite thief returning to a small town in Nebraska. He ties up a few loose ends at the death of his former partner, a safecracker ("jugger"). This is one of my favorite Parker books, to date. Lots of close shaves, greed, and desperados. Westlake's hardboiled writing is sharp. Not much humor or wisecracks distracts the reader.

This was the slowest starter of the Stark books I've read so far, but it picked up well after about the halfway point and finished strong.

“Once or twice a year, Parker was in on an institutional robbery - the robbing from organizations rather than from individuals.” That’s Parker! He likes to work in groups, with specialists, and the jobs generally take less than a month, so he ‘works’ 4 to 6 weeks a year. His specialties? Planning and violence.In this story, Parker must check in on Joe Sheer, a man who knows too much about Parker, including what his old face looks like! It's probably the least exciting Parker book I've read so fa...

A decent Parker novel that breaks a bit from the regular pattern. Our venue is a small town, but we spend most of our time in a hotel room, a dead man's house, and the minds of our characters. Captain Younger is a good villain that smacks of realism. A nice pivot book as the end sets up the next few.