- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Mysterious Press (Nov 1 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0446677906
- ISBN-13: 978-0446677905
- Product Dimensions: 13.3 x 1.9 x 20.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 295 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,640,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Richard Stark's professional criminal, Parker, is so hard-boiled he could make an egg cry. Blunt and matter-of-fact (the less charitable might say cold and calculating), he has perfected the art of theft. Unfortunately, perfection can be a relative term, a concept made vulnerable by the honor--or lack thereof--among thieves. When Parker joins forces with three other crooks to rob a Nebraska bank, he's prepared for a gentlemanly division of the proceeds, not for a double-cross. But his colleagues have other plans for his share: it will be their seed money for a $12 million Palm Beach jewel heist. What's Parker to do but make his own plans to steal the Palm Beach loot from the double- crossers?
Working his way across the Southeast in a series of carefully executed robberies and changes of identity, Parker arrives in Palm Beach, where he finds more barriers along the path of revenge than he could have imagined. Chief among them: a diabolically clever plan by his former partners; a real estate agent named Leslie with an unfortunately sharp sense of character; and a team of professional hit men out for Parker's blood (but why?).
In his third outing after a long retirement by Stark (the pen name of Donald E. Westlake, revered for the comic capers of his bumbling crook, Dortmunder), Parker is in fine form: steely, sardonic, detached. Stark's acidly funny depictions of Palm Beach and its native fauna are a bonus:
Alice Prester Young knew she was a herd animal, and enjoyed the knowledge, because the herd she moved with was the very best herd in all the world. For instance, here she was, at five-thirty this Thursday afternoon, in her chauffeured Daimler, with her new husband, the delicious Jack, to pick up just the perfect jewelry for tonight's pre-auction ball, and she knew when she arrived at the bank she would be surrounded by her own kind, chauffeured and cosseted women with attractive escorts, all coming to the bank (the only bank one could use, really) because this particular bank stayed open late whenever there was an important ball in town, just so the herd could come get its jewelry out of the safe-deposit boxes.Not to be missed by fans of gritty noir, nor by those who prefer their crime cocktails with a comic twist: Stark and Parker will give you both. --Kelly Flynn --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
If there was a Mohs' scale for the hardness of hard-boiled crime novels, it might be aptly named for Richard Stark. His character, Parker, is just about the coldest, hardest, most resolute professional thief in print today. Some of Parker's actions and calculations are purely chilling. So it's especially ironic, or better, remarkable, that Stark is actually Donald E. Westlake, who is better known for the comic capers of his star-crossed crook, Dortmunder. Here the flint-hard Parker has joined three other pros in robbing a midwestern bank. As soon as they make their getaway, the trio invites Parker to join them in a really big score--$12 million in diamonds from a Palm Beach mansion. Parker opts out, even after they explain that they need his share of the bank robbery as seed money. Righteously angry at being stiffed, Parker resolves to steal the Palm Beach haul from them. Needing his own seed money, Parker stages a series of carefully wrought but violent and brazen robberies. But an accident of poor timing--the kind of unforeseeable accident that usually forces Dortmunder to steal the same thing three times--puts Parker in the gunsights of professional hitmen and threatens his efforts to get more than even with his onetime partners. Diamond-hard crime fiction. Thomas Gaughan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's a crooks paradise.,
By Vagabond77 (Tennessee, USA) - See all my reviews
Ce commentaire est de: Flashfire (Paperback)
I have always loved Richard Stark's Parker novels. They are all tough, mean, fast paced, short, and easy to read. This one, "Flashfire", is up there. Parker is involved in one heist where he's ripped off, and then he goes to take revenge on his former partners. I think the robberies are brilliant, and have always wondered if they'd work in real life (though I wouln't bet my life on it). Parker is mean, cold, and precise, an expert. He certainly lacks defintion, but it isn't a flaw, for some reason. I liked this one, as well all the others. A must ofr anyone who like crime thrillers.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A weaker entry, but good none the less,
By Bryan Schingle (Thornton, Colorado United States) - See all my reviews
Ce commentaire est de: Flashfire (Paperback)
The only problem that I had with this book in the Parker Saga, is that Parker ended up hurt through most of the book. While it successfully showed that he is human after all, in most books Parker is mean and strong. I wasn't ready for my favorite anti-hero to be weak and nearly dead.This book does have some very positve points. You see how Parker looks through the eyes of someone else (this time a woman who helps him through everything). The bad guys are interesting characters as well. All in all, the goods do overcome the large con, but just barely. Luckily, the next two in the series, Firebreak and Breakout are great, and show Parker in his full speed and angry glory. I can't wait for the next in the series!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Five BIG stars! Flashfire's the best of the new Parker!,
By A Customer
Ce commentaire est de: Flashfire (Paperback)
I love all the Parker novels, new and old. But Flashfire is a definate cut above. Here we see our favorite anti-hero thief pulling no punches in his pursuit of three men who were foolish enough to take off with his share of the loot. What happens next is--oh, I don't wanna spoil it. This is absolutely essential reading! You'll swallow this book in one satisfying gulp.
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