Seventh [Paperback]

You could read The Seventh as a standalone thriller if you haven't read the first six Parker novels and nothing will lessen the enjoyment factor. Although they do follow a timeline and small references to things like Parker's new face are appreciated a bit more if you've read the books where these things happened, there's nothing that as a first time reader of the series you wouldn't understand. Nor is anything major given away of the first six novels. However if you are planning on reading these in order the title of the book is quite handy as it also coincidentally is the same title as the order it was published. No Donald E Westlake (aka Richard Stark) didn't just get lazy, the previous wasn't called the sixth (it was The Jugger) and next in the series isn't the eighth (it's called The Handle). The title refers to the split that each of the seven men involved in a robbery at a football game receives, each character from the robbery refers at least once to their seventh during the book questioning if sticking around and risking themselves is worth it for that seventh of a split or should they just forget about it and go home). In fact this story has actually been republished with the alternative title The Split over the years. Thankfully the republication of this classic series by University of Chicago Press has gone back to the original names. The Seventh was originally published in 1966.

Basic plot of this one is after the events of The Jugger, Parker now has no one to fish for work for him while he remains untraceable in the background. He is short on cash, so has to directly approach other criminals and indicate he's up for something if the caper is good enough. And a good enough scheme there is, robbing the takings of a football game. The robbery is successful and Parker's the one trusted to hold onto the money until they meet again to divide it up. Only when Parker steps out to grab some beer and returns less than ten minutes later, the girl he is shacked up with has a sword pinning her corpse to the bedhead, and the loot which includes everyone else's seventh is gone. There's also a couple of police officers tipped of by a phone call standing in the doorway. Parker only knew one man before this caper, it seems one of the others wants it all for himself, but why kill the girl like that? He'll have to make some enquiries Parker style to solve this, but straight away it's apparent the robber/killer hasn't finished trying to take Parker out of the picture either, it just seems they are a bit of an amateur at it, which is weird as he had assumed everyone else involved in the caper was a professional.

The Seventh begins with Parker in trouble. The heist he had planned had been successful and he was waiting a few days to divide the loot among the seven men who had formed the gang. Each man was to get an even share, hence the seventh. Trouble was Parker lost the money.

Parker had been "holed up" with a woman he had met before the robbery. She was likable, so he decided to live with her a few days until the heat simmered a bit after the job. On the third day he left for ten minutes to pick up some beer and cigarettes. When he came back she was dead and the money was gone.

The Seventh is mostly a post robbery story. It is Parker's hunt for who took the money and who killed the girl. Was it a member of the gang? Was it an outsider who had been following the gang's action. Was it a former acquaintance of the girl? Somehow Parker had to know and would not rest until he made it "right".

This is a story of mystery and suspense. We know the mission from the first, but the search leads in a few different directions and the story is full of plot twists. This is one of the better novels about the "antihero" Parker. I recommend it.

Or economy class on a flying cattle car? Makes no difference, as long as you're ready to admit that there's a managed sociopath in all of us. "Parker" is tough, and tough-minded. Parker is touchy, but it's a mistake to poke at him thinking he'll lose his cool. Parker is a bona fide murderous sociopath. So? Big Deal! Lots of cops and lots of detectives are sociopaths. It's an "evolutionary advantage' in their trade, at least in fiction. But Parker isn't the detective or the cop in this crime fiction. He's the crook.

Don't expect Parker to turn out to be another "Pretty Boy Floyd" or Robin Hood. He's 'in it' for himself, and armed robbery is no more than a job he's good it. And don't expect to empathize with him, as you might have with Bonnie and Clyde. You'd be wasting your sympathy. Finally, don't expect to see 'justice prevail'. Parker won't be gunned down in the last chapter, rest assured. Since this is a "series", you could predict Parker's survival, if not success, before opening the book.

What's readable about this novella, or is it just a slightly shameful bit of vicarious mayhem? "Nostalgie du boue?" Well, it's tight. Well-crafted. Terse. Imagistic in the manner of Raymond Chandler. Here's a sample of Parkeresque prose:

The gang's hideout, the Vimorama, "bulked beside the road like a pastel flying saucer. It seemed to be made mostly of orange I-beams and shiny chrome and gleaming glass, with VIMORAMA in huge varicolored letters on the roof and equally huge letters on the sign out on the road. There was no sign of activity either from the main building itself or from the little cabins scattered around behind it like a bunch of colored top hats dropped out of a box."

Or: "Clinger was sitting there like a bankrupt laundromat owner in his lawyer's outer office."

The women Parker encounters in the 1960s are identical to those Philip Marlowe had dealt with in the '30s: "She was about nineteen or twenty, looked like a college girl. Cheerleader type. Except she looked like a cheerleader who been on a binge, hair tousled, face puffy, eyes heavy-lidded, expression lethargic and sated."

Formulaic? Of course. But the 'sated' part is a false impression. Janey is anything but satiable. It's Janey whom Parker first meets, wearing only a sweat shirt with a picture of JS Bach on the breast. That's a Chandler touch also, from author Richard Stark (Donald E. Westlake), a bit of incongruous hoity-toity as leavening for all the blunt punchy ten-word sentences.

Did I really like this "noir" enough to call it a five-star Read? Probably not. Certainly not enough to rush out and buy the rest of the series. Think of this as a pay-back courtesy review for the friend who recommended the book to me.