Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark's eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor-sharp prose-style, Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. Parker goes under the knife in The Man with the Getaway Face, changing his face to escape the mob and a contract on his life. Along the

The heist was a piece of cake. It didn't bother Parker that the priceless statue was in a Russian diplomat's house ... because he had no scruples about ripping off a Red. It didn't bother Parker that his ex-girlfriend had blackmailed him into pulling this job ... because he figured out how to make an extra fifty grand on the deal. It did bother Parker that somebody else was trying to steal the statue first—because being second wasn't Parker's

Not many men knew what Parker did for a living, because what he did was steal. But Joe Sheer, a retired safecracker—known in the business as a jugger—knew. He knew Parker's alias, his whereabouts, his plans—and because he knew too much, he knew to keep his mouth shut. Or die. But Joe was more than ready to trade what he knew for a soft mattress, windows without bars on them, and what every man needs—his freedom.

So

Baron is clever—perhaps too clever. He sits on the heavily protected island of Cockaigne, a mini–Las Vegas forty miles out in the Gulf of Mexico, raking in as much as $250,000 some nights, laughing at the Outfit, who can't collect their cut. Now the Outfit can no longer stand the loss of face—not to mention the loss of revenue. That's why they've sent for Parker, who knows that the line between success and failure on this score

Here's Parker—planning to steal the entire payroll of an Air Force base in upstate New York, with help from Marty Fusco, fresh out of the pen, and a smart aleck finance clerk named Devers. Holed up with family in a scrappy little town, the hoisters prepare for the risky job by trying to shorten the odds. But the ice is thinner than Parker likes to think—and Marty's ex-wife is much more complicated.

Bank robberies should run like clockwork, right? If your name's Parker, you expect nothing less. Until, that is, one of your partners gets too greedy for his own good. The four-way split following a job leaves too small a take for George Uhl, who begins to pick off his fellow hoisters, one by one. The first mistake? He doesn't begin things by putting a bullet in Parker. That means he won't get the chance to make a second. One of the darkest novels

The hunter becomes prey, as a heist goes sour and Parker finds himself trapped in a shuttered amusement park, besieged by a bevy of local mobsters. There are no exits from Fun Island. Outnumbered and outgunned, Parker can't afford a single miscalculation. He's low on bullets—but, as anyone who's crossed his path knows, that definitely doesn't mean he's defenseless.

The sixteenth Parker novel, Butcher's Moon is more than twice as long most of the master heister's adventures, and absolutely jammed with the action, violence, and nerve-jangling tension readers have come to expect. Back in the corrupt town where he lost his money, and nearly his life, in Slayground, Parker assembles a stunning cast of characters from throughout his career for one gigantic, blowout job: starting—and finishing—a gang

After the publication of Butcher's Moon in 1974, Donald Westlake said, "Richard Stark proved to me that he had a life of his own by simply disappearing. He was gone." And readers waited.

But nothing bad is truly gone forever, and Parker's as bad as they come. According to Westlake, one day in 1997, "suddenly, he came back from the dead, with a chalky prison pallor"—and the novels that followed showed that neither Parker nor Stark