The Hunter (Stark novel)
First edition
|
|
| Author | Richard Stark |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Harry Bennett |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Thriller |
| Publisher | Perma Books |
|
Publication date
|
1962 |
| Pages | 155 |
The Hunter (1962) is a crime thriller novel, written by Donald E. Westlake under the pseudonym Richard Stark. It is the first of the Parker novels.
Parker is a professional criminal, specializing in armed robbery. The pattern of his life is to commit a lucrative heist, live well in luxury hotels for a period of months or years with his wife, Lynn, then commit another heist when necessary. This pattern is disrupted when he is convinced, against his better judgment, to join a "crew" in California, planning to heist a shipment of cash intended for an illegal arms deal. The heist goes perfectly, but one of the crew, Mal Resnick, double-crosses Parker and the others. Because he is too afraid to face Parker directly, he convinces Lynn to shoot Parker in bed rather than be killed herself. After killing the other robbers, Mal escapes with the heist proceeds and Lynn.
Parker survives the shooting and is imprisoned for vagrancy. Later he escapes prison and arrives in New York City. A quick identity theft allows him to acquire a false name, a change of clothes, and a small amount of money. He first tracks down Lynn, who tells him that Mal pays her rent, but moved out after becoming frustrated with his inability to rouse her passion the same way Parker did. After telling Parker all she knows, Lynn kills herself with an overdose of sleeping pills.
Staying in Lynn's apartment, Parker meets the courier who brings her rent, and extracts the name of his boss, a taxicab dispatcher named Arthur Stegmann. Stegmann says Mal deposits the money for Lynn in a bank account, but Stegmann doesn't know how to find him. However, after Parker leaves, Stegmann contacts Mal through an intermediary.
Mal is a regional manager for "The Outfit," a nationwide organized crime syndicate; he was "fired" from this position after a blunder in Chicago that cost The Outfit $80,000, and was told to earn it back if he wanted his job back. With the proceeds from the arms heist, Mal bought his way back in, but panics when he hears from Stegmann that Parker is alive, and seeking revenge.
...
Wikipedia