“Now to find Uhl.” A job goes, yes, sour on Parker and he sets out to put things right, the Parker way. He has a pretty rum time of it, all told. Yes, Claire can wire him funds from afar but this time round Parker gets drugged, shot at, and his leads get killed right in front of him, all of which rather pleasingly puts Parker on the back foot. About a quarter of the way into this someone does something to Parker more usually endured by Travis McGee in his early novels, something which raises a wry smile (it’s a nice little development) but the reader immediately knows this is a really stupid stunt to pull on Parker of all people, and the perpetrator should start saying his prayers. Then, at Part 3, there’s one of the delicious shifts of POV Stark/Westlake likes to pull every so often only for Parker to appear out of nowhere, which is when Stark shifts back and shows you the missing steps. It’s all choreographed quite invisibly – there’s never any sense of storytelling gears grinding – and the tale completes on a suitably sour note for Parker and another of the killer, blunt, lines Westlake/Stark is so good at. Still can’t believe this series has maintained such a high standard for so long.
