I was feeling pretty old today when I started re-reading
Stark's THE HANDLE and realized that it had been more than 30
years since I first looked into it. So I was glad to see
Ray's post about not having read a Stark book in decades. At
least I'm not the only one. The reason I picked THE HANDLE
was that I vaguely recalled that it took place in the area
where I now live, and I was right. The island that Parker
knocks over is near Galveston. Karns, the head of the Outfit,
mentions "The Gutting of Couffignal," but of course Parker's
never heard of it. Stark sure had, but probably no rara-avian
needed Karns' little clue to know which Hammett story was
being homaged in the novel. By the way, I liked Grofeld in
this one. I just don't like him as much at novel
length.
Bill Crider
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