Carrie Pruett asks,
>
> I picked Flashfire up as my first Westlake-as-Stark
(though I've seen
"Point
> Blank" and unfortunately "Payback") and was a little
surprised by it. The
> first part - which has Parker matter-of-factly
performing a number of
> violent robberies to fund a revenge scheme - was
about what I expected,
but
> once he got set up in Palm Beach, it got more
satirical and seemed more
like
> a Dortmunder book with more gunplay(though Parker
himself never lightened
> up). I haven't quite got to the end, yet, so I'm not
sure if the book
> reverts to a more spare, hardboiled style in the
end. Anyway, I'm
> definitely liking the book, it's just not what I
expected (or rather the
> beginning was but the middle wasn't). I'm curious
how this one rates
> compared to the other Stark books.
>
You should have started with Hunter/Point Blank/Payback which
is the first in the series. I think Flashfire may be the
worst in the series. One of the robberies he commits at the
beginning of the book might have been the basis of one of the
earlier books by itself. In Flashfire they are sort of thrown
in as simple prelimininaries to the rest. It is the first
book in the series that has parts that are clearly written by
Westlake, not Richard Stark.. The whole bit with the woman
who is married to a much younger man might be in one of his
comic novels, but should never be in a Parker book. I think
it would be out of place even in a Grofield novel.(Richard
Stark's lighter series.) Mark
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