The Score, by Richard Stark

If there's one man you want to have your back while knocking over a huge plant payroll, it's Parker.  If there's one man you want to have your back while knocking over a bank, it's Parker.  If there's one man you want to have your back while knocking over huge payroll, two banks, and a couple jewelry stores, you better believe it's Parker.

In The Score, the fifth book in Richard Stark's Parker series, our anti-hero and thief extraordinaire is pulled in by an old friend to help a man named Edgars knock over the entire town of Copper Canyon, North Dakota.  The heist goes against any number of Parker's rules (don't work with amateurs, never go into a place where there's only one exit, etc), but he's itching for a score and the setup is too enticing to pass up.

This was my first time reading anything by Richard Stark and I enjoyed it.  Stark's style is clean, crisp, and goes down smooth (it's like I'm describing a beer here).  Even though it's description light and dialogue heavy, you get a good sense of the main characters.  There's Parker the pro.  There's Grofield the actor who's always quoting dialogue.  There's Paulus, the one who's always worrying.  Even the more minor characters are given depth by the choices they make (one safecracker likes using tools and looks at the others who like to use nitro as uncivilized).

The book reads like a good heist movie.  There's the pitch, the plan, the execution, the unexpected, and the fallout.  The unexpected could be anything from the plan going wrong to the double- and triple-crosses that occur after the heist.  I won't spoil that element for this book, but let me say it was very exciting.

Good, fast read.  I blew through it in two days.  Thanks to The University of Chicago Press reprinting the series,  I see more Parker in my future.