Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 5/1/2023 + 1181 more book reviews

This is the first Parker novel written by Donald Westlake (aka Richard Stark) and the second I have read after Firebreak which I read about a year ago. The Hunter really fleshes out the Parker character and I must say he is not a pleasant fellow. Parker was double-crossed in a heist involving the sale of some illegal firearms to some South Americans. His wife shoots him at the encouragement of one of the partners in the heist, Mal Resnick. Resnick thinks Parker is dead and after he eliminates the others involved, he walks off with over $90,000 and Parker's wife. But Parker was not killed, his belt buckle saves him but he winds up in jail on a vagrancy charge with vengeance on his mind. He is able to kill a guard and escape and makes his way to New York. His wife ends up dead and Resnick is in hiding with mob protection. So how can Parker find him and get his vengeance? Well Parker has his ways...

Parker leaves a trail of dead bodies along the way in this one. He gets on the wrong side of the "Outfit" when he insists they pay him the money that Resnick stole from him. In this first volume, Parker is a very rough character who has no trouble killing with his bare hands. I think he was toned down over time based on the later novel I read. This one was published in 1962 and it is somewhat dated â coffee was 15 cents, $90,000 was a really big score, and prostitutes were $50 for a whole night. But the novel still holds up and is really a great hard case crime story. I will probably read the next in the series from the library to see where Parker goes from here.

This one was also the basis for the 1967 movie Point Blank starring Lee Marvin and the 1999 movie Payback with Mel Gibson. I saw Point Blank many years ago but have never seen Payback. I'll be keeping an eye out for both.

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