Comeback, Donald E. Westlake
Comeback, Donald E. Westlake
List: $19.95 | Sale: $13.97
Club: $9.97

Comeback

Author: Donald E. Westlake, Lawrence Block

Narrator: Keith Szarabajka

Unabridged: 5 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/01/2013


Synopsis

After the bloodbath of Butcher's Moon, the action-filled blowout Parker adventure, Donald Westlake said, "Richard Stark proved to me that he had a life of his own by simply disappearing. He was gone." And for nearly twenty-five years, he stayed away, while readers waited.But nothing bad is truly gone forever, and Parker's as bad as they come. According to Westlake, one day in 1997, "suddenly, he came back from the dead, with a chalky prison pallor"—and the resulting novel, Comeback, showed that neither Stark nor Parker had lost a single step. Knocking over a highly lucrative religious revival show, Parker reminds us that not all criminals don ski masks—some prefer to hide behind the wings of fallen angels.

About Donald E. Westlake

Richard Stark (1933–2008), wrote dozens of novels under his own name and a rainbow of other pseudonyms. Many of his books have been adapted for film, most notably The Hunter, which became the 1967 noir Point Blank and the 1999 smash Payback.

About Lawrence Block

Lawrence Block is the recipient of a Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and an internationally renowned bestselling author. His prolific career spans over one hundred books, including four bestselling series as well as dozens of short stories, articles, and books on writing. He has won four Edgar and Shamus Awards, two Falcon Awards from the Maltese Falcon Society of Japan, the Nero and Philip Marlowe Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association of the United Kingdom. In France, he has been awarded the title Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice received the Societe 813 trophy. Born in Buffalo, New York, Block attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Leaving school before graduation, he moved to New York City, a locale that features prominently in most of his works. His earliest published writing appeared in the 1950s, frequently under pseudonyms, and many of these novels are now considered classics of the pulp fiction genre. During his early writing years, Block also worked in the mailroom of a publishing house and reviewed the submission slush pile for a literary agency. He has cited the latter experience as a valuable lesson for a beginning writer. Block's first short story, "You Can't Lose," was published in 1957 in Manhunt, the first of dozens of short stories and articles that he would publish over the years in publications including American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and the New York Times. His short fiction has been featured and reprinted in over eleven collections including Enough Rope, which is comprised of eighty-four of his short stories. In 1966, Block introduced the insomniac protagonist Evan Tanner in the novel The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep. Block's diverse heroes also include the urbane and witty bookseller-and thief-on-the-side-Bernie Rhodenbarr; the gritty recovering alcoholic and private investigator Matthew Scudder; and Chip Harrison, the comical assistant to a private investigator with a Nero Wolfe fixation who appears in No Score, Chip Harrison Scores Again, Make Out with Murder, and The Topless Tulip Caper. Block has also written several short stories and novels featuring Keller, a professional hit man. Block's work is praised for his richly imagined and varied characters and frequent use of humor. A father of three daughters, Block lives in New York City with his second wife, Lynne. When he isn't touring or attending mystery conventions, he and Lynne are frequent travelers, as members of the Travelers' Century Club for nearly a decade now, and have visited about 150 countries.

About Keith Szarabajka

Keith Szarabajka has appeared in many films, including The Dark Knight, Missing, and A Perfect World, and on such television shows as The Equalizer, Angel, Cold Case, Golden Years, and Profit. Szarabajka has also appeared in several episodes of Selected Shorts for National Public Radio. He won the 2001 Audie Award for Unabridged Fiction for his reading of Tom Robbins’s Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates and has won several Earphones Awards.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Dave on February 18, 2021

After Butcher’s Moon (1974), which in a way seemed like a series-ending #16 Parker book, bringing together many characters from previous books, with a slam bang finish, Stark stopped writing Parker novels. His buddy Lawrence Block in his introduction tells us that Stark attempted various novels over......more

Goodreads review by Kemper on October 07, 2015

When Richard Stark (a/k/a Donald Westlake) wrote a new Parker novel for the first time in over twenty years, he also resumed using the gimmick of starting each novel with the word ‘When’ again. So I guess I gotta follow suit in my reviews of them. Parker doesn’t seem to have aged a bit when he hooks......more

Goodreads review by Greg on January 08, 2011

Damn, this book was good. Finishing it, I just went and had the brilliant idea to request the first five Parker novels from library. My brilliant idea was a little flawed by finding out that they only have four of the first five (The Mourner not being in the Queens Library system) and finding out th......more

Goodreads review by Jamie on November 21, 2024

Quite the triumphant comeback for the Parker series! Just picking this up as the next book one would never guess Westlake took a 23 year break from the series and its ageless protagonist. It's as masterfully crafted as the best of them, and feels every bit as authentic. The main ingredients in the t......more

Goodreads review by Mike (the Paladin) on April 02, 2018

I'd say by now it's pretty obvious I'm a "Parker fan". I always "feel" obligated to mention that it surprises me somewhat that this violent antihero (possibly even a psychopath) is one of the characters who's story I've followed... So the book before this came out in 1974...this one was published in......more


Quotes

“Parker has not lost his touch—or his nerve…In a world of warped values, an honest crook like Parker is a true treasure.” New York Times Book Review