Toby's Reviews > The Mourner

When Parker was finally finished with The Outfit he ended up being blackmailed by a dame who had a troublesome piece of evidence against him, now he must steal The Mourner for her rich daddy.

Another slick, fast paced heist with a twist from Stark featuring Lee Marvin and Sydney Greenstreet, as usual with the series it starts off all guns blazing as you're dropped in to the middle of the action before pausing to catch your breath whilst Stark fills in the backstory. Parker is shot and left for dead, double crossed repeatedly and attacked by a duffel bag but by far the worst thing that he has to put up with is damned fool romantics who just can't help but yammer on about their plans and their past despite the fact that Parker wishes he could flip a few pages until they just shut the hell up and let him loose on another masterclass in efficient crime planning and execution. Man wants to get paid not hear your life story fool!

It's fun, it's well written, especially the short clipped sentences and the way Parker sees the world but it's also already formulaic and without a really great heist to get embroiled in the plot doesn't seem as interesting this time out. I hear in the next book he steals an entire town, I'm imagining him secretly moving houses on to the backs of trucks but I suspect that's not the case somehow.