A Primer on Richard Stark’s Parker, Crime Fiction’s Most Brutal Thief
By Nick Kolakowski
March 31, 2022When Donald Westlake adopted the pseudonym of Richard Stark and wrote the Parker novels, which follow a master thief through a series of bloody heists and betrayals, he pulled off a magic trick. The novels reveal precious little about Parker—not even his full name, much less a detailed family history—and yet he remains a compelling…