Donald Westlake writing as Richard Stark

The Hunter, the first book in the Parker series, is the story of a man who hits New York head-on like a shotgun blast to the chest. Betrayed by the woman he loved and double-crossed by his partner in crime, Parker makes his way cross-country with only one thought burning in his mind - to coldly exact his revenge and reclaim what was taken from him!
Richard (Donald Westlake) Stark's groundbreaking Parker books are adapted for the first time as a series of graphic novels by Darwyn Cooke. The initial graphic novel brings to life the first Parker book, The Hunter, which introduces readers to the dangerous anti-hero's cold and calculated world of criminals, thugs, and grifters.

The Hunter has won an Eisner Award for Best Adaptation of Another Work!

Master criminal Parker take another turn for the worse as he tries to recover loot from a heist gone terribly wrong.

In Nobody Runs Forever, Parker and two cohorts stole the assets of abank in transit, but the police heat was so great they could only escape if they left the money behind. In this follow-up novel, Parker and his associates plot to reclaim the loot which they hid in the choir loft of an unused country church. As they implement the plan, people on both sides of the law use the forces at their command to stop Parker and grab the goods for themselves. Though Parker's new getaway van is an old Ford Econoline with "Holy Redeemer Choir" on its doors, his gang is anything but holy, and Parker will do whatever it takes to redeem his prize, no matter who gets hurt in the process.

The University of Chicago Press is reprinting many titles from the Richard Stark backlist, starting with The Hunter.

In The Hunter,the first volume in the Parker series, our ruthless antihero roars into New York City, seeking revenge on the woman who betrayed him and on the man who took his money, stealing and scamming his way to redemption. The volume that kick-started Parker's 40-plus-year career of larceny - and inspired the motion picture Point Blank (1967) - The Hunter is back, ready to thrill a new generation of noir fans.

In New York there was a contract on his life. In Nebraska there was an unscrupulous plastic surgeon guarded by a punch-drunk fighter. And somewhere in New Jersey there was an armored car stuffed with money. In the middle of it all was Parker.

Parker goes under the knife in The Man With the Getaway Face, changing his face to escape the mob and a contract on his life. Along the way, he scores his biggest heist yet, but there's a catch - a busty, dangerous catch named Alma.

They wanted Parker dead - and a late-night visit from a hitman proved they meant business. Now Parker plans to get even - dead even. Armed with a new face and his usual iron will, Parker is declaring a coast-to-coast war.

In The Outfit Parker goes toe-to-toe with the mob - hitting them with heist after heist after heist - until the entire underworld learns an unforgettable lesson: whatever Parker does, he does deadly.

The statue wore white and grieved. Parker wasn't interested in its sentimental value. The thief cared more about retrieving a certain gun that came with it, the one he had used in a previous crime that could incriminate him. By the time Parker comes face to face with the 16-inch-tall alabaster figurine called The Mourner, he knows that stealing it for a rich man and his beautiful, amoral daughter is the least of his worries. New players are coming in every minute, from strutting syndicate boys to a fat man with a heavy accent who is lighter on his feet than he looks. Now in a deadly, treacherous endgame, Parker will find out who intends to bury whom-and why no one will be crying over his grave.

It was an impossible crime: knock off a huge plant payroll, all the banks, and all the stores in one entire city in one night. But there was one thief good enough to try-Parker. All he needed was the right men, the right plan, and the right kind of help from Lady Luck.The men and the plan were easy; Lady Luck was another story. She turned out to be a good-looking blonde with a taste for booze and eyes for Parker. And Parker knew this chilling caper could either be the perfect crime...or a set-up that would land him in jail-for life.

Not many men knew what Parker did for a living, because what he did was steal. But Joe Sheer, a retired safecracker-also known in the business as a jugger-knew. He knew Parker's alias, his whereabouts, his plans...and because he knew too much, he knew to keep his mouth shut. Or die. But Joe was more than ready to trade what he knew for a soft mattress, windows without bars on them, and what every man needs-his freedom. So Parker had come to Nebraska to find the old jugger...and probably murder him. But what Parker found was trouble: Joe was already six feet under; something very valuable was missing; and somebody was planning a funeral...Parker's. Too bad for somebody-that Parker wasn't an easy man to kill.

Link to: Barnes & Noble Review of Reissued Parker Novels, June 15, 2009

The robbery was a piece of cake. The getaway was clean. And seven men were safely holed up in different places while Parker held all the cash - until the heat was off and each could collect his seventh to spend on booze or broads or dreams. Except this sweet heist turned sour. Somebody stole Parker's stash. Killed Parker's girl. And made Parker murderously mad. Now Parker's looking for the lowlife who did him dirty. The cops are looking for seven clever thieves. The killer is looking for a way to shoot Parker. And when hunters and hunted meet - some win, some lose, and some die.

The Baron ran a gambling island off the Texas coast in the Gulf's blue waters. To Parker, it was just a floating crap game with class. To the Big Boys, it was competition they couldn't stomach. They wanted a specialist to rob the Baron blind, pluck him like a chicken, and burn this paradise island into the sea. That's why they sent for Parker. His price was 200 grand in cash and Crystal - a beautiful little blonde. So the pot was sweet, but the heist soon had so many twists it smelled like a brand-new lemon - and Parker knew the line between success and failure on this score would be exactly the length of the barrel of a .38.

The ninth installment in Richard Stark's compelling Parker series introduces Claire Willis, Parker's continued love interest. Revolving around the robbery of the bourse room at a coin show in Indianapolis, The Rare Coin Score is Parker at his leanest and meanest, both in terms of character and prose.

The miraculously revitalized career of master criminal Parker takes another turn for the worse as Richard Stark picks up where his 2004 triumph, Nobody Runs Forever, left off, with Parker on the run from a heist gone terribly wrong. 

Racing through the backwoods of Massachusetts and on the verge of being apprehended for one of the biggest and most disastrous bank heists the state has ever seen, Parker runs right into the barrel of a gun pointed from the “wrong” side of the law.  A quiet and angry recluse—with only a silent parrot for company in his seclusion—Tom Lindahl saves Parker from the police dogs, but enmeshes him in yet another in a long line of dubious, highly dangerous, but seriously profitable jobs.  Far more than some aimless indigent holed up in a shack in the woods, Lindahl is a man built on rage and driven by a thirst for revenge.  A whistleblower whom nobody heard, a man tossed aside by a corrupt political establishment, Lindahl plans to rob them of their lucre and needs Parker’s help. 

FX Entertainment’s Kevin Reilly has acquired the Parker novels for a television series treatment.  Set up at Fireworks by producers Dylan Sellers and Tom Lassally, the script is being written by Alexander Ignon (Ransom).