The Mourner

When it comes to stealing nobody does it better than Parker and up against the mob or the KGB he intended to beat them all. The heist was a piece of cake. It didn't bother Parker that the priceless statue was in a Russian Diplomat's house...because he had no scruples about ripping off a Red. It didn't bother Parker that his ex-girlfriend had blackmailed him into pulling this job...because he figured out how to make an extra fifty grand on the deal. It did bother Parker that somebody else was trying to steal the statue first...because being second wasn't Parker's style. Whether he was up against the mob of the KGB, Parker intended to beat them all at the stealing game...because that's what Parker did best. Of course, he didn't count on a double cross, a two-timing blonde, and one lethal luger aimed at making him not only second, but last. Dead last. "Cunning...Courage...Imagination...Parker is in action once more." (New York Times) [This is the cover to the Books on Tape version]

When the guy with asthma finally came in from the fire escape, Parker rabbit-punched him and took his gun away.  The asthmatic hit the carpet, but there'd been another one out there, and he landed on Parker's back like a duffel bag with arms.  Parker fell turning, so that the duffel bag would be on the bottom, but it didn't quite work out that way.  They landed sideways, joltingly, and the gun skittered away in the darkness.

The Mourner is a good but flawed book.   It introduces a fantastic character, Auguste Menlo, a secret policeman from an Iron Curtain country, who unfortunately never appears again. 

There are two flaws, one major, one minor.  A central plot point involves Menlo making a mistake that even an amateur in his field would probably not make, much less a canny professional.  Stark seems to sense this and keeps making excuses, but I just wasn't buying them.  The minor flaw is that everyone at a beach resort in Miami that Parker has been going to for years seems to recognize him despite the plastic surgery he received two books ago. 

Despite these flaws, it's an awful lot of fun spending a couple of hours with Parker and Auguste Menlo.  Even the lesser books in this series stand heads and tails above most of the competition.

To The Outfit, the previous book in the Parker series

To The Score, the next book in the Parker series

More covers scans and blurbs for The Mourner

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