Dirty Money: A Parker Novel

By Richard Stark and Laura Lippman

A master thief wraps up some unfinished business in this fast-paced, hard-boiled crime novel by the author of Nobody Runs Forever.

Parker’s got a new fence and a new plan to get the loot back from a botched job. But a bounty hunter, the FBI, and the local cops are on his tail. Only his brains, his cool, and the help of his lone longtime dame, Claire, can keep him one step ahead of the cars and the guns in this final Parker thriller.

Praise for Dirty Money

“Entertaining. . . . Stark handles the criminal aspects of his tale with his usual panache.” —Publishers Weekly

“Stark, Donald E. Westlake’s more bad-tempered alter ego, breaks his usual rule and gives women—ballsy Sandra and dispassionate Claire—major roles. Not that Parker takes a back seat for a minute. The man is fiercely conceived, one mean piece of work.” —Kirkus Reviews

“The hard-edged Parker is as resolute and dangerous as ever, and the faithful will stand beside him through every step of this typically involved and entertaining novel.” —Booklist

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Sep 8, 2017
• ISBN: 9780226486291

Book preview

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

© 2008 by Richard Stark

Foreword © 2017 by Laura Lippman

All rights reserved.

Originally published by Grand Central Publishing.

University of Chicago Press edition 2017

Printed in the United States of America

25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17     1 2 3 4 5 6 7

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-48615-4 (paper)

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-48629-1 (e-book)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Stark, Richard, 1933–2008, author. | Lippman, Laura, writer of foreword.

Title: Dirty money : a Parker novel / Richard Stark ; with a new foreword by Laura Lippman.

Description: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2017.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017011473 | ISBN 9780226486154 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226486291 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Parker (Fictitious character)—Fiction.

Classification: LCC PS3573.E9 D57 2017 | DDC 813/.54—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017011473

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

DIRTY MONEY

A Parker Novel

RICHARD STARK

With a New Foreword by Laura Lippman

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

PRAISE FOR DIRTY MONEY AND RICHARD STARK:

Hard-edged Parker is as resolute and dangerous as ever, and the faithful will stand beside him through every step of this typically involved and entertaining novel.—Booklist

"Dirty Money is . . . gripping, satisfying, funny (if you have a liking for a certain dead-pan gallows humour) and instructive (if you have an aspiration to write this kind of stuff). And it continues Stark’s long-running exploration of Parker’s hard-boiled manner and sensibility."—Paul Kane, Compulsive Reader

Parker is probably the genre’s most captivating antihero. . . . he’s showing little signs of ageing and neither is Stark’s prose—it’s as lean, hungry and tightly plotted as ever.—Daily Mirror

Like Rex Stout and Patricia Highsmith, [Westlake] seemed incapable of composing a bad sentence. Elmore Leonard gets deserved recognition as a laconic master of language, but Westlake was no less skillful. In some ways he was more ambitious and audacious.—David Bordwell

Stark’s momentum is such that the more matter he throws into the hopper the faster the gears turn. . . . You can read the entire series and not once have to invest in a bookmark.—Luc Sante

Fast-moving, unpredictable . . . ingenious. . . . One of the most original characters in mystery fiction has returned without a loss of step, savvy, sheer bravado, street smarts, or sense of survival.—Mystery News

PARKER NOVELS BY RICHARD STARK

The Hunter (Payback)

The Man with the Getaway Face

The Outfit

The Mourner

The Score

The Jugger

The Seventh

The Handle

The Rare Coin Score

The Green Eagle Score

The Black Ice Score

The Sour Lemon Score

Deadly Edge

Slayground

Plunder Squad

Butcher’s Moon

Comeback

Backflash

Flashfire (Parker)

Firebreak

Breakout

Nobody Runs Forever

Ask the Parrot

Dirty Money

GROFIELD NOVELS BY RICHARD STARK

The Damsel

The Dame

The Blackbird

Lemons Never Lie

Information about Richard Stark books published by the University of Chicago Press—and electronic versions of them—can be found on our website: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/.

This is for Dr. Quirke, and his creator—two lovely gents.

FOREWORD

I came to Westlake the way I would come to almost all my seminal cultural influences, via a parody I didn’t quite understand. Just as Jean Kerr inadvertently steered me toward Lolita, Mad magazine piqued my curiosity about The Hot Rock. Where did that diamond go? Did Paul Sand really . . . ? (I checked, and my memory, which is not particularly reliable, is dead-on: Mad magazine ran its parody, The Cute Rook, in October 1972.) But I didn’t start reading Westlake until the 1990s, when I realized how ignorant I was about crime fiction. My first husband told me that I had to read five books we owned for every book I purchased, so I picked up Don’t Ask, one of several Westlake paperbacks my husband had brought to the marriage (and took with him out of the marriage, but so it goes).

Of course, it is deeply uncool to start with Dortmunder, who is Parker’s jokey younger brother. But then I am deeply uncool, a person forever working her way backwards and sideways toward significant cultural milestones. (See Mad magazine, above.) Some women are asked, Are you a Betty or a Veronica? I think the better, more revealing question is, Are you a Parker or a Dortmunder? I am a Dortmunder. My friend Duane Swierczynski, by contrast, is so Parker that he named his son for him. The first thing the then three-year-old Parker asked me was the very Parkerian—Parkersian? Parkeresque?—question: ‘What kind of car do you have, Miss Laura?" Never too early to start sizing up potential getaway drivers.

And it’s never too late to start reading Westlake. In fact, it’s essential if you want to write good crime fiction, or at least understand how it ticks. The Parker novels, which were produced over a not-quite-fifty-year stretch, are the antidote to so much that is wrong with contemporary crime fiction. They are human scale. They are lean. They remind me, always, of the witticism I was taught in journalism school: Dear Mother, please forgive me for writing such a long letter, I don’t have time to write a short one. They are fast and furious, even when they start with a Toyota Avalon and end with a Honda, as Dirty Money does.

Dirty Money is the last Parker novel. Plenty of people on the Internet would be happy to Parkersplain to you that it’s not the best Parker novel, but that’s like saying, That’s not the best angel who ever danced on the head of a pin. I assume I was asked to write about Dirty Money because it has strong female characters, and I allegedly know a thing or two about strong female characters. (I’m raising one. Mom may be a Dortmunder, but my kid is clearly a Parker all the way.) At any rate, Dirty Money marks the end of the series, whether or not by Westlake’s design, and its ending is wonderfully, quintessentially Parkeresque. (Parkeranian?) No hyperbole, the last line rivals the last lines of Portnoy’s Complaint, The Sun Also Rises, and Candide in its ability to evoke the story that will happen beyond the book’s covers. Just two sentences and eleven words, but I keep going back to sneak a look at it, as if studying those eleven words over and over again will reveal to me how Westlake did it.

Trying to figure out how Westlake did it has been a big part of reading him. He wasn’t one to give away his literary tricks, but I managed to grab some inspiration from him on two occasions. (I also had the delightful honor of introducing Westlake to Gbenga Akinnagbe, best known for his role as the terrifying Chris Partlow on The Wire, a character not quite as intimidating as Parker.)

The first time I saw Westlake in person, I had just published my second novel. It was 1997, and I was one of seemingly thousands of writers swarming the annual fan-organized convention known as Bouchercon. Westlake was the guest of honor. During his onstage interview, pressed on how much he researched his books, Westlake laughed and said, I became a novelist so I could make it all up. Those words were liberating to a newspaper reporter such as myself who had trouble writing declarative sentences without adding police said.

Yet the more I read Westlake, the more I began to suspect he didn’t make stuff up. The Ax, for example. How could he have written one of the best novels about our troubled economic times without doing copious research? Then there were the two novels about the media biz, Trust Me on This and Baby, Would I Lie? I knew veteran reporters who couldn’t write as credibly about journalism as Westlake did. (Names available upon the receipt of my favorite brand of tequila.)

In the fall of 2000, I was lucky enough to be one of several crime writers invited to participate in a Club Med conference called Darkness in Sunlight. There was precious little sunlight during that rainy week in the Bahamas, but no one complained with writers such as Westlake, Evan Hunter, James Crumley, and Paco Ignacio Taibo hanging out. While Crumley enjoyed the adulation of the younger writers, which included a couple of dudes named Dennis Lehane and Harlan Coben, Westlake was friendly, yet aloof. It took me all week to work up the courage to ask him a single question: How did you get all that journalism stuff right?

His answer was short yet gracious. I’ve always believed, he said, that if you really think about the world and the characters you’ve imagined, you’ll get it right.

So simple. So impossible. Honor your own imagination, and you’ll get it right. But that’s the secret to every Westlake novel I’ve read. He didn’t rob people or kill people, or even interview people who did. Parker came from Westlake’s head as surely as Athena sprang from Zeus’s. He trusted his imagination, and he got it right.

Donald Westlake died on December 31, 2008, eight months after the publication of Dirty Money. And while Westlake’s death at the age of seventy-five filled me with immense sadness, I found myself taking a devilish pleasure in the fact that no one seemed sure how many damn books he had written. Was it almost one hundred? More than one hundred? Exactly one hundred? Through the first twenty-four hours of the news cycle, I watched as his obituary writers tried to hedge gracefully. The exact number remains elusive to this day because there were some pseudonymous books that Westlake wasn’t eager to claim.

Westlake and his contemporaries, Larry Block and the late Evan Hunter / Ed McBain, came of age at a time when a writer could make money if he (or she) were prolific enough. It is common to acknowledge that Parker is amoral. I’m not sure I agree, but the Parker novels and virtually everything I’ve read by Westlake are definitely rooted in respect for a strong work ethic and consummate professionalism. Show up. Do the job. Get out. Repeat. I’d add that to the list of things I’ve learned from Donald Westlake. Show up. Do the job. Get out. Whatever you do for a living, you could find worse credos by which to live.

Laura Lippman

Baltimore, MD, January 2017

DIRTY MONEY

CONTENTS

ONE

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

TWO

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

THREE

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

MASSACHUSETTS

FOUR

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

ONE

1

When the silver Toyota Avalon bumped down the dirt road out of the woods and across the railroad tracks, Parker put the Infiniti into low and stepped out onto the gravel. The Infiniti jerked forward toward the river as the Toyota slewed around behind it to a stop. Parker picked up the full duffel bag from where he’d tossed it on the ground, and behind him, the Infiniti rolled down the slope into the river, all its windows open; it slid into the gray dawn water like a bear into a trout stream.

Parker carried the duffel in his arms and Claire got out of the Toyota to open its rear door and say, Do you want to drive?

No. I’ve been driving. He heaved the duffel onto the backseat, then got around to take the passenger side in front.

Before getting behind the wheel, she stood looking toward the river, a tall slender ash-blonde in black slacks and a bulky dark red sweater against the October chill. It’s gone, she said.

Good.

She slid into the Toyota then and kissed him and held his face in her slim hands. It’s been a while.

It didn’t come out the way it was supposed to.

But you got back, she said, and steered the Toyota across the tracks and up the dirt road through scrub woods. Was one of the men with you named Dalesia?

Nick. They nabbed him.

He escaped, she said, paused at the blacktop state road and turned right, southward.

Nick escaped?

I had the news on, driving up. It happened a couple of hours ago, in Boston. They were transferring him from the state police to the federal, going to take him somewhere south to question him. He killed a marshal, escaped with the gun.

Parker looked at her profile. They were almost alone on the road, not yet seven AM, she driving fast. He said, They grabbed him yesterday. They didn’t question him yet?

That’s what they said. She shrugged, eyes on the road. They didn’t say so, but it sounded to me like a turf war, the local police and the FBI. The FBI won, but then they lost him.

Parker looked out at this hilly country road, heading south. Soon they’d be coming into New Jersey. If nobody questioned Nick yet, then they don’t know where the money is.

With a head gesture toward the duffel bag behind them, she said, That isn’t it?

No, that’s something else.

She laughed, mostly in surprise. You don’t have that money, so you picked up some other money on the way back?

There was too much heat around the robbery, he told her. We could stash it, but we couldn’t carry it. We each took a little, and Nick tried to spend some of his, but they had the serial numbers.

"Oh. That’s why they caught him. Do you have some?"

Not any more.

Good.

They rode in silence for a while, he stretching his legs, rolling his shoulders, a big ropy man who looked squeezed into the Toyota. He’d driven through the night, called Claire an hour ago from a diner to make the meet and get rid of the Infiniti, which was too hot and too speckled with fingerprints. Now they passed a slow-moving oil delivery truck and he said, I need some sleep, but after that I’ll want you to drive me to Long Island. All my identification got wasted in the mess in Massachusetts. I’d better not drive until I get new papers.

You’re just going to talk to somebody?

That’s all.

Then I can drive you.

Good.

She watched the road; no traffic now. She said, This is still something about the robbery?

The third guy with us, he said. He’ll know what it means, too, that Nick’s on the loose.

That the police don’t know where the money is.

But Nick knows where we are, or could point in a direction. Are we all still partners? He shook his head. You kill a lawman, he said, you’re in another zone. McWhitney and I are gonna have to work this out.

But not on the phone.

Parker yawned. Nothing on the phone ever, he said. Except pizza.

2

Once or twice, Claire had gotten too close to Parker’s other world, or that world had gotten too close to her, and she hadn’t liked it, so he did his best to keep her separate from that kind of thing. But this business was all right; everything had already happened, this was just a little tidying up.

She drove them eastward across New Jersey late that afternoon, and he told her the situation: There was a meeting that didn’t pan out. A guy there named Harbin was a problem a lot of different ways. He was wearing a wire—

Reviews for Dirty Money

[stahl2ricco · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Parker yawned. “Nothing on the phone ever,” he said. “Except pizza.”The final Parker book. The first half of which was pretty boring, with Parker almost a secondary character. Mostly just waiting around trying to collect the money from a recent heist. And even when the story picked up a little, there wasn't much action to be had. Definitely not the normal type of 'Parker' action. Sort of a bummer way to end an otherwise wonderful series.Still, ends in true Parker fashion:"If you leave me here," the guy on the floor said, "he'll kill me tomorrow morning." Parker looked at him. "So you've still got tonight," he said.Now, THAT'S the way to end the series!

[alanteder · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Final ParkerReview of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (2008) of the original Mysterious Press hardcover (2008)Richard Stark was one of the many pseudonyms of the prolific crime author Donald E. Westlake (1933-2008), who wrote over 100 books. The Stark pseudonym was used primarily for the Parker novels, an antihero criminal who is usually betrayed or ensnared in some manner and who spends each book either getting revenge or escaping the circumstances.Dirty Money was the final Parker book and was also the conclusion to the 3-book arc of Nobody Runs Forever (2004) and Ask the Parrot (2006). It finds Parker trying to retrieve the cached loot from the armoured car heist in the 1st book of the trilogy. He is partnered with bar owner Nelson McWhitney and bounty hunter Sandra Loscalzo and somewhat surprisingly Parker's partner Claire plays a more significant role in the proceedings. The object is not only to retrieve the cash but also find a way to launder it as the bills are marked and not useable otherwise.Although the plans seem to move along efficiently, the crew are constantly subject to identification from the police who are still on the hunt. Their escaped heister Nick Delasio also presents a threat as he has become a cop killer with nothing to lose. Various possible betrayals seem to be hinted at and McWhitney sets up his own possible money fence without telling the others. That brings an entirely new heist crew into the mix. As always, Parker has to salvage the best that he can out of the deal and the ending is abrupt but in typical ice-cold Parker mode. One is only left to wonder what an unwritten Parker #25 might have been, as Parker's face is now known to the authorities and is on wanted posters from several witness IDs. No continuation writer was chosen and no further series has ever been made, which is somewhat surprising these days in genre fiction.These final Parker novels from #17 to #24 are stronger and more complex than the original run which was probably due to Westlake/Stark's development as a writer over the years and during the 23 year hiatus. Several of these are strong 4's to 5's (I've read or listened to all of them now and am parceling out the reviews over time). #21 and #22 are my favourites of the Parker novels now that I've read them all. Ironically, they are the only ones not available as audiobooks for some reason.The narration in this audiobook was by Stephen Thorne who delivers a very matter of fact performance. It didn't have quite the sly or gruff character that one might expect in a hard-boiled noir novel, but it was certainly adequate.This final Parker book was issued in 2008 and Donald Westlake (Richard Stark) passed at the end of that year. The 24 Parker books are almost all available for free on Audible Plus.Other ReviewsThere is an extremely detailed review and plot summary (in 3 parts) of Dirty Money (with spoilers obviously) at The Westlake Review, October 29, 2017.Trivia and LinksThe Dirty Money page at The Violent World of Parker website is not as complete as those for the earlier books, and only shows a few of the edition covers.This 2008 audiobook predated the most recent paperback edition which was part of the University of Chicago Press 2009-2017 series of reprints of the Parker novels. It therefore does not include the latest Foreword by author Laura Lippman written for the new releases.

[asxz-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've been reading Richard Stark for the best part of 20 years. In the early days it was a struggle tracking down the books. I found them online and in odd second-hand shops and bought a bunch from someone selling his collection who sent them to my parents' house with a copy of the book he had published. The books themselves were written over an even longer period with a break of decades in the middle. And throughout them all, Parker never changed. He is the great criminal monolith. I tracked down every last book, including the Grofields and now I've read the last one. I will miss Parker.

[bjkelley · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The last Parker book that Westlake published before his death. It is noted that this is part of a trilogy, but the way the ending is left hanging, there would have been furthur continuation of this story. As always, Westlake tells a great story and the writing is so good you don't notice it.

[davewilde-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Dirty Money is number twenty four of Richard Stark's Parker series. It is the final Parker novel since Donald Westlake (aka Richard Stark) is gone and won't be writing any more.

Parker is a thief. Together with other professionals, he robs banks, armored cars, and casinos. He is ruthless, but not casually cruel. He kills when he has to, but doesn't like the extra heat that will draw.
In this novel, the story began in Nobody Runs Forever and continued in Ask the Parrot draws to a conclusion. It's not necessary to read the prior novels although it is helpful.

Parker and a few accomplices pulled off a daring bank robbery, pulling in over $2 million. However, the robbery went wrong, one of his partners got captured, and they had to leave the cash behind as the manhunt for the robbers tightened. This story is about returning for the cash and disposing of the tainted, numbered bills to an overseas buyer. And to top it off, Parker's identity has been blown and his likeness is plastered on wanted posters all over New England.

Get ready to be introduced to a multitude of characters whose paths keep crisscrossing. This includes the partner who was arrested and then escaped, killing an officer in the process, officers who have chased Parker in two other jurisdictions and know his face, a nosy reporter, and various persons who want either a cut of the money or the whole kit and caboodle.

There is plenty of action and humor as well, including the getaway vehicle being a van with "Holy Redeemer Choir" plastered on the side and Parker and his girlfriend Claire staying at the same B & B as various law enforcement types hunting for the bank robbers.

With Westlake's smooth writing style, this is a great read. Go for it.

[shawnd_72 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This was a bit of a let down after [Nobody Runs Forever]. I was taken aback that the first book ended with Parker starting to be chased by police hounds on a Massachusetts hill, and was expecting this book to carry on from that. However this started off nearby, with no dogs, with Parker in a vehicle. Only later did it become clear there was an interim book which was got very little press, which must have taken care of the predicament confounding Parker at the end of book one.I couldn't help while reading this feeling that this book could have basically been written in any recent decade, by anyone with some writing skills. Singularly unimpressive. The story included a Jewish moneylender, a svelte female dectective, a journalist in over his head, a bewildered innkeeper, characters available from any stock detective novel. It's not worth inventorying all the overused scenarios. Even Parker, such a unique and pitch-perfect character, seems dulled and not himself in this one.