Richard Stark is a pen name for Donald Westlake. He wrote tons of really smart funny mystery novels including the Dortmunder series - Parker but a sad sack.
If you like Parker you might really enjoy the Spenser novels by Robert Parker. He’s an ex boxer turned private eye that loves to cook, loves to read, has a strong moral compass, loves deeply, and was cool with gays and blacks when that was controversial for a Boston tough guy. His very smart girlfriend Susan is a full human outside of him.
Hell yes brother.
Richard Stark is a pen name for Donald Westlake. He wrote tons of really smart funny mystery novels including the Dortmunder series - Parker but a sad sack.
If you like Parker you might really enjoy the Spenser novels by Robert Parker. He’s an ex boxer turned private eye that loves to cook, loves to read, has a strong moral compass, loves deeply, and was cool with gays and blacks when that was controversial for a Boston tough guy. His very smart girlfriend Susan is a full human outside of him.
The funny thing is that the first Dortmunder book started out as a Parker novel.
When the plot started getting too silly the writer realized that the Parker fans would hate the book, so he changed it to Dortmunder and Kelp.
I won’t say much but ‘Jimmy The Kid’ by Donald Westlake has a brief cameo by Richard Stark.