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    The Man with the Getaway Face: A Parker Novel
    The Man with the Getaway Face: A Parker Novel
    The Man with the Getaway Face: A Parker Novel
    Ebook194 pages2 hours

    The Man with the Getaway Face: A Parker Novel

    By Richard Stark

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    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 beautiful, dangerous catch who goes by the name Alma.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press
    Release dateSep 12, 2002
    ISBN9780226772868
    The Man with the Getaway Face: A Parker Novel

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    Reviews for The Man with the Getaway Face

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      Donald Westlake, under his alter ego, Richard Stark has penned 24 Parker novels, beginning with 1962's the Hunter, continuing with The Man With The Getaway Face (1963), The Outfit (1963), The Mourner (1963), and up until 2008's Dirty Money. Parker is a thief, pure and simple, but he is not a gentleman burglar. He is not a frustrated ordinary man on the run from the law. Rather, he is a ruthless thug, who has little warmth for anyone and simply wants to get the job done. It is not necessary to read the Parker novels in order, although it helps to understand some of the context.

      In the first novel, Parker was robbed by his wife and partner, shot, and left for dead. They didn't count on his survival ability and he came back after them with a vengeance. His money that Mal had stolen from him had been paid to the Outfit (also known as the Syndicate) because Mal had owed a significant debt. Although the Outfit has a staff numbering in the hundreds (like the post office) and they are coast to coast, Parker is not deterred and is determined to get his money. No amount of tough guys seems able to stand in his way, although he leaves behind some enemies who, one of these days, mean to take him out- if they can.

      At the end of the first book (the Hunter), Parker metaphorically rides off into the sunset, knowing that a lot of people have their eyes out for him. As the second book ("The Man With the Getaway Face") begins, Parker has gone to Nebraska because he heard of a doctor who could change people's faces. Remember, this is a 1963 novel when plastic surgery was such an amazing concept that it was assumed you could become completely unrecognizable after such surgery. On leaving the doctor's office, Parker is warned by Stubbs (the shofar, etc for the doctor) that his secret is safe, but he better not think about coming after the doctor or the entire world will learn about his new identity. Let's call this foreshadowing because it becomes hugely significant later in the story. Most of the Man with the Getaway Face is consumed with Parker's efforts to pull of a heist of an armored car. He is not entirely sure of the loyalty of his accomplices and has some doubts if this heist is going sour. Some of the doubts are about his accomplices, particularly Alma, but the real bugaboo is when Stubbs shows up, saying that the doctor is dead and Parker is one of only three suspects and Stubbs may not be a lot of things, but he is going to avenge the doctor.

      Parker is the same tough, no-nonsense hombre from the first book, but the pace and the level of violence is not quite as frenetic in this volume. It's a good, tight plot that just hums along without a break. Parker here is not a barbarian back from the dead hell-bent for revenge. Nah, he just wants this armored car robbery to go off without a hitch. Parker's not cruel. He just wants to get the job done.
      The story here feels a bit minor compared to the great ball busting burst of energy that was the first book, but a good solid crime caper story.
    • 4/5
      The second book in the Parker series isn't quite as "hard-boiled" as the first book (The Hunter), but still a great read (what else would you expect from Westlake!). I'm looking forward to the next book, "The Outfit".
    • 5/5
      The best compliment I can give the "Parker" novels by Donald E. Westlake is to admit that they've completely hijacked my usual schedule of reading and reviewing contemporary novels for the CCLaP website; originally planned to be a fun airplane diversion when I flew from Chicago to New Orleans and back about three weeks ago, I ended up reading the first book in the series, 1962's The Hunter, from start to finish in just half a day, and have since been greedily devouring the rest at a rate of a book or two every week, blowing off all my other reading commitments no matter how much I realize I shouldn't. (Sorry, all you authors who are patiently waiting for your book to be reviewed at CCLaP.)That's high praise indeed from someone who usually doesn't like crime novels that much, with the key being that the main character is just so utterly fascinating, who like Ayn Rand's Howard Roark is less a real human being and more an example of the "theoretically perfect" version of the philosophy the author is trying to espouse (Stoicism here in the case of Westlake, versus Objectivism in the case of Rand). A professional thief who only pulls off one heist a year (netting him in today's terms somewhere between a quarter-million and a half-million dollars each time), so that he can spend the other 51 weeks lounging poolside at resort hotels and having rough sex with trust-fund blue-bloods with a taste for danger, Parker doesn't give even the tiniest little fuck about anything or anyone that falls outside of this monomaniacal routine, never negotiates nor compromises when it comes to his take or who he'll work with, doesn't have even the slightest hesitation about torturing or killing people who get in his way (yet avoids doing it anyway, simply because physical abuse is the "lazy" way to get what one wants, and being lazy is the first step towards getting caught), and possesses a psychotic distaste for such banal activities like "talking" and "having friends" or "acknowledging the inherent worth of the human race." (A true misanthrope, these pre-PC novels are not for the linguistically faint at heart, filled on every page with dismissive contempt for women, homosexuals, and people of color; although in Parker's "defense," such as it is, he also displays such contempt for most of the straight white males he meets too.)There are 24 novels in the Parker series (which Westlake published under the pen-name "Richard Stark"), most from the '60s and early '70s, the series then activated again in the late '90s and up until Westlake's death in 2008; but the first three form a trilogy of sorts, in that they all concern one overarching storyline that spans from one book to the next, and so make a tidy reading experience for those who are curious about the series but don't want to make a 24-book commitment. (Most of the others are franchise-style standalone stories that each follow a similar blueprint -- Parker decides on his heist for that year, Parker obsessively plans out his heist for that year, then everything goes to hell when Parker actually tries pulling off his heist for that year.) The first, The Hunter, will seem familiar to many because it's been made into a movie so many times (including 1967's Point Blank with Lee Marvin, 1999's Payback with Mel Gibson, and 2013's Parker with Jason Statham); in it, we pick up a year after a heist that went bad because of a duplicitous partner, who needed both his share and Parker's in order to pay back the Mafia for an old job gone bad, the novel itself consisting of Parker basically crisscrossing the country and getting his revenge on every person who had been involved, eventually provoking the ire of the Mafia when he insists that they pay him back the money that had been stolen from him, even though they had nothing to do with the actual theft. The second book, then, 1963's The Man With the Getaway Face, sees Parker get plastic surgery in order to stay out of the glare of the Mafia's nationwide murder contract they now have out on him, just to have his new face divulged to the Mafia at the very end; so then in the third novel, The Outfit from later that same year, Parker decides to get the Mafia off his tail once and for all, enlisting his buddies-in-crime to pull off Mafia-victim heists across the country to the modern tune of ten million dollars in a single month, while he tracks down and kills the head of the entire organization by breaking into a mansion that's been weaponized like a fortress, after affecting a promise from the number-two in charge that he'll end the persecution if Parker does him this "favor."Like Parker himself, these novels are quick and lean, part of what makes them so obsessively readable; Westlake had a real talent for stripping narratives down to just their bare essentials, then cleverly invented a character for whom this fast-paced minimalism works perfectly, a true human monster but one you can't help but root for anyway, if for no other reason than because he has zero tolerance for the chatty bullshit and regards for acquaintances' feelings that you as a non-psychotic are forced to deal with in your own schmucky non-bank-robbing life. (Stupid schmucky non-bank-robbing life!) Unfortunately my obsessive focus on these books must come to an end soon -- I simply have to get back to the novels I'm "supposed" to be reading, plus I can already tell by the fifth book that this series gets a lot more formulaic as it continues, which I bet will dampen my enthusiasm on its own -- but I couldn't let the opportunity pass by to mention how unexpectedly thrilled I was by at least the first few books in the lineup, picked up on a whim completely randomly but that have turned out to be some of my favorite reading experiences of the entire last year. They come strongly recommended whenever you have some downtime soon, especially to those like me who aren't natural fans of this genre to begin with.
    • 4/5
      In book 2 of the Parker series, our man get plastic surgery to get away from "The Outfit" since the mob unsurprisingly has a target on his back since Parker's singlehandedly hit them hard. An old heisting buddy contacts him to put together an armoured truck robbery, but Parker doesn't trust his pal's dame, a waitress beyond her prime who takes herself for both Bonnie and Clide. Our man's quickly figured out all the angles for the robbery and the inevitable double-cross required to secure the goods, when the plastic surgeon's slap-happy driver and dysfunctional right-hand man appears on the scene with claims his boss has been murdered and intent on finding the killer with threats to reveal Parker's identity. Things get messy. Then they get messier still. What more can a gal ask for?
    • 5/5
      Awesome crime book! Full of great detail about an armored car heist. In fact it's the details that really get you. You feel as if this crime actually took place. The story is short and is a very fast read; I was very sorry when it ended because it was so good. My only complaint is that the final third of the book felt a little tacked on. Although I think it was more a problem owing to the construction of the tale rather than that final portion not being integral to the story. Donlad Westlake, who wrote the Parker stories under the name Richard Stark, was Lawrence Block's favorite author. I found out about this after going to Block's webpage. Westake wrote the book Memory that is published under the Hard Case Crime imprint. Highly recommended for fans of Hard Case Crime, the book has that gritty, B Movie, 50's feel. Sort of a film noir type without the Femme Fatale.
    • 3/5
      I got excited when I read the first in this series (The Hunter) so immediately started this one, hoping it was as calm, cool, collected and butt-kicking justice as in the first.It was disappointing... there was way too much discussion of the setup for the central robbery. 1/2 the novel is discussing bank rolling and buying trucks and how the doublecross is on. I got it the first time it was discussed and didn't need the detailing of every little thing that has to be in line in order to do a holdup.And the 2ndary plot with Stubbs was just plain stupid. The story hinged on a group of people (everyone in the book except the main character and his trustworthy assistant) being so dumb that they really aren't functional.
    • 4/5
      Continuing with my reading (audio) of all the Parker series by Richard Stark (Donald Westlake), this title follows Parker's run-in with the "Outfit/Syndicate". He has paid to have his face altered by plastic surgery (references to the “party” date this book somewhat and I wonder if contemporary -- read young-- readers will get some of the allusions.)

      Parker’s heists are not always successful; indeed, some go marvelously awry. They are always beset with problems. Here, his caper is threatened by a double-cross from a fellow robber and by Stubbs, the surgeon’s loyal, but punch-drunk chauffeur, who has vowed to find the doctor’s killer and take revenge. (the section of the book narrated by Stubs as he tries to find the threads of his mission in his battered mind are unusual for a Parker book.) Regardless of his amoral view of life, Parker does have a code that he follows rigorously. His antagonists cross his code at their peril.

      First rate noir. Read brilliantly by Michael Kramer.
    • 4/5
      Very gritty. The writing is direct, gripping and relentless.
    • 3/5
      Parker and the Plastic SurgeryReview of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (2010) of the Pocket Books paperback (1963)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 in some manner and who spends each book getting revenge.The Man with the Getaway Face carries on immediately from the first book in the series The Hunter, with Parker requiring plastic surgery so that he can no longer be traced by The Outfit, the nationwide criminal organization that he had attacked previously. The need for new funds leads him into another heist where the partners plan to betray each other. Things become complicated when an associate of the plastic surgeon shows up seeking revenge for a killing of the doctor by an unknown previous client. Parker has to juggle all these twists and prevent his new identity from becoming known to the Outfit. I had never previously read the Stark/Parker novels but became curious when they came up in my recent reading of The Writer's Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives (Sept. 2020) by Nancy Pearl & Jeff Schwager. Here is a (perhaps surprising) excerpt from their discussion with Amor Towles:Nancy: Do you read Lee Child?Amor: I know Lee. I had never read his books until I met him, but now I read them whenever they come out. I think some of the decisions he makes are ingenious.Jeff: Have you read the Parker books by Donald Westlake [writing as Richard Stark]?Amor: I think the Parker books are an extraordinary series.Jeff: They feel like a big influence on Reacher, right down to the name. Both Reacher and Parker have a singular focus on the task in front of them.Amor: But Parker is amoral. Reacher is just dangerous.Jeff: Right. Reacher doesn't have a conventional morality, but he has his own morality. Parker will do anything he has to do to achieve his goal.Amor: But to your point, Westlake's staccato style with its great twists at the end the end of the paragraphs, and his mesmerizing central character - these attributes are clearly shared by the Reacher books.The 24 Parker books are almost all available for free on Audible Plus, except for #21 & #22 which aren't available at all.Trivia and LinkThere is a brief plot summary of The Man with the Getaway Face and of all the Parker books and adaptations at The Violent World of Parker website.

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