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Breakout by Richard Stark

Publisher: Mysterious Press; ISBN: 089296779X

Richard Stark (pseudonym for Donald Westlake) latest Parker novel is sure to please the ardent fans of the author and the series. Breakout combines in it, in right proportions, all the regular ‘masalas’- the hardboiled action, the tongue- in- cheek one-liners, double and triple cross, that is bound to make the author’s fans reallllly happy.

            Parker is caught red-handed while trying to smuggle costly medicines out of the country. He is put into the Stoneveldt Detention Center- and from the very first day Parker has only two thoughts in mind -to escape and more importantly to plan the next big heist. A perfect plan is hatched, a perfect heist is worked out- but as they say- the best laid plans of mice and men…and though they escape, it is nowhere close to ‘perfect’. The jailors, the cops and even the whole city is behind him, and what follows is Parker’s struggle to stay alive in the big bad city.

            Richard Stark has often been referred to as the Prince of Modern day noir fiction- and Breakout re-justifies why this sobriquet bestowed on the author. Then again, the cover-art of the work, the size of the book etc., is reminiscent of the Noir classic novels- in particular of that of The Maltese Falcon and Postman Rings Twice – that it gives a quaint touch to the novel.

            Great suspense read, Breakout sure is gonna be the top noir fiction reads of 2002.

                                                                         -  Narayan Radhakrishnan

New Mystery Reader Magazine  editor@newmysteryreader.com