Donald E Westlake Books in Order
Browse Donald E. Westlake novels in order, with brief summaries and suggestions on where to start with his comic capers and darker crime stories.
Last updated: December 25, 2025
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Publication Order
109 books
Call Me a Cab
by Donald E Westlake
2022
Forever and a Death
by Donald E Westlake
2017
The Getaway Car
by Donald E Westlake
2014
The Comedy is Finished
by Donald E Westlake
2012
Memory
by Donald E Westlake
2010
Get Real
by Donald E Westlake
2009
Dirty Money
by Richard Stark
2008
Returning to a New England town after the chaos of earlier jobs, Parker sets out to recover a hidden bundle of hot bank money before the law or rival thieves reach it. With federal agents, local cops, a bounty hunter, and old partners converging, every move could be his last.
What's So Funny?
by Donald E Westlake
2007
Ask The Parrot
by Richard Stark
2006
On the run after a botched armored car job, Parker limps into rural Massachusetts and takes refuge with a bitter loner nursing a grudge against the local racetrack. Together they plot one more score while police, posses, and armed neighbors close in.
Watch Your Back!
by Donald E Westlake
2005
The Road To Ruin
by Donald E Westlake
2004
Nobody Runs Forever
by Richard Stark
2004
Short on cash after a blown job, Parker signs onto a plan to rob an armored car convoy during a bank merger. Loose talk, a nervous ex-con, a relentless cop, and a hungry bounty hunter turn the dangerous theft into a tightening noose.
Money for Nothing
by Donald E Westlake
2003
Put a Lid on It
by Donald E Westlake
2002
Breakout
by Richard Stark
2002
Caught moving pharmaceuticals, Parker lands in a supposedly escape-proof prison where the authorities are close to learning who he really is. Teaming with two other inmates, he engineers a daring breakout that leads straight into a second, even messier job.
The Scared Stiff
by Donald E Westlake
2001
Firebreak
by Richard Stark
2001
A tip about a dot-com millionaire’s private gallery of stolen masterpieces draws Parker to a fortified lodge in the Montana woods. Balancing this risky art heist with unfinished business from earlier jobs, he faces high-tech security and lethal winter terrain.
Bad News
by Donald E Westlake
2001
The Hook
by Donald E Westlake
2000
Flashfire / Parker
by Richard Stark
2000
Cut out of his share after a Midwestern bank robbery, Parker is told his partners are “borrowing” the money for a jewel heist in Palm Beach. Building a fake identity among the rich, he plans to steal their big score out from under them.
Backflash
by Richard Stark
1998
Parker breaks one of his own rules by taking a job on a Hudson River gambling boat stuffed with cash. With an insider feeding the crew information and unexpected muscle on board, he has to improvise fast or go down with the score.
The Ax
by Donald E Westlake
1997
Comeback
by Richard Stark
1997
After robbing the cash haul from a stadium revival meeting, Parker is double crossed by one of his own crew and cut off from the money. Posing as an insurance investigator, he works alongside the evangelist's security chief to find the loot first.
What's The Worst That Could Happen?
by Donald E Westlake
1996
Smoke
by Donald E Westlake
1995
Baby, Would I Lie?
by Donald E Westlake
1994
Don't Ask
by Donald E Westlake
1993
Humans
by Donald E Westlake
1992
Drowned Hopes
by Donald E Westlake
1990
The Fourth Dimension Is Death
by Donald Westlake
1989
Trust Me On This
by Donald E Westlake
1988
What I Tell You Three Times Is False
by Donald Westlake
1987
One Of Us Is Wrong
by Donald Westlake
1986
I Know A Trick Worth Two Of That
by Donald Westlake
1986
High Adventure
by Donald E Westlake
1985
Good Behavior
by Donald E Westlake
1985
A Likely Story
by Donald E Westlake
1984
Why Me?
by Donald E Westlake
1983
Kahawa
by Donald E Westlake
1981
Castle in the Air
by Donald E Westlake
1980
Nobody's Perfect
by Donald E Westlake
1977
Dancing Aztecs
by Donald E Westlake
1976
Two Much
by Donald E Westlake
1975
Brothers Keepers
by Donald E Westlake
1975
Jimmy The Kid
by Donald E Westlake
1974
Help, I Am Being Held Prisoner
by Donald E Westlake
1974
Butcher's Moon
by Richard Stark
1974
Back in the corrupt town where he once lost a stash and nearly his life, Parker calls in favors from a long list of past accomplices. What starts as a hunt for missing money explodes into a brutal gang war played out in city streets and back rooms.
Gangway!
by Donald E Westlake
1973
Plunder Squad
by Richard Stark
1972
Moving between overlapping jobs, from hijacked cargo to an ambitious art theft, Parker finds himself juggling too many partners, buyers, and grudges. An old enemy on his trail and a string of misfires leave him fighting just to escape with his life.
Don't Lie To Me
by Donald E Westlake
1972
Cops and Robbers
by Donald E Westlake
1972
Bank Shot
by Donald E Westlake
1972
Slayground
by Richard Stark
1971
A getaway crash strands Parker alone with the loot inside a closed-for-winter amusement park. Surrounded by mobsters and crooked cops who control the only exit, he turns Fun Island into a lethal maze where every ride can become part of a trap.
Lemons Never Lie
by Richard Stark
1971
Actor-thief Alan Grofield turns down a reckless brewery payroll job in Las Vegas, only to be beaten and robbed by the man who proposed it. When the trouble follows him home to Indiana, he is pushed into a violent, very personal campaign of payback.
I Gave at the Office
by Donald E Westlake
1971
Deadly Edge
by Richard Stark
1971
Parker’s crew robs the cash take from a roaring rock concert and splits up, thinking the hard part is over. When someone begins murdering the heisters and traces the trail to Claire’s new house, Parker has to defend his home and settle the score.
Wax Apple
by Donald E Westlake
1970
The Hot Rock
by Donald E Westlake
1970
Ex Officio
by Donald E Westlake
1970
Comfort Station
by Donald E Westlake
1970
Adios Scheherazade
by Donald E Westlake
1970
A Jade In Aries
by Donald E Westlake
1970
Up Your Banners
by Donald E Westlake
1969
The Sour Lemon Score
by Richard Stark
1969
After a tight bank job, Parker expects an easy split, until one partner seizes the whole take and starts killing the rest of the crew. With cops circling and bodies falling, Parker hunts the traitor who should have made sure he was dead first.
The Dame
by Richard Stark
1969
Summoned to Puerto Rico by a mysterious offer, Grofield ends up at the hilltop estate of Belle Danamato and tangled in a classic country-house murder when she turns up dead. Accused by mobsters and guests alike, he has to clear himself and escape alive.
The Blackbird
by Richard Stark
1969
After an armored car job explodes into disaster, Grofield wakes in a hospital under federal guard. Offered prison or a covert assignment at an international conference of dictators and revolutionaries, he is dragged into espionage he wants no part of.
Somebody Owes Me Money
by Donald E Westlake
1969
Who stole Sassi Manoon?
by Donald E Westlake
1968
The Black Ice Score
by Richard Stark
1968
Envoys from a newly independent African nation ask Parker to help steal back a fortune in diamonds looted by a corrupt strongman and now locked in a New York museum. Training political amateurs for a professional heist proves as risky as the job itself.
The Rare Coin Score
by Richard Stark
1967
Against his better judgment, Parker agrees to mastermind the robbery of a high-end coin convention, working with a nervy collector and a sophisticated widow. The payoff could be huge, but amateurs and attraction are both dangerous to a professional thief.
The Green Eagle Score
by Richard Stark
1967
Relaxing in Puerto Rico with Claire, Parker is lured into a job targeting the cash payroll of an Air Force base in upstate New York. An edgy insider, a talkative ex-wife, and a loose-lipped therapist threaten to bring the whole operation down.
The Damsel
by Richard Stark
1967
Shot up after a Parker caper, Grofield limps into a Mexico City hotel room and straight into the troubles of a woman on the run from killers and political schemers. Their frantic journey toward Acapulco mixes romance, gunfire, and half-baked revolution.
Philip
by Donald E Westlake
1967
Murder Among Children
by Donald E Westlake
1967
God Save the Mark
by Donald E Westlake
1967
Anarchaos
by Donald E Westlake
1967
The Seventh / The Split
by Richard Stark
1966
After a meticulously timed college football stadium robbery, Parker hides the cash and goes home, only to return to a murdered girlfriend and an empty room. Hunting the thief while dodging detectives, he turns a perfect score into a personal vendetta.
The Handle / Run Lethal
by Richard Stark
1966
Parker is hired by the mob to knock over an island casino and destroy a rival’s operation off the Texas coast. With Alan Grofield on the crew and betrayals waiting on the island, the line between a clean getaway and a watery grave is razor thin.
The Busy Body
by Donald E Westlake
1966
Spy in the Ointment
by Donald E Westlake
1966
Kinds Of Love, Kinds Of Death
by Donald E Westlake
1966
The Jugger
by Richard Stark
1965
Anxious letters from an aging safecracker draw Parker to a quiet Midwestern town, only for him to find the man dead and the police already suspicious. With his own identity at risk, Parker has to locate the missing money and silence anyone in his way.
The Fugitive Pigeon
by Donald E Westlake
1965
Pity Him Afterwards
by Donald E Westlake
1964
The Steel Hit / The Man With The Getaway Face
by Richard Stark
1963
With a surgically altered face and a price on his head, Parker signs on to an armored car job in New Jersey. A treacherous girlfriend and a nosy blackmailer turn the clean caper into a brutal fight to stay free.
The Score / Killtown
by Richard Stark
1963
In an audacious scheme, Parker agrees to clean out an entire North Dakota mining town in a single night, from both banks to the company payroll. With a crew this large, one bad decision can bring the whole town crashing back on them.
The Outfit
by Richard Stark
1963
After surviving a hit squad sent by the Outfit, Parker retaliates by organizing a string of robberies that target the syndicate’s businesses across the country. As the crews hit one operation after another, his private war escalates toward open bloodshed.
The Mourner
by Richard Stark
1963
Called in to repay an old debt, Parker is hired to snatch a small medieval statue known as the Mourner. The job drags him into a world of art collectors, crooked officials, and security men where nobody is quite what they claim to be.
Killy
by Donald E Westlake
1963
Campus Lovers
by Donald E Westlake
1963
What Girls Will Do
by Donald E Westlake
1962
Strange affair.
by Donald E Westlake
1962
Payback / Point Blank / The Hunter
by Richard Stark
1962
Double crossed by his wife and partner during an arms heist, Parker survives a bullet and a prison stretch, then walks into Manhattan with one goal: get his share of the money back from the Outfit, whatever it costs.
361
by Donald E Westlake
1962
Young and Innocent
by Donald E Westlake
1961
Passion's Playthings
by Donald E Westlake
1961
Killing Time
by Donald E Westlake
1961
Campus Doll
by Donald E Westlake
1961
Call Me Sinner
by Donald E Westlake
1961
Brother and Sister
by Donald E Westlake
1961
Virgin's Summer
by Donald E Westlake
1960
The Wife Next Door
by Donald E Westlake
1960
The Mercenaries/The Cutie
by Donald E Westlake
1960
SO WILLING.
by Donald E Westlake
1960
All about Annette
by Donald E Westlake
1960
Sally
by Donald E Westlake
1959
Man Hungry
by Donald E Westlake
1959
Backstage Love
by Donald E Westlake
1959
All My Lovers
by Donald E Westlake
1959
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