Parker Books in Order
Part ofRichard Stark Books in OrderThis page shows all Parker novels by Richard Stark in order, with brief summaries, series background, and tips on where to start with the Parker books.
Last updated: June 7, 2026
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Publication Order
24 books
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.
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.
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Series background & context
The Parker novels follow a professional thief who treats crime as a trade, not a drama. Across the series you watch him plan robberies, assemble crews, and respond when something, or someone, inevitably pushes the job off course.
Each book centers on a single score or its aftermath. In The Hunter Parker comes back from a double cross by his wife and partner to demand his cut from a national syndicate. Later he robs an isolated mining town in The Score, a college football stadium in The Seventh, an island casino in The Handle, an Air Force base in The Green Eagle Score, and even a shuttered amusement park in Slayground. The pleasure is in seeing how a clean plan collides with human weakness.
Richard Stark writes these stories in tight, unfancy prose. There are few interior speeches and almost no moral commentary. The point of view usually hugs Parker or the crew, jumping between characters when it serves the job. You get just enough detail about weapons, alarms, back roads, and pay phones to feel the work without ever slowing the story.
Parker himself hardly softens over time. He is loyal to competent partners and ruthless with traitors, interested in money and quiet, not status or cruelty. That cool temperament lets the books stay hardboiled without becoming sadistic. When violence comes it is fast, functional, and often shockingly matter of fact.
The original run of sixteen novels appeared between 1962 and 1974, taking Parker from early 1960s New York through increasingly ambitious capers and, finally, the explosive gang war of Butcher's Moon. After a long pause, Westlake revived the series in 1997 with Comeback and wrote eight more books that quietly acknowledge riverboat casinos, televangelists, and computers while keeping Parker the same focused operator.
Along the way you meet recurring allies and foils, from laconic old pro Handy McKay to talkative actor thief Alan Grofield and Parker's partner Claire. The books also talk to the wider culture. Many have been turned into films, and several of the early titles have been adapted as graphic novels. This page lets you follow that whole arc in order and decide where you want to drop into Parker's world.
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