Slayground

A Parker Novel, Book 14

By: Richard Stark

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

The hunter becomes prey, as a heist goes sour and Parker finds himself trapped in a shuttered amusement park, besieged by a bevy of local mobsters. There are no exits from Fun Island. Outnumbered and outgunned, Parker can’t afford a single miscalculation. He’s low on bullets - but, as anyone who’s crossed his path knows, that definitely doesn’t mean he’s defenseless.

©1971 Richard Stark; Foreword © 2010 by Charles Ardai (P)2000 AudioGO

Fun Islans!

We join Parker, Grofield, and Lauffman in the middle of an armored car robbery. Lauffman drove way too fast, losing control, rolling the car. Grofield and Lauffman were out cold in the front seat. Parker got out, looking for any type of escape. All he saw was an amusement park across the field; Fun Island. He took the sachel of loot and ran for it. Flashback two weeks ago: An old retired thief named Dent called Handy with a possible job for Parker to look at. The old man told Parker he got a haircut at the barbershop last week, looked in the mirror seeing the back of his head, and the elevens were up. You know what that means, Parker? ‘It means you’re finished.’ See references [1] [2] below. Parker said nothing but glanced at the man’s neck and saw it was true. Dent took Parker out to a seldom traveled road. They sat in the car talking until an armored car went by. Parker said, “That’s the job?” So much for the setup of the story. No police came in, which Parker knew was odd. Four guys, two cops, two mob guys, saw Parker go over the fence into the amusement park. Parker figured the men who saw him were going to make a play for the money themselves. Parker had only one five-shot revolver. The continuing story is extraordinarily unique. Caught inside the amusement park with the mob and police coming for him. How is Parker going to get through this? It’s a great story. Parker is at the top of his ingenuity game.

[1] The “elevens are up”, i.e., the phrase refers to the two tendons on the back of the neck, which, on an elderly alcoholic, stick out like two ones ‘making the number 11.’ The elevens denote fatal illness and ‘there’s not much more time.’
[2] Another interesting related phrase is “the snake is out”, i.e., a reference to the vein that runs along the ‘left temple of a man’s head,’ which is invisible until a drinking man gets into his fifties when it ‘gets to acting up.’

Good from start to finish.

The Parker novels are a great find. They are short and sweet. Best of all is there are a bunch of them.

A Beauty

Just like the foreword says, this is much different from the previous Parker novels. And it is so, so good! Near perfection from Westlake.

just wow!

good old Parker at it again! narration was pretty good story is definitely dated but what fun!

Tension-filled, gripping story

Narrator grabs and holds listener throughout. What at first may seem a far-fetched premise unfolds to not only be credible but fully engaging.