Order THE JUGGER here
(also reviewed)
Order THE HUNTER here
Order THE MAN WITH THE GETAWAY FACE here
Order THE OUTFIT here
Order THE MOURNER here
Order THE SCORE here
''Don't ever show a gun to a man you don't want to kill.''
One of the great life lessons of the 20th century was that money changes people. The opportunity for life-changing cash will turn a normal being into a dangerous scavenger, ready to do anything. Funerals and notary offices are full of families broken by greed. Most of the Parker novels are about greed and the relentless violence that usually comes with it in the underworld, but it's not what makes them special, though. Their obsessive protagonist who loves the job way more than he loves the money is what makes them so great. THE JUGGER is the sixth novel of the Parker series and it's about death, legacy and shitty, opportunistic people. It's been identified by Richard Stark himself as one of the weaker points of the series * and rightfully so. It's not a bad novel by any means, it's just aimless and kind of a clusterfuck.
In THE JUGGER, Parker travels to Nebraska after receiving a distress letter from his longtime friend, retired safecracker Joe Scheer. It seems like age it getting the best of him and Parker can't allow a man who knows all his secrets to go soft. When he arrives, Scheer is dead and a couple sharks are circling his estate: a thief who's out of his depth, a crooked doctor, an opportunistic undertaker and greedy, manipulative cop who'll stop at nothing to get what he believes is his due. They're a bunch of bloodthirsty amateur, yet Parker is a cold, calculating pro who doesn't leave witnesses and evidence in his trail. He might not have a choice but to bury this entire band of crooks if he wants to skip town with his anonymity still intact.
The premise of this novel is extremely seducing. I love the idea of Parker dealing with the vultures around his old friend's fresh body and leaving with the loot. The first 50 pages or so reflected my hopes about THE JUGGER, but it doesn't grow very far past that point. Joe Scheer is dead, what happened to him is enevually revealed, but his fortune remains hidden and the characters are frustrated. They're not exactly going after one another either, they remain soaking in that atmosphere or paranoia They're just doing the same thing, dancing the same dance over and over again. There is an entire part that discusses what happened to Scheer, which is not unfamiliar practice for Richard Stark, but it feels like padding here, because THE JUGGER is kind of a claustrophobic clusterfuck.
''Now, am I smart?''
Parker stood in front of him and said, ''Already today I hit you twice. Once I knocked the wind out of you, oonce I knocked the consciousness out of you. Here you are back the third time. You call that smart?''
That begs the difficult question : what do you do in a series? Do you try to keep your characters as true to themselves as possible, or do you occasionally stray for dramatic purpose? Parker does both in THE JUGGER, but I think both time, the choice is wrong. He remains paranoid and careful while dealing with Joe's death, which thwarted the narrative, yet he became sentimental and loopy about his old friend ** enough to get suckered into the kind of trouble he usually eludes trought his streetwise, yet cerebral personality. Like I said, these are hard choices and I don't know if THE JUGGER could've been made any better otherwise, but I thought that's how it became a lesser novel than the first five volume of the Parker series. Hard to begrudge Richard Stark for that, though. Everybody can have an ''off'' day.
The Parker novels never cease to amaze me. He is one of the most iconic characters in crime fiction, he has 24 books dedicated to his adventures and YET, he's still kind of an untapped resource. In this age of television, he is one of most charismatic, fun and translatable character yet and there are about 5 seasons worth of material already formatted. If BREAKING BAD was picked up by AMC and became a huge success, it's hard to think of Parker as too hardcore for the mainstream viewership. But maybe I'm just dreaming out loud. The best things in life are often kept from the spotlight and it helps keeping them special. THE JUGGER is not the novel that would turn Parker into a national television sweetheart, but the fans will appreciate the development in the most dangerous thief's storyline.
* I don't have the quote for that, but several Parker fans told me this.
** As sentimental and loopy as Parker can get. He's not a very showy guy.