Breakout — Richard Stark

A master thief must build a team to escape a correctional center in this fast-paced, hard-boiled crime novel by the author of Firebreak.

With Parker locked up and about to be unmasked, Breakout follows his Houdini-like escape from prison with a team of convicts. But when a new heist and new dangers -- con artists, snitches, busybodies, eccentrics, and cops -- loom among the dark alleys and old stone buildings of the big city to which they've fled, Parker soon learns that not all prisons have bars.

Praise for Breakout

“Fiercely distracting. . . . Westlake is an expert plotter; and while Parker is a blunt instrument of a human being depicted in rudimentary short grunts of sentences, his take on other characters reveals a writer of great humor and human understanding.” -- John Hodgman

“Stark . . . applies his great wit and dexterous mental skills to a series of . . . ingenious exits and entrances in (what else?) Breakout. . . . Jampacked. . . . He writes with ruthless efficiency.” -- Marilyn Stasio, New York Times

“Stark invites readers to project themselves onto the always-assured Parker, making him a frighteningly easy sociopath to root for. And watching knowledgeable bad guys ply their shadowy trade under pressure is always fun. An immensely pleasurable entry in the Parker series. . . . Simply put, Breakout is great escapist fiction.” -- Booklist,starred review