Re: RARA-AVIS: First lines from Stark's Parker books

From: Bob Toomey ( btoomey@javanet.com)
Date: 03 Jun 2002


The opening line of "Butcher's Moon" is:

"Running toward the light, Parker fired twice over his left shoulder, not caring whether he hit anything or not."

BobT

Mark Sullivan wrote:

> Chris wrote:
>
> "I don't know the numbers for these either. But "The Handle" isn't #7 -
> that's "The Split," aka "The Seventh," so called because it's not only
> the seventh in the series, but it's also Parker's share of that book's
> heist. I believe "Handle" is actually #8. Not sure though. At any rate,
> this leaves only the first lines of "Plunder Squad" and "Butcher's
> Moon," which are the two that go for $150 or more on Ebay and which I
> therefore don't own."
>
> Actually, The Seventh is the eighth to have been published. However,
> plotwise, it is clearly the seventh, with events happening before The
> Handle, which was printed seventh, so the two must have been printed out
> of order, just a month apart.
>
> Here are the publication dates from the Pocket editions:
>
> The Hunter -- December 1962
> The Man With the Getaway Face -- March 1963
> The Outfit -- September 1963
> The Mourner -- December 1963
> The Score -- July 1964
> The Jugger -- July 1965
> The Handle -- February 1966
> The Seventh -- March 1966
>
> I just have the year for the later ones:
>
> The Rare Coin Score -- 1967
> The Green Eagle Score -- 1967
> The Black Ice Score -- 1968
> The Sour Lemon Score -- 1969
> Deadly Edge -- 1971
> Slayground -- 1969, 1971 (first chapter was from the Grofield novel,
> Blackbird, hence the earlier date)
> Plunder Squad - 1972
> Butcher's Moon -- 1974
>
> The first paragraph of Butcher's Moon is:
>
> "Running toward the light, Parker fired twice over his left shoulder,
> not caring whether he hit anything or not. It was just to slow them
> down, keep the cops in the front of the store while he and the others
> got out."
>
> And then there is "Child Heist," the otherwise non-existent Parker novel
> which is excerpted in Westlake's Jimmy the Kid. Chapters alternate
> between Parker pulling a kidnapping and the Dortmunder gang trying to
> copy him.
>
> Mark
>
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