A Parker Job (#1)
Also published as The Exploiters in For Men Only magazine (Feb., 1968)
___He was a mess. He had no shoes or socks, his shirt and trousers were bloody and filthy and torn, his face and arms were scratched and bruised, and he couldn’t walk properly. He came at last to a highway, and walked along it for five minutes before state troopers picked him up. He was too worn down to resist, and they vagged him.
___His fifth month on the farm, he wrote a careful letter to a guy he knew in Chicago, asking for information about Mal in a roundabout way. He signed the letter by his prison name, Ronald Casper, because he knew it would be read by the censor before it was mailed, but in the body of the letter he tried to make it clear who the writer really was.
___He got an answer three weeks later, an answer as guarded in its phrasing as his question had been, but through the verbiage about non-existent relatives he got the story. Mal, it seemed, had left Chicago some time ago, with a woman who could only have been Lynn. He had apparently squared himself with the syndicate and had been taken back into the fold. He had been recently seen in New York, spending heavily and living the good life. Lynn was still with him.
___So Parker waited, and when his chance came he took it. He killed a guard rather than wait the two more months until they would have released him anyway. He had to get moving. He wanted Mal Resnick–he wanted him between his hands. Not the money back. Not Lynn back. Just Mal, between his hands.
Read: Donald Westlake’s introduction to the hardcover Gregg Press edition (1981)
Buy it here:
| Pocket Books, 1962 (PB) |   |
| Fawcett Gold Medal (as Point Blank), 1967 (PB) |  |
| Berkley (as Point Blank), 1973 (PB) | |
| Gregg Press, 1981 (HC) | |
| University of Chicago Press, 2008 (PB) |   |
| IDW (Graphic Novel), 2009 (HC) |  |
| IDW (Illustrated), 2014 (HC) | |
| E-Book, 2009 |    |
| Audio Book, 2010 |  |
| Point Blank (Warner Bros.), 1967 |  |
| Payback (Paramount), 1999 |  |
Cover Gallery:
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- First Edition (Paper)
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- First Edition (Paper)
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- First Edition (Paper)
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- First Edition (Paper)
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- Gallimard (Fra), 1963: Like a flower
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- Mondadori (Ita), 1964: Anonymous Carrion
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- Rififi (Por), 1964: The Hunter Men (1964)
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- Editorial Novaro (Mex), 1965: Big Game (1965)
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- Hayakawa (Jap), 1966: Human Hunting Parker/Villain (1966)
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- Sleeve for Japanese edition, 1966
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- Inscription from Japanese translator, Nobumitsu Kodaka.
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- Gold Medal, 1967
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- Gold Medal, 1967
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- Coronet (UK), 1967
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- Coronet (UK), 1967
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- For Men Only magazine, Feb, 1968
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- For Men Only, Feb., 1968
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- For Men Only, Feb., 1968
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- For Men Only, Feb., 1968
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- For Men Only, Feb., 1968
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- For Men Only, Feb., 1968
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- For Men Only, Feb., 1968
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- For Men Only, Feb., 1968
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- Point Blank Poster, 1968
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- Point Blank Poster, 1968
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- Point Blank Poster, 1968
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- Lee Marvin as Parker, 1968
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- Angie Dickinson with Lee Marvin, 1968
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- Born Pockets (Ned), 1968: The Avenger
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- Born Pockets (Ned), 1968
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- Ullstein (Ger), 1968: Now We’re Even
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- Ullstein (Ger), 1968
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- Kometförlaget (Swe), 1968: The Impact
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- Kometförlaget (Swe), 1968
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- Coronoet (UK), 1970
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- Coronoet (UK), 1970
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- Mondadori (Ita), 1971
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- Mondadori (Ita), 1971
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- Coronoet (UK), 1972
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- Coronoet (UK), 1972
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- Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava (Fin), 1973: Put Parker to the Floorboards
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- Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava (Fin), 1973
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- Berkley, 1973
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- Berkley, 1973
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- Pabel (Ger), 1976
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- Pabel (Ger), 1976
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- Hayakawa (Jap), 1976
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- Hayakawa (Jap), 1976
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- Gregg Press, 1981 (HC)
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- Mondadori (Ita), 1981
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- Mondadori (Ita), 1981
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- Brazil: Point Blank (1982)
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- Livros Abril (Bra), 1982
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- Avon, 1984
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- Avon, 1984
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- Allison & Busby (UK), 1984 (HC)
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- Allison & Busby (UK), 1986
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- Allison & Busby (UK), 1986
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- Atlantic (Large Print), 1987 (HC)
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- Atlantic (Large Print), 1987 (HC)
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- Ullstein (Ger), 1988: Triple Coup for Parker
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- Ullstein (Ger), 1988
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- Ullstein (Ger), 1988
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- Payback Poster (1999)
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- University of Chicago Press, 2008
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- Darwyn Cooke’s First Parker GN (Hardcover) (2012)
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- Darwyn Cooke (2012)
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- Darwyn Cooke (2012)
Point Blank (Warner Bros.), 1967
Payback (Paramount), 1999
The Parker Novels
University of Chicago Press Editions (Amazon Links)
The Grofield Novels
First Edition Hardcovers (Amazon Links)
Re: “Kometförlaget (Swe), 1968: The Impact”
“Stöt” means literally impact, but here it’s used in the Swedish slang sense of “a criminal job” (robbery, burglary). I think the closest/simplest translation is probably “The Job” (as in “bank job” for robbing a bank, etc).