The Jugger (1965) – Pocket Books

A Parker Job (#6)

Also published as The “Chicken” and the Yegg in Man’s magazine, April, 1965.

___When he finally made up his mind it was really Joe Sheer who had written that letter, Parker pulled out a suitcase and started packing. It wasn’t for Joe Sheer that he packed, or that he called the airport and made a reservation on the next plane for Omaha. As far as he was concerned, Joe cold drop dead right now and that would be fine with Parker. In fact that would be better; it would save him a trip.
___He was going for himself. He was going because in Joe’s letter he saw a danger to himself much more obvious and lethal than any danger Joe had been trying to describe. What he saw was the shaky penmanship and shaky mentality of an old man. Joe was going senile. At seventy, he’d lost every trace of the code of ethics he’d lived by all his adult life.
___But he hadn’t lost Parker’s name and address.

Review by Ed Gorman – “I’m about to review the worst book Donald E. Westlake ever wrote.”

Buy it here:

Pocket Books, 1965 (PB)
Coronet (UK), 1974 (PB)
Allison & Busby (UK), 1986 (HC)
University of Chicago Press, 2009 (PB)
E-Book, 2010
Audio Book, 2011
Made in U.S.A. (Anouchka Films, France), 1966