Reviewed By: Dusty Rhoades - RAM
Breakout
Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Richard Stark
Class/Genre: Mystery Hard Boiled
Series: Parker # 22
...
It's a familiar formula by now: take some tough guys. Have them come up with the perfect plan. Have the plan unravel. Have the tough guys come up with another plan to get out of trouble. Have that come apart as well. Repeat as often as necessary until the tough guys (and girls) finally get away, maybe with the loot, maybe not.
It's a form almost as rigid as the sonnet, so familiar as to be a cliche...so why, in the hands of Richard Stark, is it still so much fun to read? Possibly becuase, in the hands of a master like Stark/Westlake, even the familiar formula has room for twists and surprises.
In this one, Stark's quintessential tough guy Parker starts out by getting caught in a botched heist and sent to a jail from which no one has ever escaped. He knows that it's only a matter of time before he gets linked with some other dastardly deeds that will most likely put him away for life, so breaking out becomes an imperative. He puts together his own crew out of the best of the sorry specimens to be found in the jail and breaks out with almost disappointing ease. Then the real story begins. One member of Parker's of his ad hoc crew had a heist in the works before he went in, and he enlists Parker and another escapee to carry it off. Of course, that doesn't work out either. Hijinks ensue.
Like a lot of fiction in the "hardboiled" genre, 'Breakout" is a paradox. Half of the pleasure comes in recognizing the conventions of the genre, like a familiar private joke shared between people who have lived together for years. The other half of the pleasure is in the way that, even within the familair framework, we can still be surprised by some of the twists. We know something is going to go wrong; we're surprised by exactly how. "Breakout" is a pleasure to read.
Dusty Rhoades - RAM
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Dusty Rhoades - RAM
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