The man with the getaway face

Mystery and thriller · Noir

Print length: 216 pagesMysterious Press, 1998

Description

After surgery gives Parker a new face, the disciplined professional thief is still running from the criminal Outfit and the contract on his life. Short of money, he joins former partners Skimm and Handy McKay to study and rob a New Jersey armored car, mapping routes, banks, and vulnerable service entrances with methodical care. The plan is threatened from within by Skimm’s girlfriend, Alma, who intends to betray the crew and kill him. Meanwhile, an employee of Parker’s murdered surgeon believes Parker is responsible and may expose his new identity. The novel pits Parker’s ruthless competence against divided loyalties and converging dangers in a lean hardboiled story of preparation, mistrust, and survival.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Direct · Minimalist · Spare

Pace

Brisk

Tone

Dark · Detached · Suspenseful · Tense

Structure

Linear

Focus

Character · Mystery · Plot

Emotional intensity

3 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 2 / 5
Ideas: 2 / 5
Structure: 2 / 5
Background knowledge: 1 / 5

Themes

Crime and punishmentIdentityMoralitySurvival

About Donald E. Westlake

Donald E. Westlake was a prolific American novelist who specialized in crime fiction, especially comic capers, while also working in science fiction and nonfiction. His plots often begin with professional planning: routes are studied, crews assembled, weaknesses identified, and institutions treated as systems that can be manipulated. He developed this method in two sharply different registers. Under the name Richard Stark, he wrote the Parker novels in spare, direct prose, following a relentless thief through robberies shaped by preparation, mistrust, and sudden violence. The Outfit expands Parker’s methods into a campaign against organized crime. The John Dortmunder books turn comparable ingenuity toward farce. In The Hot Rock, a carefully arranged jewel theft becomes a chain of recoveries, disguises, and improvised new schemes. Westlake also applied his controlled plotting and bleak humor beyond the series. The Ax follows an unemployed manager who treats rival job applicants as obstacles to be eliminated, using the language and logic of corporate competition to chart his moral collapse.