Richard Stark: Ask the Parrot (UK 2007)

From the Publisher:
Parker, a professional thief, is on the run after a country town bank robbery goes wrong. There are road blocks everywhere and search parties with bloodhounds are in the woods. As they close in on Parker he is confronted by a local with a shotgun. But this citizen is not out to arrest him; he wants Parker to help him with his own nefarious plans. So Parker enters into a queasy partnership with an embittered recluse, whose only companion is a speechless parrot, and finds himself joining the posse looking for him! "Ask The Parrot" is a masterpiece of lean writing and tight plotting, the latest in Richard Stark's "Parker" series which has won him a universal following.

Richard Stark: Ask the Parrot. Quercus, ISBN: 1847240984 (October, 2007), 352 p., £6.99

Richard Stark: Ask the Parrot (UK 2007)

From the Publisher:
"Ask the Parrot" is a masterpiece of lean writing and tight plotting, rough humour and deft characterization, the latest in Richard Stark's "Parker" series which has won him a wide following across the world of crime fiction addicts. Parker is on the run after a country town bank robbery goes wrong. There are road blocks in the lanes, and search parties with sniffer dogs are out in the woods. Separated from his associates, Parker is confronted by a local citizen with a shotgun. But this citizen is not out to arrest him: he wants Parker to help him carry out a robbery of his own. So Parker joins the posse looking for himself and enters into a queasy partnership with an embittered recluse intent on robbing the racetrack where he was once employed.

Richard Stark: Ask the Parrot. Quercus, ISBN: 1847240399 (March, 2007), 285 p., £10.00

Richard Stark: Ask the Parrot (USA 2006)

From the Publisher:
On a sunny October afternoon a man is running up a hill. He's not dressed for running. Below him are barking police dogs and waiting up ahead is a stranger-with a rifle, a life full of regrets, and a parrot at home who will mutely witness just how much trouble the runner, Parker, can bring into an ordinary life.

The rabbit hunter is Tom Lindahl, a small-town lonely heart nursing a big-time grudge against the racetrack that fired him. He knows from the moment he sees Parker that he's met a professional thief-and a man with murder in his blood. Rescuing Parker from the chase hounds, Lindahl invites the fugitive into his secluded home. He plans to rip off his former employer and exact a deadly measure of revenge-if he can get Parker to help.

But Tom doesn't know Parker and that the desperate criminal will do anything to survive-no matter who has to die...

Richard Stark: Ask the Parrot. A Parker Novel. Mysterious Press, ISBN: 089296068X (November, 2006), 279 p., $23.99