“Firebreak” is the 20th of the 24 Parker novels written by Westlake disguised as Richard Stark. It brings Parker into the modern age of the internet. An internet tycoon has a collection of rare Masters hidden in a secret vault under a hunting lodge in Montana. There’s some real money there if you can break through all the electronic protections.
But to get there, Parker has to contend with teams of would-be assassins, one of whom makes it into Parker’s home on the lake, the one he shares with Claire. He has to contend with a partner who is a computer genius but is hellbent on getting even with those who betrayed him. And, the guys who brought him into this caper, they tried and failed and the guys who were working with them got caught and are thinking of turning State’s evidence. By the time all this is resolved, the resolution of the actual caper doesn’t seem so important.
It’s a typical Parker novel, taut, sardonic, tough-nosed, gripping. Not the best of the lot as there’s a little too much going on, but still a Parker novel and this series has no peers.
Pulp, Crime, & Mystery Books 