Prime Parker

In addition to the wonder of just seeing back in print 18 of the late Donald E. Westlake’s Parker novels--written under the pseudonym “Richard Stark” and starring his ruthless, one-named thief--there’s also pleasure to be had in the fact that these paperbacks are being so handsomely presented by the University of Chicago Press. Credit for their covers goes to “internationally respected Canadian book designer” David Drummond, who has posted images of his last three fronts from the series here.

Back in 2008, when he started work on the Parker novels, Drummond explained that “The publisher wanted a hard-boiled mystery look for this reissue of the famous crime novel series. They also wanted it to have a film noir sensibility with a strong sense of locale/place. It also has to have an element that ties the series together.” He has certainly delivered all of those qualities.

The whole series is available here.