The Sour Lemon Score, by Richard Stark

(pb; 1969, 2010: twelfth novel in the Parker series.  Foreword by Dennis Lehane.)


From the back cover:

"Bank robberies should run like clockwork, right?  If your name's Parker, you expect nothing less.  Until, that is, one of your partners gets too greedy for his own good.  The four-way split following a job leaves too small a take for George Uhl, who begins to pick off his fellow hoisters, one by one.  The first mistake?  That he doesn't begin things by putting a bullet in Parker.  That means he won't get a chance to make a second. . ."


Review:

More so than any of the Parker sequels thus far, Sour recalls the especially dark acuity of the first book in this series (The Hunter) - its outlook, reflecting Parker's and several other characters', is harsher than usual and its delectably wicked finish is especially memorable and applaudable.  For these reasons Sour is one of my favorite entries in this twenty-four book series, and - like the preceding Parker novels - is worth owning.

Followed by Deadly Edge.

The Green Eagle Score, by Richard Stark

(pb; 1967, 2010: tenth novel in the Parker series.  Foreword by Dennis Lehane.)


From the back cover:

"Here’s Parker—planning to steal the entire payroll of an Air Force base in upstate New York, with help from Marty Fusco, fresh out of the pen, and a smart aleck finance clerk named Devers. Holed up with family in a scrappy little town, the hoisters prepare for the risky job by trying to shorten the odds. But the ice is thinner than Parker likes to think—and Marty’s ex-wife is much more complicated."


Review:

Green is another lean, machine-precise and entertaining entry in the Parker series.  This time out, the spanner in the works is one of Parker's crew members' ex-wives (Ellen Fusco) and her psychiatrist (Fred Godden) who provide the spanner elements in Parker's otherwise clockwork endeavors.  Great, burn-through read, followed by The Black Ice Score.

Shutter Island, by Dennis Lehane

(hb; 2003)


From the inside flap:

"Summer, 1954.

"U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels has come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Along with his partner, Chuck Aule, he sets out to find an escaped patient, a murderess named Rachel Solando, as a hurricane bears down on them.

"But nothing at Ashecliffe is what it seems.

"And neither is Teddy Daniels.

"Is he there to find a missing patient? Or has he been sent to look into rumors of Ashecliffe's radical approach to psychiatry? An approach that may include drug experimentation, hideous surgical trials, and lethal countermoves in the shadow war against Soviet brainwashing. . .

"Or is there another, more personal reason why he has come there?

"As the investigation deepens, the questions only mount:

"How has a barefoot woman escaped the island from a locked room?

"Who is leaving clues in the form of cryptic codes?

"Why is there no record of a patient committed there just one year before?

"What really goes on in Ward C?

"Why is an empty lighthouse surrounded by an electrified fence and armed guards?

"The closer Teddy and Chuck get to the truth, the more elusive it becomes, and the more they begin to believe that they may never leave Shutter Island.

"Because someone is trying to drive them insane."


Review:

Twisty, sometimes spooky, psychological thriller that's a fun, burn-through afternoon read.

Some of the twists aren't unexpected, but they're necessary to the plot, to lead readers to the unexpected twists. I guessed most of the key ones, but the ending, like the novel, is still impressively written and powerful.

Atmospheric period-piece page-turner, this. Check it out.

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Appropriately enough, this has been made into a film.

Set for a February 19, 2010 stateside release, it was directed by Martin Scorsese , from a script by Laeta Kalogridis.

Leonardo DiCaprio played Teddy Daniels. Mark Ruffalo played Chuck Aule. Ben Kingsley played Dr. John Cawley. Emily Mortimer played Rachel Solandro. Michelle Williams played Dolores Chanal. Max von Sydow played Dr. Jeremiah Naehring. Jackie Earle Haley played George Noyce. Elias Koteas played Andrew Laeddis. Patricia Clarkson has an unnamed role. Ted Levine plays the Warden.