Here's a brief celebration of noir literature—a couple of classics by Richard Stark, who sometimes cops to the alias Donald Westlake*. Generally speaking, Westlake does the funnier stuff. Not that it's all funny, mind you, but at least darkly sardonic. Classic caper novels like the Dortmunder books The Hot Rock and Bank Shot, not to mention The Ax, The Hook, and so many others. When it's time to get tough, though, then it's Richard Stark all the way. Here we have two recent Stark releases, though one is a re-release over thirty years old. They seem like a great set of bookends separated both by thirty years and just a few months (thanks to the Hard Case Crime line).

Feel like taking a walk on the wild side? The Stark name usually means Parker, the professional thief and dispassionate hard guy whose exploits he's been chronicling for over 30 years. In Ask the Parrot, we pick up right from the end of Nobody Runs Forever, when Parker's running from the police and their dogs after yet another job gone wrong (he's on a streak). He bumps into Lindahl, a man with a gun, a hideout—and a tasty proposition. Parker's willing to hear him out. After all, Lindahl's the only game in town. Turns out Lindahl's been nursing a grudge against a race track that done him wrong, and he still has card access to the inner workings, including the money room. Parker agrees to plan a new heist, while remaining skeptical. But he does need money . . . and, like "The Purloined Letter," hiding in plain sight's not a bad idea. Soon, Parker's out with a gun-happy posse—hunting for . . . Parker! Suffice to say this doesn't go so well, either, but not the way you'd think. Plus, the new heist has its own complications, and Parker has never been so exposed to so many people, each of whom could bring down his house-of-cards identity in a moment—or worse, as in the case of those brothers who recognize him and want the cash they think he's stashed. Morally ambiguous because Stark makes you want Parker to succeed, perhaps without having to kill anybody, this classic noir series continues to get better and better. A bit of Westlake's trademark dark humor creeps in here with the parrot, who chooses a bad time to start talking. If you haven't met Parker, track down the previous 22 novels that feature him.

When Stark isn't writing about his favorite master thief, he can be found on the trail of one of Parker's occasional associates, Alan Grofield. Where Parker seems to live from heist to heist, perhaps grooving on the danger and risks, Grofield gets involved in heists to fund the middle-of-nowhere-Indiana summer stock theater he owns with his wife. As a stage actor (who despises film and television), Grofield makes a perfect thief because he uses his skills in playing roles that come in handy when witness statements are taken. But he doesn't live for the jobs. Which is good, because they so often go bad. In this 30+-year-old digression from Parker, Grofield gets pulled into a bizarrely overwrought job by a man named Myers. Grofield and his acquaintance, Dan, walk out on the first meeting—it's a wild brewery payroll heist and Myers is too unstable. When Grofield and Dan are attacked for Dan's casino winnings, though, Grofield knows things have gone from bad to worse. Grofield helps Dan against Myers, but this turns out to be his undoing when Dan shows up nearly dead. Then Grofield gets hooked up on a good job, but Myers rears his ugly head again, at the wrong time. Grofield's hand is forced, and now he's out for vengeance, and a little thieves' justice, if he can pull it off. Grofield's travails do come up lemons, which is ironic because Grofield is technically more sympathetic a thief than Parker—happily married, in love with his avocation, and only a thief by accident. The Grofield books are never quite as hard-edged as Parker's, but this one comes darn close. The dated references don't detract a bit from what is still superb writing, plotting, and also—with this Hard Case edition—cover art in the best pulp tradition.

Parker or Grofield, Westlake or Stark, you can't go wrong. No one can tell a lean story with such precision in both the action and the characterization. Lawrence Block and Robert B. Parker come closest, but Westlake/Stark is still the master.

*Actually, it's the other way around, but I've come to think of Stark as the primary personality and Westlake as the secondary!