Parker es un ladrón profesional y, eventualmente, un asesino. Un hombre frio y calculador, reservado hasta la exasperación y dueño de una inteligencia más que destacable. Dos años atras, Parker se vió obligado a abandonar en la pequeña y apacible ciudad de Tyler, los setenta y tres mil dolares de botín de un robo a un coche blindado. Ahora ha llegado el momento de recuperar lo que es suyo, y para ello se va a ver involucrado en una guerra entre las mafias que controlan la ciudad.

Parker and the Crime Spree
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (January, 2013) of the Random House hardcover (1974)

Richard Stark was one of the many pseudonyms of the prolific crime author Donald E. Westlake (1933-2008), who wrote over 100 books. The Stark pseudonym was used primarily for the Parker novels, an antihero criminal who is usually betrayed or ensnared in some manner and who spends each book getting revenge or escaping the circumstances.

Butcher's Moon finds Parker returning to the town of the scene of the crime in Slayground (Parker #14 - 1971) in order to retrieve the lost loot from that heist which he had to abandon in his escape. He believes that it is the local mob that has collected his score. They in turn are understandably reluctant to reimburse Parker for his losses. The master heister then proceeds to unleash a horde of his cronies to rob all of the mob's front operations while insisting those scores are just interest on the outstanding debt. The truth of the original lost score is gradually revealed.

Butcher's Moon was the culmination of the first arc of Parker stories from 1962 to 1974, after which Richard Stark retired the character for 25 years until Comeback (Parker #17 - 1997).

Narrator Joe Barrett does a good job in all voices in this audiobook edition.

I had never previously read the Stark/Parker novels but became curious when they came up in my recent reading of The Writer's Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives (Sept. 2020) by Nancy Pearl & Jeff Schwager. Here is a (perhaps surprising) excerpt from their discussion with author Amor Towles:

Nancy: Do you read Lee Child?
Amor: I know Lee. I had never read his books until I met him, but now I read them whenever they come out. I think some of the decisions he makes are ingenious.
Jeff: Have you read the Parker books by Donald Westlake [writing as Richard Stark]?
Amor: I think the Parker books are an extraordinary series.
Jeff: They feel like a big influence on Reacher, right down to the name. Both Reacher and Parker have a singular focus on the task in front of them.
Amor: But Parker is amoral. Reacher is just dangerous.
Jeff: Right. Reacher doesn't have a conventional morality, but he has his own morality. Parker will do anything he has to do to achieve his goal.
Amor: But to your point, Westlake's staccato style with its great twists at the end of the paragraphs, and his mesmerizing central character - these attributes are clearly shared by the Reacher books.

The 24 Parker books are almost all available for free on Audible Plus, except for #21 & #22 which aren't available at all.

Trivia and Links
There is a brief plot summary of Butcher's Moon and of all the Parker books and adaptations at The Violent World of Parker website.

Unlike many of the 2010-2013 Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook editions which share the same cover art as the University of Chicago Press 2009-2011 reprints, this audiobook DOES include the Foreword by author Lawrence Block. ( )

Perhaps the best of the Parker series, and what was for many years, his last book. After a series of bad luck robberies and running low on cash, Parker and the sometimes actor Grofield, go back to recover the $73,000, Parker had to abandon in an amusement park, dodging gangsters and dirty cops in Slayground. Unfortunately, the chief gangster doesn't have his money and even after checking with the big city mob boss, decides to ignore Parker, at his own peril. Parker and Grofield strike back, but when Grofield is shot and captured, Parker unleashes his own version of a jihad, by calling in his many friends to wage war against the gangsters/dirty cops, who themselves are mired in their own power struggles. Terrific action, vintage Parker. ( )

“Call him and ask him,” the voice said, “what you should do if you owe some money to a guy named Parker.”

Boom! And off we go! THE Parker book!!! Almost twice the length of the previous books!
Parker, with Grofield, are back at Fun Island Amusement Park to retrieve the money they left behind from the armored car heist in “Slayground”. The local ‘ boss’ , Lozini, is still there too, and he’s still mad! When things get heavy, Parker calls on an army of former “co-workers” - basically everyone who he’s pulled jobs with in the first 15 books! Well, everyone that’s still alive, that is...
I loved this book! It's like a greatest hits volume of the series up until that point! I'd reccommend reading the first 15 books before this, but it isn't totally neccessary. Unless, of course, you owe Parker money. Then, you'd better just pay him, as all previous stories have taught us. $73,000 in this book, or $45,000 in the first book. Just pay the man. It just ain't worth it not to...

“I’m only the messenger!”
“Now you’re the message,” Parker told him, and shot him.

THAT’S my Parker! ( )

How do you turn bad guys into good guys in fiction? By creating even worse guys.

Donald E. Westlake used this device time after time in his books, especially when writing Parker novels under the name of Richard Stark. “Butcher's Moon” (1974) is a classic Parker novel, longer than most and with a higher body count. The 2011 reprint has a foreword by Lawrence Block, another novelist known for converting bad guys (a burglar and a hit man) into good guys, comparatively speaking.

Parker, a professional thief with barely a soft spot in his character, decides to return to the midwestern city of Tyler to find $73,000 he left hidden there after a heist went bad years before. (Why he left the money behind or why he waited so long to try to retrieve it is never explained.) He enlists the aid of another professional, Alan Grofield (a recurring character), in case finding the money isn't as easy as he hopes. It isn't.

Not only isn't the cash where he left it, but he suspects it was found by someone in the organized crime syndicate that runs Tyler. Adding another complication, the Tyler gang is in the midst of a power struggle, a younger man trying to gain control from an older man. Parker and Grofield quickly bring things to a boil. When Grofield is seriously wounded, Parker recruits former associates from around the country to help him get his money and save Grofield, proving he does have a soft spot after all.

The action, like the twists and turns in the plot, is nonstop. Parker may really be a bad guy, but this is a good book. ( )