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.
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