Serious crime

Richard Stark and Donald E. Westlake may have been one and the same person, yet their books are dramatically different. True, both wrote about crime, but Westlake's criminals, especially his Dormunder gang, were mostly harmless and mostly hapless. Nothing ever went right for them. It was all about the comedy. Stark, meanwhile, wrote about Parker, a hardcore professional who leaves few clues, and fewer laughs, behind.

The Outfit (1962), one of the earliest Parker novels, finds him with a new face, thanks to plastic surgery, but still with the same lifestyle. In the opening chapter he's in bed with a woman when a hitman breaks in to kill him. Parker gets the upper hand and discovers the hit was ordered by the head of the Outfit, a nationwide crime network.

Parker decides to take on the Outfit. First he writes letters to all the freelance criminals he knows, telling them that if they have ever considered striking one of the Outfit's operations, most of them involving illegal gambling, now was the time to pull off those jobs. Meanwhile, Parker himself, aided by a semi-retired associate, goes after the head of the Outfit.

As usual in these novels, the action is fast-paced, and other, even worse criminals, not innocent civilians, are the only ones who get hurt.

Actually this Parker novel does have one thing in common with the Dortmunder novels. Parker enters a bar where the restrooms are labeled "Pointers" and "Setters." This same gag, among the few ever used by Richard Stark, would later be used by Donald E. Westlake in most of the Dortmunder adventures.