Dirty Money

With 2.1 million dollars of very hot cash stashed within a few miles of a bizarre armored car robbery, just about every cop in New England is searching for the robbers. The robbers, of course, are scheming to grab their loot and get out of town. DIRTY MONEY presents these criminals as the focus of the story, and as protagonists they elicit mixed feelings from the listener. Narrator Stephen Thorne provides an engaging narration with his smooth delivery. He doesn't give this band of thieves complete credibility, but he does endow each character with his own vocal identity. Thorne's unassuming, comfortable cadence makes for an entertaining listening experience. The only real problem with DIRTY MONEY is that you just don't know whom to root for. T.J.M. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

April 21, 2008
Master thief Parker wraps up some unfinished business in this entertaining if relatively lackluster entry in this long-running crime series from the pseudonymous Stark (aka MWA Grand Master Donald Westlake). Lots went wrong after Parker and two partners robbed an armored car in rural Massachusetts of $2.2 million in 2004's Nobody Runs Forever. The money was \x93poisoned\x94 (i.e., marked); one of his partners was captured before killing a marshal and escaping; and bounty-hunter Sandra Loscalzo wants to cut herself in on the take. The pragmatic, quick-thinking Parker must find a way to retrieve the stashed haul he and his confederates left in Massachusetts without getting caught by the law or nibbled to death by other crooks. Stark handles the criminal aspects of his tale with his usual panache, but some fans will find Parker's trademark sharp edge less in evidence this outing.