Die Hard Parker at the Fairground
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (February, 2013) of the Random House hardcover (1971)

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.

Slayground finds Parker on the run after a heist gone bad and his crew member Alan Grofield arrested. It turns into a Die Hard situation at an amusement park with the local mob and their corrupt cop associates hunting down Parker, who had infringed on their territory without approval. Parker waits them out and sets up boobytraps and diversions during the all-night siege. The fate of the loot becomes the MacGuffin for Parker #16 Butcher's Moon.

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
Slayground was loosely adapted into a film version Slayground (1983) dir. Terry Bedford, which had very little to do with the book's plot. Peter Coyote plays the Parker role, which is renamed as Stone.

There is a brief plot summary of Slayground 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 2009-2010 reprints, this audiobook DOES include the Foreword by author Charles Ardai. ( )

3.5 stars. A relatively easy armored truck rip-off goes awry when a second rate driver skids on ice and flips the car. Parker sees his partners immobilized, grabs the loot, and seeks sanctuary in a local amusement park, closed for the winter. Some crooked cops and gangsters see Parker entering the park, and decide to relieve him of his ill-gotten gains. The rest of the novel is Parker seeking to escape the park alive (with scant resources) against formidable odds as the gangsters call in reinforcements. Think of the movie Home Alone as Parker booby-traps stuff awaiting the dragnet. ( )

Different type of Parker story, took a little while but still hooked me ( )

Luc Sante wrote, "Some Parker novels are fantastically intricate clockwork mechanisms ("The Hunter", "The Outfit", the seemingly unstoppable "Slayground", the epic "Butcher's Moon")..."

This book takes place about 5 years after Joe Sheer's death, which happened in the 6th book, "The Jugger" which I just read a few days ago. Parker's working on his eighth job since then, but still trying to catch up and rebuild from the events in that book.

Alan Grofield is in this, another Stark character that I really like! It’s his and Parker’s fifth job together, albeit for just a tiny amount of time. This one goes sour fast, and Parker finds himself trapped with the satchel of loot in an amusement park called Fun Island that has been closed for the offseason! But, they give him too much time, and he is able to “booby-trap the whole damn park against them...”! Then it's a cat-and-mouse game till the end! Don't go into the house of mirrors!

Claire, Parker’s gal, is in this too.

Good, quick read! Shows how smart Parker is, especially when his back's against the wall! I wonder if he'll ever get that money. Or his revenge on Lozini. Did Stark ever write the 'sequel'?
Guess I'll just have to read ALL the Parker novels! Poor me! ;-) ( )

Least favorite of the Parker Series by Richard Stark/Donald Westlake. Well written, but plot had nowhere to go: Parker is trapped inside an amusement park by thugs --- will he escape...well, since there are more books in the series, not very hard to predict the outcome. ( )