“This is the job you came down here to offer me? Go steal an army payroll right off the post?”

Yea Parker, that’s the job. Right out from under the noses of five thousand armed men! Good luck! However, it is four hundred thousand dollars, so…

Another great Parker book! And I believe, the first appearance of Stan Devers! This one has just about everything I like in a Parker story! Mostly, just Parker himself, "The greatest antihero in American noir." Yes sir!

p.s. - Sergeant Novato? I live in Novato, California! ( )

Parker is chilling in Puerto Rico with Claire, when Marty Fusco shows up, seeking Parker's help to steal the payroll of an Air Force base in upstate NY. His inside man (Devers) is the new beau of Marty's ex-wife, Ellen, and the mother of their young daughter. Parker agrees to check it out, only to find that Devers has been skimming already; but, he decides that the job is doable, and they devise a great way onto and off of the base. Everything goes well until ... it doesn't. Turns out that Ellen has been seeing a shrink, trusts him completely with all her and their secrets. ( )

Parker and the Air Force Payroll
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (May, 2010) of the Fawcett Gold Medal paperback (1967)

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.

The Green Eagle Score finds Parker mentoring a novice criminal Stan Devers who is the inside man at an Air Force Base with a cash payroll. Of course the heist is betrayed, but through an odd twist that doesn't involve the gang members themselves. Devers is forced to go on the run afterwards and Parker sends him on to Handy McKay for further mentoring. Both Devers and McKay will return with a host of others in The Butcher's Moon (Parker #16).

Narrator Stephen Thorne 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 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 The Green Eagle Score and of all the Parker books and adaptations at The Violent World of Parker website.

Like 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 NOT include the Foreword by author Dennis Lehane. ( )

The Richard Stark books are perfect for reading while being self-quarantined. They are light, fun reads. I've read about two-thirds of the series, not in order as most stand alone very nicely, although I would suggest reading the early ones in order to set the stage, as it were.

The Green Eagle Store is typical. Parker is enlisted to help plan an Air Force payroll heist. As nothing ever goes the way it's planned, something completely unforeseen happens and Parker has to scramble to make it away with any money.

If you like caper books, these will please for sure. Then you can move on to Westlake's (Stark is a pseudonym for the Parker series) other books. Enjoy. ( )

If you've already read the first nine, you know what to expect. This wasn't my favorite so far, but it did its job. I just don't know why it's called The Green Eagle Score. ( )