The Outfit by Richard Stark

Blurb:

You probably haven’t ever noticed them. But they’ve noticed you. They notice everything. That’s their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers’ work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack.

They’re thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They’re pros, and Parker is far and away the best of them. If you’re planning a job, you want him in. Tough, smart, hardworking, and relentlessly focused on his trade, he is the heister’s heister, the robber’s robber, the heavy’s heavy. You don’t want to cross him, and you don’t want to get in his way, because he’ll stop at nothing to get what he’s after.

Review:

The Outfit is a mystery novel written in third person narration and set in the U.S. in the 20^th century days of mob activity. An interesting element is the bad guy vs. bad guy factor, comparable to today’s gang wars. I was not able to closely identify with any particular character in the book as the entire theme is quite foreign to my own reality. However, I found it to be an intriguing look at a world outside anything I know, with a game of trying to sort out the lesser of two evils. It is a fast-paced, easy read with vivid detail and a lot of action. It takes the reader on a cross-country trek with some interesting twists and turns. The defining point in the book for me is when one character discovers the Truth of Self-Interest and realizes it is part of every human being.

This book would not be on my list of “must reads” but I would recommend it to adults looking for a quick and lively mystery with a peek into the workings of the underworld.

Length:  224 Pages

Prices:

Print:  $14.00

Digital:  $14.00

Buy Link:  http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/O/bo6035396.html

You’ll notice we always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

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