A first US edition of Richard Stark's Plunder Squad, the fifteenth Parker novel, published in hardback by Random House in 1972. Took a while to track down a copy I could afford – the cheapest copy on AbeBooks, ignoring the non-existent listing for one at £50 (believe me, I checked), is over £120 for an ex-library copy – but eventually I did, and it's now in my sweaty paws. It's a nice copy: not ex-library, the only defect is a water stain to the lower part of the back of the jacket. For what I paid, I can live with that.
And it means I now have a copy of every one of the first sixteen Parker novels. There's still a few particular editions of those novels I'd like to get hold of – an Allison & Busby hardback of The Rare Coin Score, for example – but I can take my time over those. And there's a few Parkers from the second run of books I'll have to pick up at some point, but I'm reading Parker #7, The Split, at the moment, so plenty of time to secure those.
Mind you, I still need to track down the three Grofield novels following The Damsel... A collector's work is never done...
I'm missing Black Ice Score, Plunder Squad, and Butcher's Moon. I haven't seen an affordable copy of the last two, except the $20 copy of a Avon printing Butcher's Moon I lost by second on eBay awhile back. As much as I'd love to own older printings of these books, I have to wait as Chicago Press releases their reprints as the older copies' prices go down a little. I've found the Avon printings in the $5 range, but those last two are never cheap.
ReplyDeleteThe copies of Plunder Squad and Butcher's Moon I tracked down weren't exactly cheap, but they weren't as eye-wateringly expensive as they might've been. Those Avon paperbacks do come up on eBay every now and again though. Keep hunting!
ReplyDeleteThe $5 copy of Deadly Edge I got in the mail yesterday- I neglected to notice in the sales description that it was part of the 1992 Atlantic Large Print series. Not a deal breaker, but reading a large print book with good eyes makes you feel like you're shrinking after awhile. Also, the cover is damn silly.
ReplyDeleteI've been wondering what the covers of those Atlantic editions are like. You often see them listed.
ReplyDeleteI guess you could prop the book up and stand back a bit to read it...