The guy can write. The guy is Richard Stark. Then again, the guy is Donald Westlake, and Tucker Coe, and Samuel Holt, and, well, a half a dozen other published pseudonyms. Richard Stark (Donald Westlake is the author's given name) has been crafting crime and comic capers for almost 50 years. He turns single-sentence plotlines into noir thrillers filled with ingenuity and audacity. His latest novel, "Ask the Parrot," falters on ingenuity but rises on deceptively minimalist prose. "Ask the Parrot" is the 24th novel in Stark's highly enjoyable Parker series — a series which has refused to evolve, yet crosses generations. Parker is a beacon of familiarity for old readers, and it speaks to new ones as well. The first novel in the series, "The Hunter," published in 1962, shaped the genre — violent, unpredictable yet anti-hero joyous — and was the basis for two movies. In 1967, the movie was "Point Blank," a story of revenge starring Lee Marvin as the steel-eyed sociopath, Parker. In 1999, it was the underrated "Payback," a stylish, dark-humor piece with Mel Gibson as the remorseless predator. Professional thief Parker is his own dog — a myopic pit bull at that. He does what he likes, and damn the consequences. That's his beauty. Parker taps an inner voice, saying and doing what many would like to say and do but don't. He is, in effect, a champion for the impotent and castrated, which is, I fear, a growing rank. There is no place for the rough-and-ready in a society of correctness. In "Ask the Parrot," Parker, running from a bank robbery gone sour ("Nobody Runs Forever"), hides out in a town where everyone knows everyone, and if they don't, they find out. A car passes. It U-turns and slows. A woman leans out. "Can I help you?" she asks the stranger walking alone. Parker responds, "To do what?" It's a small exchange, but a powerful one, and that's the series' signature gunshot. One is never sure when Parker is going to go off, but when he does, somebody is going to be upended. His character has no arc. Everyone arcs around him. He's like a giant mass that bends and deflects. Then there is the posse the town has shopped together to hunt down Parker and his armed accomplices, last seen in the area. Parker finds his way to a meeting at the local Rod and Gun Club, and in no time, he's part of the posse. The comic turn is more Westlake (Dortmunder novels) than Stark, but the effect is great fun. Describing the particularities of a Stark plot is never easy, and fortunately, it's unnecessary. The characters in Stark's books are not vehicles to carry the plot — they are the plot: a violent bank robber and the people he touches. But vintage Stark is embroidered mayhem, and in "Ask the Parrot," while the plot is tightly knit, the pattern is plain. Nonetheless, the novel reads more as if it were three pages than 300. Few writers do so much with so little. Let's face it: Contemporary crime fiction imparts the sensation of slumming — right or wrong. But if you are going to visit a cathouse, you might as well tag along with a preferred customer. Richard Stark has credit at all the major houses. Grade: 3 out of 5 Send any comments to Jed Moore at [email protected].