History Literature / Parker

A ruthless career criminal, Parker has almost no traditional redeeming qualities, aside from efficiency and professionalism. Parker is cold, methodical, and perfectly willing to commit murder to get what he wants. He's not a psychopath, however, as he neither enjoys nor is repulsed by murder; pragmatically, he generally leaves bystanders alive because he knows the police look harder for murderers than for thieves. (Double cross him in any way though, and he absolutely will not hesitate to end your life.) [[LastNameBasis His first name is never mentioned in the novels]], and there are many details about him which remain unknown. Four of the novels were adapted into comics by Darwyn Cooke for IDW Publishing before his untimely death.

!!The ''Parker'' novels contain examples of:

* YoureInsane: Parkers initial reaction to realizing that Edgars wants to rob all the businesses in a whole town in one night in ''The Score'', but he gets persuaded to do it anyway. In ''Backflash'' he has a similar reaction to reading the planners manifesto and realizing [[spoiler: that he had them rob a river boat casino just so he'd be able to latch onto that as proof that gambling attracts crime]].

A ruthless career criminal, Parker has almost no traditional redeeming qualities, aside from efficiency and professionalism. Parker is cold, methodical, and perfectly willing to commit murder to get what he wants. He's not a psychopath, however, as he neither enjoys nor is repulsed by murder; pragmatically, he generally leaves bystanders alive because he knows the police look harder for murderers than for thieves. (Double cross him in any way though, and he absolutely will not hesitate to end your life.) His first name is never mentioned in the novels, and there are many details about him which remain unknown. Four of the novels were adapted into comics by Darwyn Cooke for IDW Publishing before his untimely death.

* ComicBookTime: The Parker novels span 46 years and are usually set at around the time they were published; Parker himself remains a grizzled fortyish throughout. There were some references to his military service (and bad conduct discharge) in World War II in the first few novels, which are later ignored. It helps that he is given very little backstory, so there's not much to retcon.

* TheAlcatraz: Stoneveldt in ''Breakout'' has this reputation. Parker is told multiple times that no one has ever escaped from there. Played with in the sense that it's not due to the overall defenses but rather that no one's there long enough to formulate a plan.

A ruthless career criminal, Parker has almost no traditional redeeming qualities, aside from efficiency and professionalism. Parker is cold, methodical, and perfectly willing to commit murder to get what he wants. His first name is never mentioned in the novels, and there are many details about him which remain unknown. Four of the novels were adapted into comics by Darwyn Cooke for IDW Publishing before his untimely death.

* BareFistedMonk: Parker is perfectly willing to use guns, knives, clubs and booby trapped amusement parks as weapons, but he prefers to work with his hands.
-->'''Stegman''': I don't see no gun on you. I don't see no weapon!
-->'''Parker''': ''([[KnuckleCracking cracks knuckles]])'' You see two of them. They're all I need.

* VillainProtagonist: Parker himself.

* VillainProtagonist

* {{Determinator}}: Nothing -- absolutely, positively nothing -- will stop Parker once he puts his mind to accomplishing something (usually vengeance). And he's coldly, calmly unrelenting ... and he ''always'' has a plan. In ''The Hunter'', he goes to war against TheMafia -- that's the whole, entire Mafia across the whole, entire country -- in order to regain money he believes he is owed. By the time of ''The Outfit'', Parker is such a thorn in their side (he's already killed several of their bosses) that the Mafia decides it is easier to make peace with Parker than keep fighting him. He's that focused, that determined, and that good at what he does...Parker is absolutely someone you do <i>not</i> want to get on the bad side of, for any reason, ever.

* {{Determinator}}: Nothing -- absolutely, positively nothing -- will stop Parker once he puts his mind to accomplishing something (usually vengeance). And he's unrelenting ... and he ''always'' has a plan. In ''The Hunter'', he goes to war against TheMafia -- the whole, entire Mafia -- in order to regain money he believes he is owed. By the time of ''The Outfit'', Parker is such a thorn in their side (he's already killed several of their bosses) that the Mafia decides it is easier to make peace with Parker than keep fighting him.

** Poor Joe Sheer, after being tortured by a CorruptHick after the loot from his heist (which he'd blown on luxuries years ago), and the clients/fingers in [[spoiler: ''Plunder Squad'' and ''Backflash'']].

* ''The Hunter'' (1962, aka ''Film/PointBlank'', ''Film/{{Payback}}'')

* MenOfSherwood: The RightWingMilitiaFanatic group in ''Flashfire'' are an odd combination of AccidentalHero and VillainOfAnotherStory. They're a pretty vile bunch, but when they stumble across two hitmen trying to murder a wounded and defenseless Parker, [[spoiler:they gun down the hitmen and save Parker's life, displaying perfect marksmanship and discipline as they form a firing line and have the same number of men shoot at each hitman (none of the militiamen miss) without flinching even as the hitmen shoot back and kill two militiamen.]]

* ''Flashfire'' (2000, aka ''Parker'')

* {{Determinator}}: Nothing will stop Parker once he puts his mind to accomplishing something (usually vengeance). In ''The Hunter'', he goes to war against TheMafia in order to regain money he believes he is owed. In ''The Outfit'', he is such a thorn in their side that they decide it is easier to make peace with him than keep fighting him despite him having killed several of their bosses.

* VillainsOutShopping: Parker's associate Alan Grofield spends most of his time working in an unprofitable theater as an actor, something he greatly enjoys. The last of his four spinoff novels has him meet two other criminals

* SocietyMarchesOn: a couple books have crooked doctors who fell victim to disgrace or blackmail after referring patients to an abortionist.

* DefiniteArticleTitle:
** ''The Hunter''
** ''The Man With the Getaway Face''
** ''The Outfit''
** ''The Mourner''
** ''The Score''
** ''The Jugger''
** ''The Seventh''
** ''The Handle''
** ''The Rare Coin Score''
** ''The Green Eagle Score''
** ''The Black Ice Score''
** ''The Sour Lemon Score''

* ''The Hunter'' (1962, aka ''Point Blank'', ''Payback'')

* OnlyOneName: Parker's first name is never revealed. It's an open question as to whether "Parker" is even his real name.

A ruthless career criminal, Parker has almost no traditional redeeming qualities, aside from efficiency and professionalism. Parker is cold, methodical, and perfectly willing to commit murder to get what he wants. His first name is never mentioned in the novels, and there are many details about him which remain unknown. Four of the novels were adapted into comics by Darwyn Cooke for IDW Publishing before [[AuthorExistenceFailure his untimely death]].