Ask the Parrot is a masterpiece of lean writing and tight plotting, rough humour and deft characterization, the latest in Richard Stark's Parker series which has won him a wide following across the world of crime fiction addicts. Parker is on the run after a country town bank robbery goes wrong. There are road blocks in the lanes, and search parties with sniffer dogs are out in the woods. Separated from his associates, Parker is confronted by a local citizen with a shotgun. But this citizen is not out to arrest him: he wants Parker to help him carry out a robbery of his own. So Parker joins the posse looking for himself and enters into a queasy partnership with an embittered recluse intent on robbing the racetrack where he was once employed.