The Blackbird

Donald E. Westlake wrote a hardboiled series under the pseudonym Richard Stark that follows Parker, a shrewd career criminal, and a separate Parker-universe series starring Alan Grofield. Grofield is presented as less calculating and more hot-blooded than Parker and appears as an occasional colleague in the shared criminal milieu. The Blackbird opens by sharing its first chapter with Slayground: after a traumatic car crash Parker eludes the police while Grofield is captured and left injured in a hospital. Government agents visit Grofield with an alternative to jail, and he is coerced into confronting international criminals amid a political conspiracy. A new foreword by Sarah Weinman situates the Grofield novels within Westlake's work.