The Damsel

Love the Parker novels and found this when looking for a new one in a secondhand bookstore.

Grofield is very much in the Parker mould - though as the jacket points out, he's a lot more suave and charming, if not equally cunning and ruthless. Likewise Stark's writing style is as urgent and uncomplicated as in the Parker novels.

The book started off brilliantly and kept me interested, watching the cat and mouse between Grofield and the eponymous ‘damsel' (who perhaps isn't as helpless as that might suggest). However, the second half of the book dragged with a shift in focus to other characters, and overall was a bit of a saggy finale.