Alan Grofield

The Damsel begins directly after the Parker novel The Handle. Following a wounded Grofield and his damsel on a scenic, action-packed road trip from Mexico City to Acapulco, The Damsel is full of wit, adrenaline, and political intrigue.

Donald E. Westlake is one of the greats of crime fiction. Under the pseudonym Richard Stark, he wrote 24 fast-paced, hard boiled novels featuring Parker, a shrewd career criminal with a talent for heists. Westlake also completed a separate series in the Parker universe, starring Alan Grofield, an occasional colleague of Parker. The Dame finds Grofield in Puerto Rico protecting a rich, demanding woman in her isolated jungle villa, and reluctantly assuming the role of detective.

After a traumatic car crash, Grofield gets caught. Lying injured in the hospital, Grofield is visited by G-men who offer him an alternative to jail, and he finds himself forced into a deadly situation involving international criminals and a political conspiracy.

When he's not carrying out heists with his friend Parker, Alan Grofield runs a small theater in Indiana. But putting on shows costs money and jobs have been thin lately, so Grofield agrees to hear Andrew Myers' plan to knock over a brewery in upstate New York. Unfortunately, the plan is insane, so Grofield walks out. Myers isn't a man you walk out on, and his retribution is an act of unforgivable brutality.