COMEBACK

Michael Kramer is known for his funny readings of Donald Westlake's Dortmunder series of comic caper novels. When Westlake uses his Richard Stark pseudonym, however, laughs stop and capers turn dangerous. In this first novel in over twenty years to feature the thief character Parker, Kramer proves himself adept at removing tongue from cheek and delivering a straitlaced, involving performance. In this story Parker and his cronies rob a crooked TV evangelist. A minor quibble is that Kramer occasionally underplays the grittier moments, but generally he does a bang-up job. Especially memorable is his characterization of George Liss, a double-crossing crook whose face and voice are half dead due to an old encounter with a switchblade. J.P.M. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/MAR 99]