BREAKOUT follows Firebreak and precedes Ask the Parrot. It is one of the final four in the Parker series that we have been republishing since 2007. We had to pause for six years after Fall, 2011; publication of these last volumes is a wonderful way to remind booksellers and Westlake fans of the whole series (and their colorful covers by Drummond). BREAKOUT details the teamwork and mechanics of the Houdini-like escape of Parker from prison into a big Midwestern city whose alleys, shopping malls, and old stone buildings quickly become a prison of a different sort. A colorful cast of small-time con artists, snitches, busy-bodies, eccentrics and cops fill out this fast-paced installment in the Parker series. Chris Holm, author of award-winning The Killing Kind and Red Right Hand, has written a terrific new foreword.