Parker and the Art Heist
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (June, 2013) of the Random House hardcover (1972)

Richard Stark was one of the many pseudonyms of the prolific crime author Donald E. Westlake (1933-2008), who wrote over 100 books. The Stark pseudonym was used primarily for the Parker novels, an antihero criminal who is usually betrayed or ensnared in some manner and who spends each book getting revenge or escaping the circumstances.

Plunder Squad finds Parker and a team of heisters working on an art theft for a middle man who is hard pressed to raise the front money for the heist. Several past Parker characters make a return in this book, including George Uhl from The Sour Lemon Score and Stan Devers from The Green Eagle Score. The book also features a crossover scene with Dead Skip (1972) by Joe Gores, when Parker goes to the door of the squad's safe house in order to put off a skip tracer. The scene is repeated in Gores' book from the skip tracer's perspective.

Narrator Joe Barrett does a good job in all voices in this audiobook edition.

I had never previously read the Stark/Parker novels but became curious when they came up in my recent reading of The Writer's Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives (Sept. 2020) by Nancy Pearl & Jeff Schwager. Here is a (perhaps surprising) excerpt from their discussion with Amor Towles:

Nancy: Do you read Lee Child?
Amor: I know Lee. I had never read his books until I met him, but now I read them whenever they come out. I think some of the decisions he makes are ingenious.
Jeff: Have you read the Parker books by Donald Westlake [writing as Richard Stark]?
Amor: I think the Parker books are an extraordinary series.
Jeff: They feel like a big influence on Reacher, right down to the name. Both Reacher and Parker have a singular focus on the task in front of them.
Amor: But Parker is amoral. Reacher is just dangerous.
Jeff: Right. Reacher doesn't have a conventional morality, but he has his own morality. Parker will do anything he has to do to achieve his goal.
Amor: But to your point, Westlake's staccato style with its great twists at the end of the paragraphs, and his mesmerizing central character - these attributes are clearly shared by the Reacher books.

The 24 Parker books are almost all available for free on Audible Plus, except for #21 & #22 which aren't available at all.

Trivia and Links
There is a brief plot summary of Plunder Squad and of all the Parker books and adaptations at The Violent World of Parker website.

Unlike many of the 2010-2013 Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook editions which share the same cover art as the University of Chicago Press 2009-2010 reprints, this audiobook DOES include the Foreword by author Charles Ardai. ( )

While planning a job, a man Parker should have finished in an earlier confrontation, tries to kill him, putting himself in Parker's crosshairs for retribution. Meanwhile, Parker needs a score and after looking over a couple of opportunities, agrees to an art heist while a heavily guarded exhibit is in transit. Working with an experienced crew, things actually go well ... during the heist; however, their buyer gets himself in big trouble, which naturally spills over onto the crew. P.S. It's hard to believe anybody can be as unlucky as Parker. ( )

Parker in the Bay Area? Woo hoo! He’s looking for work and he’s looking for George Uhl.

This almost reads like a Dortmunder book, with all of the things that go wrong in it. Except it's Parker, who doesn't have the good humored nature of Dortmunder. At all. The big art heist is the main gig in here, and it has one of my all-time favorite distractions, provided by Tommy and his girlfriend! Crazy original!

This book ends fairly upbruptly, so I'm excited to read the next one! Love me some Parker! ( )

Solid later Parker where he spends more time setting up jobs and dealing with crossers than heists. Like The Getaway in that respect. But Westlake excels with the characters he creates... ( )

The penultimate novel in the first run of Parker Books, Plunder Squad begins with Parker dealing with two immediate problems: funds are running low and a man he once left alive (not intentionally) wants revenge. A third problem immediately crops up as he discovers that the potential job that opens the novel is unworkable. Soon he finds a finds a better prospect, but while planning this one he also has to clean up the remnants of the aborted job and deal with the revenge-seeker before he strikes again. Quick and enjoyable. ( )