LEMONS NEVER LIE
Richard Stark
July 2006
ISBN: 978-0857683328
Cover art by Richard B. Farrell

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TIME MAGAZINE on LEMONS NEVER LIE:

"This first-rate hard-boiled mystery...reads like
Raymond Chandler with a dark literary whisper—as faint
as the vermouth in a martini—of Cormac McCarthy."

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—which is why Grofield agreed to fly to Las Vegas to hear Andrew Myers’ plan to knock over a brewery in upstate New York.

Unfortunately, Myers’ plan is insane—so Grofield walks out on him. But Myers isn’t a man you walk out on, and his retribution culminates in an act of unforgivable brutality.

That’s when Grofield decides to show him what a disciple of Parker is capable of...

  • "Richard Stark" is the celebrated alter ego of MWA Grandmaster, multiple Edgar Award winner, and Academy Award nominee Donald E. Westlake
  • Author of the best-selling "Parker" series, including the novel that was the basis for the movies Point Blank starring Lee Marvin and Payback starring Mel Gibson
  • Paul Kavanagh (aka Lawrence Block) on LEMONS NEVER LIE: "The best Richard Stark ever."
  • The Washington Post: "Lemons Never Lie is a delight—a crime story that leaves you smiling."
  • The Chicago Tribune on LEMONS NEVER LIE: "A long-out-of-print delight."
  • George Pelecanos on LEMONS NEVER LIE: "The prose is clean, the dialogue laced with dry humor, the action comes hard and fast, and there are glimpses into the other side of life that are logical but insightful."

Raves for the work of Richard Stark...

"Westlake and Stark are the Jekyll and Hyde of crime writing, and I can’t for the life of me tell you which one I enjoy the most."
Ed McBain

"Elmore Leonard wouldn’t write what he does if Stark hadn’t been there before. And Quentin Tarantino wouldn’t write what he does...Old master that he is, Stark does all of them one better."
Los Angeles Times

"Whatever Stark writes, I read."
Elmore Leonard