Kirkwood Public Library has the audiobook version of this, the fourth Parker novel. UCPL has this and some of the other recently re-issued early Parker novels on order.
For some reason, I had thought that I had read all of them, but I missed this (and The Seventh) until recently. The Mourner starts with Parker, an emotionless, but calculating criminal, agreeing to do a job for the father of a woman who is blackmailing him. She has a gun that ties him, or more importantly, an alias he has invested a lot of time and effort into creating, to a crime. He needs the gun to hold onto his life, so he'll do the job because it is easier and less costly than creating a new alias and because he won't want anyone holding something over him. The job involves the theft of a 15th century French statuette. Parker soon finds there are other interested parties, and soon must factor the local mob and some rogue KGB agents into his plans.
Parker is a great character; relentless, and pitiless, but uninterested in harming anyone unnecessarily. He is the bad-guy pre-cursor to Lee Child's Reacher.
Recommended for fans of noir, fans hard-boiled crime stories, and those who don't mind an amoral protagonist.
The audiobook was well narrated by Stephen Thorne.
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