What is it?

Volume 6 of Richard Stark’s Parker series of crime novels.

A “jugger” is a slang term for a safecracker. Interestingly, my research has shown that this was never a term in common use. It seems as if Westlake might have created the term “jugger” himself, and then used it as the title of this book, as well as the description of what Joe Sheer did, back before he retired.

This is sort of the On Her Majesty’s Secret Service of Parker novels. It’s unlike the rest of the series in a number of ways, and was not well-regarded by fans for a while. But, like that Bond film, it has enjoyed something of a renaissance among afficionados in more recent years. Today it’s considered one of the better entries in Parker’s chronicles.

Quick and Dirty Summary

Parker pays a visit to the small town of Sagamore, Nebraska. His old criminal associate, Joe Sheer, lives there, and Parker is concerned Sheer may be in trouble and possibly giving out Parker’s private information to law enforcement or to rival criminals. This would be disastrous for Parker, as he lives and works under a variety of false identities, and has money stashed away around the country under each of those names.

No sooner does Parker arrive in town than he gets caught up with a corrupt sheriff and various other unsavory characters.

The Objective:

For once – perhaps once in the entire series – there’s no heist and no money on the line whatsoever. Of course, the corrupt Sheriff Abner Younger thinks there is. This misconception on the part of the sheriff becomes the driving force behind much of the plot.

Parker has to extricate himself from the sheriff (and other assorted unsavory characters around the small town) without revealing too much of himself, and find out exactly what Sheer might have been telling people before he died.

It’s about as simple a story as Parker ever gets involved in.

The Adversary

The local sheriff, Abner Younger, wears a cowboy hat and served as a master sergeant in the Army. He thinks he’s a lot smarter and a much bigger big shot than he actually is.

While he doesn’t turn out to be the brightest antagonist Parker faces in the series, he’s entertaining enough for us to watch as he swaggers around, thinking he can play Parker.

I’m sorry, Sheriff, but far better men than you have tried and failed.

And when Parker turns the tables on Younger at the end, it’s a thing of beauty.

There’s also a funny little guy named Tiftus that shows up in town, repeatedly bothers Parker and is in turn mistreated by him. At least that guy has an attractive girlfriend he’s brought with him, named Rhonda.

Probably the strongest adversary for Parker here is Agent Regan, the fed who nearly nabs him at the end, and does succeed in blowing up one of Parker’s main false identities (along with a whole lot of stashed-away cash). He’s much smarter than Younger, but not quite smart enough to pin Parker down.

The String

There’s no string. For once, Parker is entirely on his own. In this way, the book feels much more like the earlier books in the series than it does like the previous book, The Score.

The Score is a massive heist romp, featuring probably the largest string in the series. This book is the exact opposite. We are back to Parker running around mostly by himself, dealing with issues and oddballs on his own.

Others of Note

There’s the doctor that’s being blackmailed by the sheriff, and there’s Tiftus and his girlfriend. And I have to note that it really does seem like Tiftus was outkicking his coverage, with regard to Rhonda. We are told that she has “the eyes of a pickpocket and the mouth of a whore,” but overall Parker seems to find her attractive enough. Certainly he does once the job is over, as is his way. She’s a bit similar to the lady he hooked up with at the end of the previous book, The Score. Not great, but good enough for what Parker is looking for at the end of a job.

This is what I think of as the “Parker gets with the less-attractive ladies and makes them happy for a brief time” portion of the series. The arrival of Claire, in just a few books, will mostly change that situation for good. With Claire, he will always have somewhere to go once the jobs are over, and someone to go home to. And she’s not that far away, now.

The Complication

The moment things get complicated for Parker is when he’s looking around Joe Sheer’s abandoned house and someone hits him in the head with a shovel and knocks him down the stairs. From that moment on, he’s caught up in a cat-and-mouse situation with the sheriff, trying to get out from under what he sees as a bunch of unnecessary distractions.

Adaptations

I’m not aware of this one ever having been adapted in any format anywhere. And yet it has become one of the better-reviewed and appreciated books in the series.

How Parker is Parker here?

(With a 1 being he bakes cookies with Claire, and a 10 being Slayground):

I am awarding this book 7 Parkers.

Some would argue Parker behaves out of character for much of this book, and that in fact the plot couldn’t exist if he did behave in character. See the next category for my response.

The Jugger by Richard Stark (Allison & Busby UK edition)

Other Notes

By the end of this installment, the Charles Willis name is no good to Parker anymore, and most of the money he has stashed around the country is now out of his reach. The ending provides the series with a soft reset, taking us back almost to his situation at the beginning of The Hunter.

In an interview later in his life, Westlake seemed to indicate that he wasn’t fond of this book simply because he realized that Parker wouldn’t have done anything to help Joe Sheer. But I think Westlake misremembered the details of the story. Parker makes it very clear to us that he’s not there to help Joe Sheer because he’s concerned about him in some humanitarian way. No, Parker is concerned that Sheer might react to his adverse situation by divulging all sorts of information to the wrong people.

And we are aware that Sheer knows a lot, because for years he has been serving as Parker’s contact with the rest of the criminal world. So many times Parker would tell a fellow heist artist, “You can reach me through Joe Sheer in Omaha.” After this book, and for the rest of the series, as best I can recall, it becomes, “You can reach me through Handy McKay in Presque Isle, Maine.”

Quote

“Good,” Parker said, and hit him twice.

He buried him in the cellar in the hole the kid had dug himself.

Subjective Rating

8/10

Follows

Volume 5: The Score

Followed by

Volume 7: The Seventh

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Van Allen Plexico is a multi-award-winning author, member of the SFWA, and a Pulp Grandmaster. Among his many novels are the Harper & Salsa crime series, set in the Sixties and carrying something of the flavor of the Parker books, beginning with the 2018 Pulp Factory Award-Winning Best Novel of the Year, VEGAS HEIST. See all of his work at www.plexico.net.