
The Blackbird
An Alan Grofield Novel, Book 3
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $17.16
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
R.C. Bray
-
By:
-
Richard Stark
About this listen
Donald E. Westlake is one of the greats of crime fiction. Under the pseudonym Richard Stark, he wrote 24 fast-paced, hardboiled novels featuring Parker, a shrewd career criminal with a talent for heists. Using the same nom de plume, Westlake also completed a separate series in the Parker universe, starring Alan Grofield, an occasional colleague of Parker. While he shares events and characters with several Parker novels, Grofield is less calculating and more hot-blooded than Parker; think fewer guns, more dames.
Not that there isn’t violence and adventure aplenty.... The third Grofield novel, The Blackbird shares its first chapter with Slayground: after a traumatic car crash, Parker eludes the police, but Grofield gets caught. Lying injured in the hospital, Grofield is visited by G-men who offer him an alternative to jail, and he finds himself forced into a deadly situation involving international criminals and a political conspiracy.
©1967 Richard Stark (P)2013 AudioGOListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Damsel
- Alan Grofield, Book 1
- By: Richard Stark
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Damsel begins directly after the Parker novel The Handle. Following a wounded Grofield and his damsel on a scenic, action-packed road trip from Mexico City to Acapulco, The Damsel is full of wit, adrenaline, and political intrigue.
-
-
Great listen!
- By Dee on 09-14-20
By: Richard Stark
-
The Hunter
- By: Richard Stark
- Narrated by: John Chancer
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You probably haven't noticed them. But they've noticed you. They notice everything. That's their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers' work habits. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack. They're heisters.
-
-
A dark story
- By Dave Nelson on 04-06-13
By: Richard Stark
-
Somebody Owes Me Money
- A Hard Case Crime Novel
- By: Donald E. Westlake
- Narrated by: Stephen Thorne
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cab driver Chet Conway was hoping for a good tip from his latest fare, the sort he could spend. But what he got was a tip on a horse race; which might have turned out okay, except that when he went to collect his winnings, Chet found his bookie lying dead on the living room floor. Chet knows he had nothing to do with it.
-
-
Great reading of a hilarious novel
- By G. Steyn on 09-12-08
-
Memory
- By: Donald E. Westlake
- Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hospitalized after a liaison with another man's wife ends in violence, Paul Cole has just one goal: to rebuild his shattered life. But with his memory damaged, the police hounding him, and no way to even get home, Paul's facing steep odds - and a bleak fate if he fails. This final, never-before-published novel by three-time Edgar Award winner Donald E. Westlake is a noir masterpiece, a dark and painful portrait of a man's struggle against merciless forces that threaten to strip him of his very identity.
-
-
The accident of existence
- By Alicia Czechowski on 07-16-12
-
Quarry
- A Quarry Novel, Book 1
- By: Max Allan Collins
- Narrated by: Christopher Kipiniak
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Quarry doesn't kill just anybody these days. He restricts himself to targeting other hitmen, availing his marked-for-death clients of two services: eliminating the killers sent after them, and finding out who hired them…and then removing that problem, as well. So far he's rid of the world of nobody who would be missed. But this time he finds himself zeroing in on the grieving family of a missing cheerleader. Does the hitman's hitman have the wrong quarry in his sights?
-
-
The great Max Allan Collins
- By Bradley Paul Valentine on 09-25-16
-
Dead Before Dying
- By: Deon Meyer
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Three men who have nothing in common are found murdered in Cape Town, and the string of vicious killings pushes the city toward panic. Captain Mat Joubert is left scrambling for answers in a case that might be his last chance to prove that his life's slow spiral will not pull him under.
-
-
South African mystery, very good.
- By Kathleen on 09-29-12
By: Deon Meyer
-
The Damsel
- Alan Grofield, Book 1
- By: Richard Stark
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Damsel begins directly after the Parker novel The Handle. Following a wounded Grofield and his damsel on a scenic, action-packed road trip from Mexico City to Acapulco, The Damsel is full of wit, adrenaline, and political intrigue.
-
-
Great listen!
- By Dee on 09-14-20
By: Richard Stark
-
The Hunter
- By: Richard Stark
- Narrated by: John Chancer
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You probably haven't noticed them. But they've noticed you. They notice everything. That's their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers' work habits. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack. They're heisters.
-
-
A dark story
- By Dave Nelson on 04-06-13
By: Richard Stark
-
Somebody Owes Me Money
- A Hard Case Crime Novel
- By: Donald E. Westlake
- Narrated by: Stephen Thorne
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cab driver Chet Conway was hoping for a good tip from his latest fare, the sort he could spend. But what he got was a tip on a horse race; which might have turned out okay, except that when he went to collect his winnings, Chet found his bookie lying dead on the living room floor. Chet knows he had nothing to do with it.
-
-
Great reading of a hilarious novel
- By G. Steyn on 09-12-08
-
Memory
- By: Donald E. Westlake
- Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hospitalized after a liaison with another man's wife ends in violence, Paul Cole has just one goal: to rebuild his shattered life. But with his memory damaged, the police hounding him, and no way to even get home, Paul's facing steep odds - and a bleak fate if he fails. This final, never-before-published novel by three-time Edgar Award winner Donald E. Westlake is a noir masterpiece, a dark and painful portrait of a man's struggle against merciless forces that threaten to strip him of his very identity.
-
-
The accident of existence
- By Alicia Czechowski on 07-16-12
-
Quarry
- A Quarry Novel, Book 1
- By: Max Allan Collins
- Narrated by: Christopher Kipiniak
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Quarry doesn't kill just anybody these days. He restricts himself to targeting other hitmen, availing his marked-for-death clients of two services: eliminating the killers sent after them, and finding out who hired them…and then removing that problem, as well. So far he's rid of the world of nobody who would be missed. But this time he finds himself zeroing in on the grieving family of a missing cheerleader. Does the hitman's hitman have the wrong quarry in his sights?
-
-
The great Max Allan Collins
- By Bradley Paul Valentine on 09-25-16
-
Dead Before Dying
- By: Deon Meyer
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Three men who have nothing in common are found murdered in Cape Town, and the string of vicious killings pushes the city toward panic. Captain Mat Joubert is left scrambling for answers in a case that might be his last chance to prove that his life's slow spiral will not pull him under.
-
-
South African mystery, very good.
- By Kathleen on 09-29-12
By: Deon Meyer
-
American Assassin
- By: Vince Flynn
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before he was considered a CIA superagent, before he was thought of as a terrorist's worst nightmare, and before he was both loathed and admired by the politicians on Capitol Hill, Mitch Rapp was a gifted college athlete without a care in the world...and then tragedy struck.
-
-
Flynn never disappoints
- By lesley on 10-12-10
By: Vince Flynn
-
The Chemist
- By: Stephenie Meyer
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 17 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
She used to work for the US government, but very few people ever knew that. An expert in her field, she was one of the darkest secrets of an agency so clandestine it doesn't even have a name. And when they decided she was a liability, they came for her without warning. Now she rarely stays in the same place or uses the same name for long. They've killed the only other person she trusted, but something she knows still poses a threat. They want her dead, and soon.
-
-
Listened all night!
- By bebe on 06-04-17
By: Stephenie Meyer
-
Burglars Can't Be Choosers
- By: Lawrence Block
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this first in a series of wickedly funny mysteries, best-selling author Lawrence Block introduces Bernie Rhodenbarr, sometimes burglar, sometimes sleuth. Pulling only an occasional, very discreet job, Bernie manages to maintain his comfortable New York City apartment and keep his unorthodox vocation a closely-guarded secret. Every burglar knows never to trust anonymous phone calls. But when the caller offers easy money for an hour's work, Bernie can't ignore the job.
-
-
Wonderful Wise-Ass Humour
- By Bodiccea on 02-25-14
By: Lawrence Block
-
The Comedy is Finished
- By: Donald E. Westlake
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year is 1977, and America is finally getting over the nightmares of Watergate and Vietnam and the national hangover that was the 1960s. But not everyone is ready to let it go. Not aging comedian Koo Davis, friend to generals and presidents and veteran of countless USO tours to buck up American troops in the field. And not the five remaining members of the self-proclaimed People’s Revolutionary Army, who’ve decided that kidnapping Koo Davis would be the perfect way to bring their cause back to life....
-
-
not my favorite Westlake book
- By rent house guy on 03-30-16
-
Paradox Bound
- A Novel
- By: Peter Clines
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nothing ever changes in Sanders. The town's still got a video store, for God's sake. So why doesn't Eli Teague want to leave? Not that he'd ever admit it, but maybe he's been waiting - waiting for the traveler to come back. The one who's roared into his life twice before, pausing just long enough to drop tantalizing clues before disappearing in a cloud of gunfire and a squeal of tires. The one who's a walking anachronism, with her tricorne hat, flintlock rifle, and steampunked Model A Ford.
-
-
I tried SO hard, I really did!
- By Angela Vickery on 10-04-17
By: Peter Clines
-
Carrion Comfort
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Mel Foster, Laural Merlington
- Length: 39 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Caught behind the lines of Hitler's Final Solution, Saul Laski is one of the multitudes destined to die in the notorious Chelmno extermination camp. Until he rises to meet his fate and finds himself face to face with an evil far older, and far greater, than the Nazis themselves. Compelled by the encounter to survive at all costs, so begins a journey that for Saul will span decades and cross continents, plunging into the darkest corners of 20th century history to reveal a secret society of beings who may often exist behind the world's most horrible and violent events.
-
-
Idk who needs to see this, but TRIGGER WARNING
- By WBA on 11-05-19
By: Dan Simmons
-
Jumper
- By: Steven Gould
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What if you could go anywhere in the world, in the blink of an eye? Where would you go? What would you do?Davy can teleport. To survive, Davy must learn to use and control his power in a world that is more violent and complex than he ever imagined. But mere survival is not enough for him. Davy wants to find others like himself, others who can Jump.
-
-
Lot's of fun
- By Katherine on 03-12-13
By: Steven Gould
-
Lexicon
- A Novel
- By: Max Barry
- Narrated by: Heather Corrigan, Zach Appelman
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At an exclusive school somewhere outside of Arlington, Virginia, students aren't taught history, geography, or mathematics - at least not in the usual ways. Instead, they are taught to persuade. Here the art of coercion has been raised to a science. Students harness the hidden power of language to manipulate the mind and learn to break down individuals by psychographic markers in order to take control of their thoughts. The very best will graduate as "poets": adept wielders of language who belong to a nameless organization that is as influential as it is secretive.
-
-
Fasten your seat belt...
- By Tango on 06-22-13
By: Max Barry
-
Cold City
- Repairman Jack: Early Years Trilogy, Book 1
- By: F. Paul Wilson
- Narrated by: Alexander Cendese
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If you've never read a Repairman Jack novel, this is the place to begin. It's 1990. A twenty-one-year-old named Jack has dropped out of college, leaving his old life behind to build a new one in New York City. Manhattan's rough edges are jagged enough to shred any unwary newcomer, but perhaps not one who is determined to stay off the grid, at any cost, in the busiest metropolis on earth. And to do so, he'll have to take jobs of a less than legal nature.
-
-
Fun, as long you don't think too much
- By Andrew Pollack on 01-17-14
By: F. Paul Wilson
-
Chimera
- A Jim Chapel Mission, Book 1
- By: David Wellington
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wounded Special Forces veteran Jim Chapel has been stuck behind a desk rather than out in the field, but medical technology has finally caught up with his ambitions. Coupled with his unstoppable determination, it will take him back to where he thrives: the thick of the action. Drafted into a new war, this time in our homeland, Chapel is tasked with hunting a group of escapees from a top-secret military compound - all extremely deadly, genetically modified killers - and unraveling the mystery behind their existence.
-
-
How much did I hate this book? A lot.
- By magicker71 on 10-14-13
By: David Wellington
-
Big Machine
- A Novel
- By: Victor LaValle
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ricky Rice is a middling hustler with a lingering junk habit, a bum knee, and a haunted mind. A survivor of a suicide cult, he scrapes by as a porter at a bus depot in Utica, New York, until one day a mysterious letter arrives, summoning him to enlist in a band of paranormal investigators comprised of former addicts and petty criminals, all of whom had at some point in their wasted lives heard what may have been the voice of God.
-
-
Victor LaValle is good. Real good.
- By Bill on 02-14-18
By: Victor LaValle
-
Metzger's Dog
- A Novel
- By: Thomas Perry
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Leroy "Chinese" Gordon breaks into a professor's lab at the University of Los Angeles, he's after some pharmaceutical cocaine, worth plenty of money. Instead, he finds the papers the professor has compiled for the CIA, which include a blueprint for throwing a large city into chaos. But how is the CIA to be persuaded to pay a suitable ransom, unless of course someone actually uses the plan to throw a large city into chaos - Los Angeles, for instance?
-
-
Messrs. Perry and Kramer should get six stars.
- By Richard Delman on 03-22-12
By: Thomas Perry
Critic reviews
What listeners say about The Blackbird
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Philip Paul
- 07-04-22
all of Stark Books are worth it?
I've listened to and enjoyed alk of Starks books. Late 50's & 60's. No computers or cell phones. worth evert minute listening to!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- SER
- 04-12-21
Noir Crime Fiction
Alan Grofield returns with a cast of international criminals. In order to escape jail time he is forced to infiltrate a conference of third world leaders engaged in a dangerous political conspiracy. Stark & Bray deliver a fast paced narrative that does not disappoint in the end.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Angry Face
- 07-08-22
Remember the time period in which it was written.
I don't hate the Alan Grofield stories, but this is my least favorite so far. It's far fetched and a little more ridiculous than the others. The narrator is wonderful, which is why I added it to my library. The series as a whole is worth a listen. These are old stories, so keep that in mind when listening, and don't get offended.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Steve
- 07-16-23
Meh.
First off, the performance was great! RC Bray was the perfect choice for this book. It was the only reason I finished it. As the parallel to Slayground, one of my favorite Westlake Parker novels, I was looking forward to this one and hoping it could top it or be as good. It wasn’t even in the ballpark. It won’t stop me from reading more in the Parker series but it will be a while before I come back for the next in this series. Oh well…that can’t all be winners.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- JooliaBoolia
- 06-18-23
What a snooze.
Kept waiting and waiting and waitingfor something to happen. Nothing ever happened. What a snooze.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- J. S. Harbour
- 12-29-22
boring as hell
I've been enjoying a lot of the Parker and growfield novels and this one board me to tears and I just couldn't put up with it so I began fast forwarding and up to the last hour I just couldn't care less what happens in this dull pointless novel.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- John
- 08-27-22
Not as Satisfying as the First Two Installments
The first Grofield yarn was hysterical. The second made me laugh (though less frequently). This third entry had its moments of mirth, but they were fewer and farther between.
Don’t get me wrong; it’s a great story. Grofield’s spontaneous improvisation under pressure is here – and a pleasure to watch. But I missed the rapid-fire, lighthearted, idiotic quips that set him apart from his sometime partner, the darkly dangerous Parker.
As always, R. C. Bray turns in a fine performance, getting Grofield’s character – and everyone else’s – just right.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!