from Richard Stark (Donald Westlake).
If you haven't read them, they are crime procedurals (not police procedurals) with a thoroughly professional, conscienceless (anti)hero, Parker. In general, the first half of each book is the locating, vetting, and setup of the heist/caper and is all from Parker's point of view. The third quarter is from any else's point of view as the event happens or goes wrong. The final quarter is Parker again with dealing with the fallout.
He does not have a heart of gold. He does give, though, and expect professionalism and loyalty to the job. Several of the books (and the movie Payback) draw much of the plot about partners who transgress this one rule of his.
While books under Westlake's name are often very comic (for example trying to pull off a burglary at the Watergate on exactly the wrong night), when he writes as Stark, they are flat-out, excellently done noir. That's not to say that they are without humor, just sharper (while threatening someone with a gun, to convince him not to do something stupid, taking out his wallet and saying "Jim. Good name, Jim. I see you are an organ donor, Jim. That's a wonderful thing, being an organ donor, Jim..."
The prose is spare, clean, and beautiful like a boulder might be beautiful. U of Chicago has brought out new trade paperback editions of all of them, but lots of libraries and used book places have them as well.
On audio, I'm listening to Brene Brown's "Daring Boldly" about vulnerability and how to properly access it to create courage to change.
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