Backflash

Backflash is book #18 in Richard Stark's Parker series, and involves the gang's theft of a floating river casino in upstate New York. The book has a classic opening, one of Stark’s best:

When the car stopped rolling, Parker kicked out the rest of the windshield and crawled through onto the wrinkled hood, Glock first. He slid to the left, around the tree that had made the Seville finally jolt to a stop, and listened. The siren receded, far upslope. These woods held a shocked silence, after the crash; every animal ear in a hundred yards was as alert as Parker’s.

Nobody came down the hill, following the scar through the trees. There was just the one car in pursuit up there, federal agents of some kind, probably trying right now to make radio contact with the rest of their crew, and still chasing the truck with the rockets, figuring they’d come back to the wrecked car later. 

Later was good enough for Parker.

The rest of the story is even better, as Parker & Co. devise an ingenious scheme to smuggle weaponry aboard the boat and ensure a proper escape route. Backflash is yet another excellent entry in this extraordinary series.