Second-guessing my second thoughts

This Parker-Wyatt thing keeps getting weirder and weirder. I'd based my comments on the similarities between the two on my reading of all but one of the twenty-three Parker novels but just the first two Wyatt books. Seventeen pages into Port Vila Blues, Wyatt number four, though, I thought, "Aha! Now Disher has made the decisive break from his imitation/tribute to Parker."

Wyatt shows remorse for a partner shot and damaged during a holdup, vowing to support him for life. He visits the man and his sister in their rundown house to give them money. The man, who has uncertain control of his bodily functions since the injury, soils himself as he and Parker try to fence a stolen gold and diamond brooch. The opening pages, in short, are full of pathos miles removed from the thoroughly ruthless Parker.

Then, idly flipping through the novel, I came upon a description of a heist virtually identical to one in a Parker novel, Deadly Edge, if my memory serves me well. If I remember to do so, I'll post both passages here later.

© Peter Rozovsky 2007

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Garry Disher
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