Parker, a professional thief, is on the run after a country town bank robbery goes wrong. There are road blocks everywhere and search parties with bloodhounds are in the woods. As they close in on Parker he is confronted by a local with a shotgun. But this citizen is not out to arrest him; he wants Parker to help him with his own nefarious plans. So Parker enters into a queasy partnership with an embittered recluse, whose only companion is a speechless parrot, and finds himself joining the posse looking for him! Ask The Parrot is a masterpiece of lean writing and tight plotting, the latest in Richard Stark's Parker series which has won him a universal following.