I was surprised to see a "new" Eddie Bunker novel turn up in 2008. (He passed away in 2005). "Stark" is a previously unpublished manuscript that's estimated to have been written in the late 60s or early 70s; certainly before Bunker's first novel, "No Beast so Fierce" was published in 1973.
"Stark", aka "Ernie Stark" is a con-man with a recent parole violation. "Stark", the novel, is the story of his attempt to weasel out of a return to forced confinement by narcing on his main drug connection.
Bunker, whether writing fiction or biography, is one of the best at showing that a person who's perceived as a no-good deviant can also be a person who acts with integrity.
Ernie Stark, in contrast, is a snitch with an eye for the easy-way out. The back-door exit. Preferably; a situation where someone else can be set up to take the fall.
He deftly juggles complications brought on by a burgeoning drug habit, double-crossing activities (he appears on the wanted list of both good and bad guys) and crazed sexual partners.
It's less interesting though to read about the activities of guys who are wary of opening doors, like Ernie Stark, than the complicated masterminds of Bunkers later novels, No Beast So Fierce, Little Boy Blue and Dog Eat Dog.
So check out any of those, or Bunker's memoir 'Education of a Felon" first. And if you dig, crack open "Stark" the next time you feel like passing a couple of hours with a pulpy pb in your hands.
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