The Hunter
Donald E. Westlake
 The plot concerns a criminal, Parker who, having been betrayed, shot, and left for dead by his partner and wife, embarks on a relentless quest to retrieve his money and wreak revenge. The novel was written as a stand-alone crime novel, but when Westlake turned it in, his editor told him that if Westlake would rewrite the ending so that Parker escaped, he would be willing to publish up to three books a year about Parker. Though Westlake wasn't able to keep up that level of productivity, he did go on to write 23 more Parker novels over the next 46 years. The Hunter was re-issued by the University of Chicago Press in August 2008.