Parker applies his customary vigor to this sequel to Appaloosa (2005), in a sparse, bullet-riddled rumination on law and order, friendship and honor. Narrator and hired gun Everitt Hitch takes a job as lookout in Amos Wolfson's Blackfoot Saloon and, in short order, guns down local upstart Koy Wickman and stands up for the town's beleaguered prostitutes. Without fully intending it, he creates a haven of orderliness amid the chaos of sheriff-less Resolution. But larger forces are at work as Eamon O'Malley, competing with Wolfson for control of Resolution, hires freelance thugs Cato and Rose to replace Wickman. Lest Everitt end up outnumbered, his old friend Virgil Cole turns up just as Wolfson and O'Malley amass armies for a decisive battle. Wolfson's army turns out to be the more unsavory and dishonorable, winning the day against O'Malley—but Virgil, Everitt, Cato and Rose are prepared to settle things the honorable way. Though the plot meanders its way to a too-fast climax, Parker's dialogue is snappy and his not-a-word-wasted scenes suit this Spartan western. (June)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistMystery stalwart Parker’s 2005 western Appaloosa may have surprised a few folks, but really, where better than the Old West for his terse, punchy dialogue; buddy-bond themes; and propulsive, rock-steady storytelling? This follow-up finds Everett Hitch in the town of Resolution, drawing pay for peacekeeping the Blackfoot Saloon, owned by a scheming cross-eye who goes by the name of Wolfson. When trouble starts, Hitch remembers the words of his partner, Virgil Cole: “Sometimes you got to kill one person early, to save from killing four or five later.” Well, Virgil ain’t always right, and after he arrives in town to lope around with Hitch, a war breaks out between Wolfson and pretty much the rest of the community. Between gunfights, the two heroes moralize on the law—there isn’t a stranger or funnier sc

Atlantic Books

Tuskar Rock

Corvus

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

London, England, 2011

London, 2013

Main, 2022

When greedy mine owner Eamon O'Malley threatens the loose coalition of local ranchers and starts buying up Resolution's few businesses, Hitch and Cole find themselves in the middle of a makeshift war between O'Malley's men and the ranchers. In a place where law and order don't exist, Hitch and Cole must make their own

A laconic, stylish Western from the bestselling grandmaster of crime, Robert B. Parker, in which gunslingers Cole and Hitch ride again.

2023-09-16