A richly imagined novel of the Old West, as spare and vivid as a high plains sunset, from one of the world's most talented performers.
When it comes to writing, Robert B. Parker knows no boundaries. From the iconic Spenser detective series and the novels featuring Sunny Randall and Jess Stone, to the groundbreaking historical novel Double Play, Parker's imagination has taken readers from Boston to Brooklyn and back again. In Appaloosa, fans are taken on another trip to the untamed territories of the West during the 1800s.
When Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch arrive in Appaloosa, they find a small, dusty town suffering at the hands of renegade rancher Randall Bragg, a man who has so little regard for the law that he has taken supplies, horses, and women for his own and left the city marshall and one of his deputies for dead. Cole and Hitch, itinerant lawmen, are used to cleaning up after opportunistic thieves, but in Bragg they find an unusually wily adversary - one who raises the stakes by playing not with the rules, but with emotions.
This is Robert B. Parker at his storytelling best.
The town of Appaloosa is in a world of hurt as Randall Bragg and his brutal ranch hands rule. Lawmen Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch aim to take back the town. Parker's talent for amplifying meaning from just a few words shines here. Cole and Hitch are complex characters--hard, violent men who live by a strict code of honor. Despite the sparse dialogue, patient listeners will fully grasp the depth of respect and trust these men share. Reader Titus Welliver is the perfect voice: deep, resonant, sometimes as gritty as a sandstorm. With a cadence that matches the nineteenth-century pace of life, his storytelling is just right for this first-person narrative. Listen carefully. Don't miss a word. T.J.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine