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Robert B. Parker, by virtue of his Spenser mythos, is in the enviable position of being able to write whatever he wants. He is on record as stating that he will continue to write Spenser novels as long as readers want them; he is also busily creating two other fine series, featuring Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall. Then there are Parker's stand-alone novels, stories that don't fit into any particular series but that seem to pay homage to his interest in history. There's DOUBLE PLAY, Parker's fictionalized account of Jackie Robinson and the breaking of baseball's color barrier, and GUNMAN'S RHAPSODY, a romanticized retelling of a portion of the legend of Wyatt Earp.
APPALOOSA is Parker's return to the Western frontier, a story of passion and rough justice carried out against the backdrop of the 1800s, in a place where the rules of law and conduct were more often than not created by the immediate situation at hand, and where law enforcement was performed by men who were, for all intents and purposes, little more than mercenaries --- with the occasional exception.
Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch are a team, a pair of fast guns for hire by towns that are slipping into the dark breach of lawlessness. While it is Hitch who narrates APPALOOSA, the focus is on Cole, a man who is known throughout the territory for his fearlessness and his fast and uncanny aim. Cole and Hitch are brought to Appaloosa as a last resort due to the actions of Randall Bragg, a renegade rancher whose cattle hands use the town for their personal plunder. They quickly establish their presence in Appaloosa and attract the attention, and enmity, of Bragg.
Cole also attracts the attention of Allison French, a new arrival in Appaloosa who quickly sets her sights upon him, and he upon her. This mutual attraction does not escape Bragg's notice; when Cole and Hitch make their move against him, Bragg utilizes Cole's one weakness, forcing Cole to make a decision that he will almost certainly regret. It is Hitch, however, who is the true wild card in the book.
One element of Parker's stand-alone novels that, by necessity, is not present in his series books is that literally anything can happen. This is especially true in APPALOOSA, where the surprises come regularly and rapidly, from first page to last, without predictability. APPALOOSA does not merely consist of a series of gunfights, however. Parker subtly but deftly explores the mores and customs of the country in the late 1800s, drawing implicit comparisons between then and now.
Parker is certainly in his element in APPALOOSA. There are few authors treading into the western field with any regularity --- Tony Hillerman, arguably, Elmore Leonard, and the criminally under-appreciated John Edward Ames, among others --- and with the new interest in the genre, thanks to the Deadwood series on HBO, perhaps we will see more. In the interim, however, Parker --- as he does in the mystery genre --- continues to set the standard. Recommended.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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