Status
Available
Call number
Series
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Collection
Publication
G.P. Putnam's Sons (2010), 288 pages
Description
When Appaloosa police chief Amos Callico begins shaking down local merchants for protection money, those who don't want to play along seek the help of Cole and Hitch.
User reviews
LibraryThing member delphimo
I don't believe that I have ever read Robert B Parker, and after reading this book, I haven't missed anything. If I am not mistaken, this Virgil Cole/Everett Hitch series has been made into a least one movie. The action is slow, and the characters are trite. I finished the book in less thatn a day,
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and feel that time was wasted. A code of killing among gunfighters, and a sense of friendship, even when one is hired to kill the other. I felt like I had stepped into a slow motion picture, would not recommend this novel to anyone. Show Less
LibraryThing member Stir
Gives a fast read a bad name. Way too fast. If the book had been flushed out at all it would be worth a read.
LibraryThing member mikedraper
Virgil Cole and Everett Hatch return to Appaloosa where they once served as the town's law enforcers.
Currently, the town is run by Amos Callico, an ambitious, corrupt, chief of police, and his twelve lawmen. His method of dispensing justice is to demand kick-backs from businessmen in the
Virgil and Everett are hired to provide personal security by Lamar Spec, at his saloon, The Boston House. Lamar doesn't want to pay Callico his fees.
Callico approaches the two former lawmen and complains that they are taking money that belongs to him, then he asks if they would like to join him. When he is rebuffed, word spreads and soon the two former lawmen are providing honest security for all of the saloons in town.
One day, their old friend, Pony Flores and his half brother, Kha-to-nay, arrive. Pony's half brother doesn't like white men because they took his and his people's land. He only speaks to other Indians so Pony has to speak for him.
Pony tells them that his half brother killed a crooked Indian agent and robbed a bank. The government is after him for the first incident and the Pinkertons for the other.
Parker is a master story teller. As I breezed through the pages, I kept thinking of Gary Cooper in "High Noon" and humming the theme song from the movie.
Parker's visual descriptions and entertaining characters make the reader want the story to go on and on.
I really enjoyed the book and felt that I was sitting at a ring-side seat as the action was unfolding before me.
Currently, the town is run by Amos Callico, an ambitious, corrupt, chief of police, and his twelve lawmen. His method of dispensing justice is to demand kick-backs from businessmen in the
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town.Virgil and Everett are hired to provide personal security by Lamar Spec, at his saloon, The Boston House. Lamar doesn't want to pay Callico his fees.
Callico approaches the two former lawmen and complains that they are taking money that belongs to him, then he asks if they would like to join him. When he is rebuffed, word spreads and soon the two former lawmen are providing honest security for all of the saloons in town.
One day, their old friend, Pony Flores and his half brother, Kha-to-nay, arrive. Pony's half brother doesn't like white men because they took his and his people's land. He only speaks to other Indians so Pony has to speak for him.
Pony tells them that his half brother killed a crooked Indian agent and robbed a bank. The government is after him for the first incident and the Pinkertons for the other.
Parker is a master story teller. As I breezed through the pages, I kept thinking of Gary Cooper in "High Noon" and humming the theme song from the movie.
Parker's visual descriptions and entertaining characters make the reader want the story to go on and on.
I really enjoyed the book and felt that I was sitting at a ring-side seat as the action was unfolding before me.
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LibraryThing member MissCrabtree
OK, shoot me cuz I'm guilty of being a big Robert J Parker fan. However, I admit, your honor, that he may not be for everyone. His specialty is dialogue between tough characters and he has made a career out of it. This book is a western and consists mainly of conversations between two gun fighters.
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There is no hidden message, no deeper meaning. You will finish it quickly as dialogue creates lots of space on the page and the paper in the book is extra thick (which means its a short book). But I loved this one as I enjoy all of his books. Show Less
LibraryThing member psghook
fun read,sorry its the end.
LibraryThing member CherieDooryard
This is classic Parker: men living by clear, unwritten codes of violent nobility, straightforward confrontations, ambiguous female characters in the background, tight dialogue. Short, gripping, funny, and wonderful. As an aside, this is the first Parker audiobook I've tried and I fear it doesn't
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translate well. His choppy dialogue feels jarring read aloud. Show Less
LibraryThing member nbmars
Robert B. Parker has created some great characters. His Spenser novels have many of them (with—IMHO—the exception of Susan Silverman). In Blue-Eyed Devil, he reprises two of his most enjoyable, Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. Virgil and Everett are pistoleros of the first order—well, maybe
In a previous novel, Virgil and Everett were the sheriffs of Appaloosa (of some unnamed state that sounds like Arizona), but they got bored and left. Now they return to Appaloosa to find that a new man, Amos Callico, has become the chief law enforcement officer, and he has hired a phalanx of deputies. Callico has visions of getting elected to a high office, perhaps even President of the United States. But he is starting out slow, financing his operation primarily through extorting the local businessmen. Virgil and Everett don’t like Amos one bit, and you can bet that won’t be good for Amos in the end.
Virgil and Everett bring justice to Appaloosa (as expected), but they have to fight off a band of raiding Apache warriors as well as Amos’s private army. They manage to do so with rarely uttering a sentence of more than 5 words.
Parker’s writing, as in his Boston detective novels, is crisp and sassy. (Some might say, choppy and silly. But if you love old western comedy movies, you'll love these books too.)
It’s hard to take more than two days to read a Parker novel. They are short, and they are page turners. This one is no exception.
(JAB)
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Everett can be otherwise classified because his weapon of choice is an eight-gauge shotgun. In a previous novel, Virgil and Everett were the sheriffs of Appaloosa (of some unnamed state that sounds like Arizona), but they got bored and left. Now they return to Appaloosa to find that a new man, Amos Callico, has become the chief law enforcement officer, and he has hired a phalanx of deputies. Callico has visions of getting elected to a high office, perhaps even President of the United States. But he is starting out slow, financing his operation primarily through extorting the local businessmen. Virgil and Everett don’t like Amos one bit, and you can bet that won’t be good for Amos in the end.
Virgil and Everett bring justice to Appaloosa (as expected), but they have to fight off a band of raiding Apache warriors as well as Amos’s private army. They manage to do so with rarely uttering a sentence of more than 5 words.
Parker’s writing, as in his Boston detective novels, is crisp and sassy. (Some might say, choppy and silly. But if you love old western comedy movies, you'll love these books too.)
It’s hard to take more than two days to read a Parker novel. They are short, and they are page turners. This one is no exception.
(JAB)
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LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50
Blue-Eyed Devil by Robert B. Parker is the 4th and last in his western series that features Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. Having come full circle, Cole and Hitch find themselves back in the town of Appaloosa, not as lawmen this time but as saloon bouncers. Their little family includes the love of
This book reads less like a novel and more like an old time Western Serial. Comprised of over sixty two or three page chapters it is a very quick read, but by this time the reader knows these characters and how to fill in all the missing details. The author sets up the story, adds a little tension and ignites the action. Between attacking Apaches and dealing with a corrupt law force, this is an exciting story and an excellent conclusion to this extremely readable series.
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Virgil’s life, Allie and also Laurel, a young girl they rescued from Apaches. The local sheriff, Amos Callico, is an ambitious man and would rather see the back end of this duo as they are cutting into his payback money and his glory. This book reads less like a novel and more like an old time Western Serial. Comprised of over sixty two or three page chapters it is a very quick read, but by this time the reader knows these characters and how to fill in all the missing details. The author sets up the story, adds a little tension and ignites the action. Between attacking Apaches and dealing with a corrupt law force, this is an exciting story and an excellent conclusion to this extremely readable series.
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LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd
The last entry in Parker's Cole & Hitch series.*
How I will miss new releases from this master story-teller! Not the least of his gifts is that he has never left his readers hanging. Surely he did not plan for Virgil and Everett's story to end here, but it's OK that it does. There are no questions
*Review written in 2010. As we know now, other authors picked up Parker's characters, including Cole and Hitch. In my opinion, what follows in this series does not do the originals justice.
How I will miss new releases from this master story-teller! Not the least of his gifts is that he has never left his readers hanging. Surely he did not plan for Virgil and Everett's story to end here, but it's OK that it does. There are no questions
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unanswered, nothing to wonder about forever more. Once again our two men of honor have upheld their own peculiar code, saving a town, a comrade and themselves in the process. *Review written in 2010. As we know now, other authors picked up Parker's characters, including Cole and Hitch. In my opinion, what follows in this series does not do the originals justice.
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LibraryThing member fuzzi
Another entertaining installment in the Cole and Hitch series. The characters and dialogue raise this author's additions to the genre high above the average western. Recommended, but read them in order.
LibraryThing member Carl_Alves
Generally speaking, I enjoy the Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch novels. The writing style is easy going. The books are short and are a breeze to read. More often than not, the plots are compelling as well. Those elements are all present in Blue-Eyed Devil. Cole and Hitch are back in Appaloosa but
Although I generally liked this novel, there were some shortcomings. Allie continues to be a very unlikeable character. The bigger issue is that Cole and Hitch are almost like superheroes. They don’t have any actual super powers but they are so highly skilled with guns, that they achieve their goals with any real difficulty. In this case, the deck was stacked against them numbers wise, and they came up with a good plan, but they still prevailed without breaking much of a sweat. That’s the real downfall of these novels. I know how it’s going to end, and it’s never too difficult for them when it gets down to a gunfight, and it always ultimately does. If you like the series, you’ll like this novel, but there is a little something that’s lacking.
Carl Alves – author of The Invocation
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this time they find themselves on the opposite side of the law since the new chief of police is an amoral, power hungry man named Amos Calico. Although, they don’t specifically try to oppose him, it becomes clear as the novel progresses that they will ultimately wind up on opposite sides of the gun barrel.Although I generally liked this novel, there were some shortcomings. Allie continues to be a very unlikeable character. The bigger issue is that Cole and Hitch are almost like superheroes. They don’t have any actual super powers but they are so highly skilled with guns, that they achieve their goals with any real difficulty. In this case, the deck was stacked against them numbers wise, and they came up with a good plan, but they still prevailed without breaking much of a sweat. That’s the real downfall of these novels. I know how it’s going to end, and it’s never too difficult for them when it gets down to a gunfight, and it always ultimately does. If you like the series, you’ll like this novel, but there is a little something that’s lacking.
Carl Alves – author of The Invocation
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LibraryThing member AnnieMod
And after a few years of traveling (mainly chasing Allie), Cole and Hitch are back in Appaloosa when we first met them. While they were away, the town ha grown and now it has a police department (with a lot of employees) and the police chief Amos Callico seems to be keeping the peace well enough.
Before long the truth emerges - Callico and his police department are indeed very good - as long as you pay them to protect you. The business owners who do not want to be pay are on their own - so they decide to hire Cole and Hitch instead - which the police chief really dislikes.
Then Pony Flores, the half-Mexican, half-Indian who helped to save Laurel and her mother back in Brimstone shows up with his half-brother who is in a bit of a trouble - a "killing a few people and robbing a train" kind of trouble. Staying in town is not possible but Cato and Rose are still in Resolution so Pony and his brother hide there for awhile. Until someone talks too much (and if you had been reading the series, you know that the someone is Allie).
Appaloosa burns - Callico is so sure that he knows better that he decides not to listen to Cole and lets Indians attack the town. But that fact does not stop the police chief for taking credit for the saved lives and things get complicated. Add a young man who dies because he is too drunk to realize that pulling a gun on Virgil Cole is a bad idea and a grieving father who hires a gunman to revenge the death and there are way too many people with guns and different agendas. Except that agendas shift.
The novel feels like a series wrap up - we see again pretty much everyone from the previous books, the story of Laurel finds a sort of a resolution and at the end Cole and Hitch are exactly where they started at the beginning of the first book (except for Allie - she is here to stay despite all of her shortcomings; as usual for Parker, once one of his leads falls in love, they get obsessed).
And somewhere in the middle of all the action and returning heroes, there is an underlying conversation about what law is in the territories and if justice and law are the same. Parker's books are often called simplistic and they can be viewed that way but there is usually some depth in them, even in these late books.
It is written in the usual Parker style - a lot of dialog, short sentences and quick action. And it made me wonder again what this series could have become if he had started it when he was at his best. But still - the 4 novels in this series are worth a read - not sure how well it will work for western fans but if you are coming from the other Parker's series, you may be pleasantly surprised.
The series is continued by Robert Knott. I am rarely enthusiastic for this kind of continuations but some of the other writers who continued the other Parker series had been pretty good at that so I plan to check at least the first books.
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At least on the surface that is. Before long the truth emerges - Callico and his police department are indeed very good - as long as you pay them to protect you. The business owners who do not want to be pay are on their own - so they decide to hire Cole and Hitch instead - which the police chief really dislikes.
Then Pony Flores, the half-Mexican, half-Indian who helped to save Laurel and her mother back in Brimstone shows up with his half-brother who is in a bit of a trouble - a "killing a few people and robbing a train" kind of trouble. Staying in town is not possible but Cato and Rose are still in Resolution so Pony and his brother hide there for awhile. Until someone talks too much (and if you had been reading the series, you know that the someone is Allie).
Appaloosa burns - Callico is so sure that he knows better that he decides not to listen to Cole and lets Indians attack the town. But that fact does not stop the police chief for taking credit for the saved lives and things get complicated. Add a young man who dies because he is too drunk to realize that pulling a gun on Virgil Cole is a bad idea and a grieving father who hires a gunman to revenge the death and there are way too many people with guns and different agendas. Except that agendas shift.
The novel feels like a series wrap up - we see again pretty much everyone from the previous books, the story of Laurel finds a sort of a resolution and at the end Cole and Hitch are exactly where they started at the beginning of the first book (except for Allie - she is here to stay despite all of her shortcomings; as usual for Parker, once one of his leads falls in love, they get obsessed).
And somewhere in the middle of all the action and returning heroes, there is an underlying conversation about what law is in the territories and if justice and law are the same. Parker's books are often called simplistic and they can be viewed that way but there is usually some depth in them, even in these late books.
It is written in the usual Parker style - a lot of dialog, short sentences and quick action. And it made me wonder again what this series could have become if he had started it when he was at his best. But still - the 4 novels in this series are worth a read - not sure how well it will work for western fans but if you are coming from the other Parker's series, you may be pleasantly surprised.
The series is continued by Robert Knott. I am rarely enthusiastic for this kind of continuations but some of the other writers who continued the other Parker series had been pretty good at that so I plan to check at least the first books.
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LibraryThing member rosalita
NOTE: This review applies to all four books written by Robert B. Parker.
I've read all of Parker's Spenser series featuring a private eye in Boston, but I'd never tackled his series of Westerns despite being a fan of the genre. I'm really glad I did! These are some of the best books I've read this
The series revolves around Virgil Cole, a legendary gunfighter, and his sidekick Everett Hitch, who narrates the books. In Appaloosa, Cole and Hitch end up in the town of the book's title and become the town marshals. What ensues is classic Western: a fight with a corrupt rancher, a doomed romance with a woman of questionable repute, and a final climactic showdown that sends the pair of lawmen on their separate paths, though with no animosity between them.
Resolution is the town that Hitch washes up in after he and Cole part, where he finds work as a saloon bouncer and ends up being the town's de facto marshal. Things get complicated quickly, and his old buddy Cole shows up just in time to help him get the best of the bad guys.
Brimstone is the next town on the duo's journey. They are back together and searching for Allie, the wayward woman who snared Cole in the first book, only to prove less than stalwart. They find Allie, and Cole sets out to learn whether he can forgive her trespasses. Meanwhile, he and Hitch try to head off trouble between a corrupt saloon owner and a fiery evangelist preacher.
Blue-Eyed Devil is the final book in the series, and finds the Cole/Hitch duo back in Appaloosa, the setting of the first book. Along for the ride are Allie and a young orphaned, traumatized teenager who will only talk to Cole. As if that wasn't enough trouble for one gunman, he and Hitch also have to contend with the new marshal in town and his 12-man posse and renegade Indians.
I've read all of Parker's Spenser series featuring a private eye in Boston, but I'd never tackled his series of Westerns despite being a fan of the genre. I'm really glad I did! These are some of the best books I've read this
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year.The series revolves around Virgil Cole, a legendary gunfighter, and his sidekick Everett Hitch, who narrates the books. In Appaloosa, Cole and Hitch end up in the town of the book's title and become the town marshals. What ensues is classic Western: a fight with a corrupt rancher, a doomed romance with a woman of questionable repute, and a final climactic showdown that sends the pair of lawmen on their separate paths, though with no animosity between them.
Resolution is the town that Hitch washes up in after he and Cole part, where he finds work as a saloon bouncer and ends up being the town's de facto marshal. Things get complicated quickly, and his old buddy Cole shows up just in time to help him get the best of the bad guys.
Brimstone is the next town on the duo's journey. They are back together and searching for Allie, the wayward woman who snared Cole in the first book, only to prove less than stalwart. They find Allie, and Cole sets out to learn whether he can forgive her trespasses. Meanwhile, he and Hitch try to head off trouble between a corrupt saloon owner and a fiery evangelist preacher.
Blue-Eyed Devil is the final book in the series, and finds the Cole/Hitch duo back in Appaloosa, the setting of the first book. Along for the ride are Allie and a young orphaned, traumatized teenager who will only talk to Cole. As if that wasn't enough trouble for one gunman, he and Hitch also have to contend with the new marshal in town and his 12-man posse and renegade Indians.
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Original language
English
Original publication date
2010-05-04
Physical description
288 p.; 6.5 inches
ISBN
0399156488 / 9780399156489
Local notes
Located in Fiction