Appaloosa

You've got to give Robert B. Parker credit. When he wants to write a Western, he writes a Western, and he's got the clout to get it published and the readership to get it on the NY Times bestseller list. APPALOOSA isn't a revisionist, politically correct Western, either. Other than a slightly higher level of cussin', it's about as traditional as you can get. It's a town tamer novel, about a couple of lawmen, Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch (who narrates the book), and the trouble they have bringing an arrogant cattle baron to justice when he and his men start running roughshod over the town of Appaloosa.

I liked this book, then didn't like it much, and finally wound up thinking that it's pretty good. The familiar Parker shtick of having the characters sit around and appear to be talking about one thing while they're really talking about something else is starting to wear thin for me, and many of the scenes appear to be lifted from various Western movies -- some RIO BRAVO here, a dash of 3:10 TO YUMA there -- but the gunfights are well-written and you can't help but like and root for Cole and Hitch. It also helps that Parker creates one of his least sympathetic female characters in this book. Other than being annoying, Parker's female characters often seem to me a little too good to be true. And as usual with Parker, the book is short and reads really fast, another plus as far as I'm concerned.

I've liked both APPALOOSA and GUNMAN'S RHAPSODY, Parker's previous Western. If he wants to keep writing them, that's fine with me.